Lee University’s Center for Responsible Citizenship will host its Ninth Annual Symposium on Civic Virtue and Thought on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18-19. The theme this year is “American Identity.” Faculty and students from the university, regional colleges, and members of the broader community will gather for two days to consider what it means to be “American” and how experiences of citizenship are influenced by diverse backgrounds. The event will focus on how race informs American citizenship, using the 1965 debate between William F. Buckley Jr. and James Baldwin to explore two perspectives on American identity: one that stresses the American Dream as an empowering force in the world and one that emphasizes the injustices that may be inherent in this vision.