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Atlantic Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates to Address Duke March 20

The event is free and open to the public

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Coates writes about issues of race for The Atlantic magazine.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, will discuss inequality in America during a talk Thursday, March 20, at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

Coates will deliver the 2014 Robert R. Wilson Lecture on "Race in America: Law and Legacy," at 5:30 p.m. in Fleishman Commons. The talk is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a Q&A with the journalist.

Free parking for the event will be available in the Sanford School parking lot. Twitter users can follow @DukeSanford for live tweets using the hashtag #coates.

Coates writes frequently about "the dual society" in America, the black-white divide that exists because of the racism embedded in our history, laws and policies. On the recent court ruling in the killing of black teenager Jordan Davis, Coates wrote, "Our policy is color-blind, but our heritage isn't. An American courtroom claiming it can be colorblind is a drug addict claiming he can walk away after just one more hit. Law and legacy are at war. Legacy is winning."

Coates' columns and blog posts are among the most widely read and shared on theatlantic.com. His blog at The Atlantic was named by TIME as one of the 25 Best in the World. He is also an adjunct professor of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.