Thanks to great crowd at Busboys & Poets
Engaging discussion at the A.C.T.O.R talk about Red Summer at Busboys & Poets last Sunday. Lots of great questions and commentary from the many who came. It also was good to meet owner Andy Shallal, who sat in, and Pamela Pinnock, who organizes the “A Continuing Talk About Race” talks.
The community space/restaurant/bookstore is a rarity in Washington and in the country. Next time you are in D.C., be sure to check out one of their locations. I spoke at the main Busboys & Poets branch on 14th Street, not far from where major violence erupted during the riot of 1919.
Before the talk.
Sign for the talk outside the restaurant.
Red Summer at “Busboys & Poets” in Washington, Sunday May 6
On Sunday, May 6, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., I will join a discussion about Red Summer and the racial violence of 1919 at Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. The talk is part of the A.C.T.O.R. (A Continuing Talk on Race) series. Busboys & Poets has hosted these monthly dialogues for years, working to increase people’s understanding of racial issues in the D.C. community and the country as a whole. I look forward to the talk. All welcome to this free event. For information, call (202) 387-7638.
Historical Novel Review reviews Red Summer
The Historical Novel Review, a publication of the British-based Historical Novel Society which reviews historical novels and histories, writes: “One of the negative side effects of the decline in newspaper readership is that fewer people are exposed to the artistry displayed by the better journalists. Red Summer will, one hopes, enable a wide audience to experience the top grade writing of Cameron McWhirter, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The author presents the violent racial turmoil in 1919 America in a well-documented depiction of a nation seemingly on the verge of race war.”
Read the review here.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaking on America’s racial history, April 11, 2012
“If history is any guide, and I believe that it is, positive change is frequently the consequence of unfavorable, not favorable, circumstance. Progress is oftentimes the product of darkness, not the light.”
I thought these remarks fit perfectly with my view of the Red Summer of 1919. See his full remarks here.
Tulsa shootings — echoes of 1921
The horrific, random shooting of five black people last Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has horrified the nation. Three of the victims died and two white men have been arrested and charged with the shootings. The racial violence recalls the 1921 race riot that destroyed the city’s black neighborhood.
Several good books have been written about the Tulsa riot, including Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy.
Red Summer gets serendipitous product placement on “The Daily Show”
A fellow Atlanta author, eagle-eyed Andisheh Nouraee, caught “The Daily Show” last night and somehow was able to see Red Summer on a teacher’s bookshelf during a segment about Arizona’s ban on Mexican cultural studies programs in high schools. He sent me a frame shot:
Sure it’s blurry. Sure, it’s better to be ON the show. But hey, I’ll take it and I was proud to be in the teacher’s reading mix.
Here’s a link to the segment.
And here’s a link to buy the book Nouraee co-authored with Daniel Ehrenhaft and Jodi Lynn Andersen.
Florida university to celebrate the centennial of James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
The University of North Florida in Jacksonville plans a symposium on the important African-American novel April 5th and 6th to commemorate the centennial of the publication of Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the only novel by James Weldon Johnson, civil rights activist, author, poet, diplomat and key NAACP leader who played a crucial role in the organization’s reaction to mob violence during the Red Summer of 1919. Jacksonville was Johnson’s hometown.
The novel tells the story of a young man of mixed race. He grows up caught between being black and being white in the South, New York and in Europe. Much of his life is spent as a black man, which he finds full of challenges, prejudice and hardship. In the end, he chooses to “pass” as a white man, but does so with regret. Toward the close of the novel, the unnamed main character states that black activists fighting for civil rights lead more important lives than the quiet life of a white businessman that he has chosen.
“Beside them I feel small and selfish,” Johnson writes. “I am an ordinarily successful white man who has made a little money. They are men who are making history and a race. I, too, might have taken part in a work so glorious.”More information on the symposium here.
Buy the novel here.Read an e-text of the novel here.
Friends Journal reviews Red Summer
Friends Journal, the national magazine for the Religious Society of Friends, known as the Quakers, reviewed Red Summer in the April 2012 issue. Reviewer Donna Bowen McDaniel writes: “McWhirter’s well-written and thoroughly researched work tells truths about the death or wounding of hundreds of African Americans and millions of dollars in damage to their property, another phenomenon on which history texts are silent. If we are to speak truth to power, McWhirter gives us vital truths to confront.”
Red Summer talk at DLA Piper’s Marbury Institute for “outside notables” series
I gave a talk last week about the Red Summer of 1919 to lawyers at DLA Piper, one of the largest business law firms in the world. I gave my talk at the Chicago headquarters, but it was teleconferenced across their American offices. Questions were thoughtful and response afterward has been great. Thanks to all who helped set it up, especially attorney Susan Lichtenfeld.
While I was in Chicago, the weather was absurdly beautiful.
Students at Lake Forest College hear talk about Red Summer
Thanks to students at Lake Forest College north of Chicago for a great discussion last week about Red Summer and the 14th Amendment. Thanks to Professor Debra Levis for organizing and for using Red Summer in her course.
To learn more about Lake Forest, click here.
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