February 10, 2015

The University of Chicago will host a special Black History Month event to honor Dr. Julian Herman Lewis, who in 1917 became the first African American to teach at the university. In 1915, he was the first African American to earn a PhD in physiology and pathology there. 

In 1913, Lewis became the first African American to be inducted to Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. The Society was founded in 1886. Today, it is the international honor society of scientists and engineers. 

The special event, The Life and Legacy of Julian H. Lewis, PhD/MD, will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on February 21 in the Logan Center for the Arts Performance Hall, located at 915 E. 60th St. in Chicago. The public event and parking is free. The featured speakers will be Robert Branch II, who has researched Lewis' pioneering career in medicine; Dr. Christopher Crenner, a historian of medicine who has written an article about Lewis; and Tyrone Haymore, director and curator of the Robbins Historical Society and Museum in Robbins, Illinois.  

More information on Lewis' life is available on the website of The University of Chicago's Civic Knowledge Project. 

To RSVP by February 18, visit http://reply.uchicago.edu/JulianHLewis. 

The event is sponsored by the Robbins Historical Society and Museum, and co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Civic Knowledge Project, Office of Campus and Student Life, the Theta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and the University of Chicago Association of Black Alumni.