Rodney Patterson said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. will have a positive and educational message to offer students who attend his presentation today. Wright’s four earned degrees and three divinity degrees prove what he can offer to students, Patterson said.

“He is a dynamic theologian and an outstanding historian,” said Patterson, director of the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs. “I think what folks are going to get is a very informative speech that not only includes the essence of spirituality, but something that’s rooted and grounded in historical information.”

Wright is the final speaker in the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Visiting Minority Faculty Lecture Series, “Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey.”

Wright has been senior pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago since 1972, helping the congregation grow to more than 7,000 members. Under Wright’s guidance, the church now includes a child-care program for low-income families, a credit union and a senior citizen housing complex.

“To be able to teach what life was like in the South during the civil rights movement should be an exceptional learning opportunity for all ages, not just our students,” said Sandy Kilbourn, executive director of external programs in the college. “It would be such a crime to turn out a generation who doesn’t have the ability to understand the suffering that was going on back then.”