By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – 
African-American scholar Cornel West came onto the national stage a decade ago with his groundbreaking book Race Matters.
He's known for his controversial views on race relations, but made headlines recently over a very public dispute with Harvard University's president. West left Harvard for Princeton last year after Harvard raised questions about his outside activities.
He spoke at the University of Missouri-St. Louis last night, and told KWMU's Matt Sepic that race relations in America have seen some ups and downs during the past decade.