The Walter N. Ridley Distinguished Annual Lecture

Walter Ridley was the first African American to graduate from the University of Virginia, with a doctorate in education from the School of Education and Human Development. This annual lecture has been created to honor his legacy at the University and his contributions to the field of education.

Dr. Walter N. Ridley, a native Virginian and a respected, accomplished academic at one of Virginia's oldest public institutions of higher education (Virginia State College, Petersburg), was admitted to UVA three years before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision which ordered desegregation of public schools. He became the University's first black graduate in June 1953, and the nation's first African-American to receive a doctorate degree from a white southern university. Throughout his life, Dr. Ridley was committed to the education of black college students and making a positive impact on society.