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Professor Lerone A. Martin, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Stanford University (USA), is the recipient of this year’s James W.C. Pennington Award of Heidelberg University. The scholar is being honored for his ground-breaking studies in African American history. The award, presented by the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology, commemorates the American pastor and former slave, James W.C. Pennington. In 1849 he received an honorary doctorate from Ruperto Carola, making him the first African American to be honored by a European university in this way.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 18 June 2025
Universität Heidelberg Confers James W.C. Pennington Award
Academic honor for American religious studies scholar Lerone A. Martin
Professor Lerone A. Martin, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Stanford University (USA), is the recipient of this year’s James W.C. Pennington Award of Heidelberg University. The scholar is being honored for his ground-breaking studies in African American history. The award, presented by the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology, commemorates the American pastor and former slave, James W.C. Pennington. In 1849 he received an honorary doctorate from Ruperto Carola, making him the first African American to be honored by a European university in this way. The award ceremony will take place on 24 June 2025 at the HCA.
Lerone A. Martin has made a name for himself as an expert on 20th century American, particularly African American, history of religion, says Prof. Dr Jan Stievermann, whose research field at the HCA is the history of Christianity in the United States. In his most recent book (2023) Professor Martin investigates the way the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover aided and abetted the rise of white Christian nationalism. In an earlier publication called “Preaching on Wax” (2014) he examined the influence of the phonograph and so-called “phonograph preachers” on the shaping of modern African American religion. The scholar is currently working on a book and a graphic novel about the adolescence of Martin Luther King Jr. and his calling as a pastor. At Stanford University Professor Martin directs the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which is dedicated to teaching and research activities on King’s life, ideas and legacy.
The James W.C. Pennington Award honors distinguished scholars engaged in research on subjects of special importance to Pennington. These include slavery and emancipation, peace, education, social reform, civil rights, religion, and intercultural understanding. The prize, which is being presented for the thirteenth time this year, encompasses a month-long research stay in Heidelberg. The James W.C. Pennington Award is endowed by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation.
Born in 1807, James W.C. Pennington escaped bondage at the age of 18, learned to read and write, and from 1834 was the first Black American to attend classes at Yale University. In 1838 he was ordained a pastor of the Presbyterian Church. At the World Peace Congress in Paris in 1849, Pennington made the acquaintance of the Heidelberg scholar Friedrich Carové, who was so impressed by the American that, the very same year, he persuaded his university to grant Pennington an honorary doctorate in theology.
During the award ceremony on 24 June, Professor Martin will give a lecture in English entitled “The Young King: How a Faithless Teenager Became an Iconic Man of Faith”, on Martin Luther King’s path towards living out his faith with full conviction. The event will take place at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Hauptstraße 120, beginning at 6.15 p.m.
Contact:
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http://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/projects-and-cooperation/james-wc-p... – James W.C. Pennington Award
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/people/lerone-martin – Lerone A. Martin’s webpage
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