Filmmaker Ken Burns to Deliver Prestigious Jefferson Lecture

(ABC News) – Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has been chosen to deliver the 2016 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which produces the event.

Burns will deliver the lecture May 9 at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He will talk about race in America, a topic that he has explored through nearly 40 years of directing and producing historical documentaries including “The Civil War” miniseries and, debuting on PBS in April, a film about Jackie Robinson.

The Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for intellectual achievement in the humanities. Past lecturers include actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith and filmmaker Martin Scorsese.