Books for Thought Series: The Memoir of John Baptiste Stratford

During this program, Dr. Leslee Stratford will discuss her book The Memoir of John Baptiste Stratford: Hero of Black Wall Street which tells the life story of one of Black Wall Street's most successful and wealthiest entrepreneurs. The program includes an author talk followed by a book signing.

Dr. Leslee Stratford attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Art Education, and a Master of Fine Arts degree. She received her Doctoral Degree in Educational Administration from Illinois State University. She was selected for Chicago’s Artist-in-Residence program, creating visual arts for the city’s permanent collection.

For seven years, she taught art classes at Norfolk State University, a prestigious HBCU. She later served as Dean Emeritus at Berkeley City College and Laney College in California’s Bay Area. Dr. Stratford also lectured at Oxford University in England.

Though now retired, she continues her abstract artistic career and is publishing her family and personal history. Dr. Stratford has traveled widely, especially to Paris, France, and currently lives in Sag Harbor, New York, where she was the Artist-in-Residence in 2023.

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Host or Publisher Greenwood Rising, Inc.