July 11, 2007
Book Examines Relationship
Between African-American Leaders

A graduate student and journalism instructor in the College of Communications has authored a book that chronicles the 40-year friendship between W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.

The book, titled “The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson,” explores the lives of Du Bois and Robeson, who evolved into leaders of the African-American movement in the United States but were eventually alienated from mainstream political thought after World War II.

Author Murali Balaji—a journalist who worked for the Washington Post, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press and Wilmington (Del.) News Journal—also explains why so few African-American leaders defended Du Bois and Robeson during the Cold War.

“The Professor and the Pupil,” a 496-page paperback, will be available in bookstores Aug. 28. It may be ordered online at amazon.com as well.
Balaji is the author of one other book, “House of Tinder” (2003), a fiction novel that examines a family’s struggle to attain the American dream as it battles insecurities and self-doubt.

Balaji earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and proceeded to amass nearly a decade of professional journalism experience. Before coming to Penn State, he taught communications classes at Temple University, the University of Minnesota and Delaware State University.

Contact information:
Steve Sampsell
Coordinator of College Relations
Phone: (814) 865-8801
Email:sws102@psu.edu