Top of page

“We Cannot Forget”

WSSU Chancellor Dr. Elwood Robinson, WFU President Dr. Nathan O. Hatch, and original sit-in protestor Victor Johnson, Jr., lead the memorial at the sit-in site. At 3 p.m. on Feb. 23, about 225 people gathered at the Millennium Center in downtown Winston-Salem for a vigil commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Winston-Salem sit-in. Organized by Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State universities, the event featured remarks by Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch and Winston-Salem State Chancellor Elwood L. Robinson, a keynote address by WFU Dean of the School of Divinity Jonathan L. Walton and music by The WSSU Singing Rams.

Categories: Inclusive Excellence


Founders’ Day program honors Medallion of Merit winners

Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch speaks at the lectern The Medallion of Merit is presented to individuals who have rendered distinguished service to the University, including past presidents, trustees, benefactors, alumni, and retired faculty and administrators. This year Winston-Salem's Dr. Larry Hopkins and Asheville attorney Lou Bissette were honored.

Categories: Happening at Wake


Wake Forest apologizes for benefitting from enslaved people

Wake Forest University seal Each February, the Wake Forest University community gathers for Founders’ Day Convocation to observe the founding of the University in 1834. At this year’s event, Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch acknowledged the University’s participation in the institution of slavery. He offered an apology for how Wake Forest benefitted from the labor and sale of enslaved people.

WSSU and WFU mark 60th anniversary of Winston-Salem sit-ins

Sixty years ago, a group of students from Winston-Salem State University were joined by students from Wake Forest University to protest segregated lunch counters in Winston-Salem. A community commemoration vigil will be held Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. in downtown Winston-Salem to mark the anniversary of the historic sit-in. 

Wake Forest sophomore named Brooke Owens Fellow

As the oldest of four siblings, Lainey Drake takes credit for leading the astronaut games they played as children – swinging into space on their tire swing and dashing around galactic obstacles in the universe. This summer, thanks to the Brooke Owens Fellowship, Drake will help pioneer commercial space travel as an engineering intern at Virgin Galactic.

Building momentum, sustaining commitment: Checking in with the Slavery, Race and Memory Project

The cupola of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library glows in the pre-dawn light, on the campus of Wake Forest University, Thursday, January 10, 2019. What can we learn from the past? Wake Forest University legal scholar and Associate Provost Kami Chavis explains, “If you want to have a transformative institutional change, you have to begin examining the past and the root causes of underlying issues to know what you need to do in the future.” Chavis is also co-chair of the Steering Committee of Wake Forest’s Slavery, Race and Memory Project.

Making antidepressants safer for people with suicide risk

Ana Iltis The people who could benefit most from the newest antidepressant therapies – those at risk for suicide – are most often excluded from the clinical trials that test those drugs for safety and efficacy, according to new research published Feb. 4 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Categories: Research & Discovery


‘Classics Beyond Whiteness:’ Relevant, inclusive

The course “Classics Beyond Whiteness” was originally limited to 15 students. Twenty-six registered. “I couldn’t turn students away,” said classics professor T.H.M. Gellar-Goad. The fall class was one of several planned courses, events and programming focusing on “Classics Beyond Whiteness” - a multidisciplinary collaboration that examines a misleading and damaging tendency to focus on white scholars and perspectives in claissical studies while excluding black voices.

Archives