
On February 23, 2023, Indiana University Libraries and IU Press were honored to celebrate the launch of our very special new publication, Lucky Medicine: A Memoir of Success beyond Segregation, by Lester W. Thompson. Thompson was hosted by Indiana University Provost Rahul Shrivastav and was joined by several special guests including Da'Ja'Nay Askew, Managing Editor of the IU Journal of Black Student Experience.
Lucky Medicine offers a closeup, unforgettable look at IU student life just before the sweeping social changes of the 1960s. Thompson, a skinny African American boy from Indianapolis, arrived at Indiana University Bloomington in 1961 determined to become a doctor. For the next three years, he kept a detailed, intimate diary of his journey to graduation. In Lucky Medicine, Lester returns to his long-ago journal and, with honesty, humor, and a healthy dose of rueful self-reflection, shares stories from his college years when students of color accounted for less than 2 percent of the Indiana University’s student body.
Remarks at the launch even included an author Q&A and were followed by a book signing and a reception, which took place in the Herman B Wells Library Scholars’ Commons.
Photos by Noel Photography