The Lecture was inaugurated in 1990, and past speakers include Nathan Alexander, Robert Q. Berry III, Talitha Washington, Roselyn E. Williams, Talithia Williams, Erica N. Walker, Garikai Campbell, and Tanya Moore (activist).
[4] The Claytor-Woodard Lecture at the JMM was inaugurated in 1980 and is named after Dudley Weldon Woodard and William Waldron Schieffelin Claytor.
[5] Each year a speaker is chosen on the basis of their work to improve opportunities in mathematical research for underrepresented American minorities.
Past speakers include Ryan Hynd, Monica Jackson, Chelsea Walton, Suzanne Weekes, and Henok Mawi.
The other three lecture series organised by NAM are: At the 1969 Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans, seventeen mathematicians met on Sunday January 26 to begin a new organization:[6]