Busboys and Poets Books Presents IN THE NAME OF EMMETT TILL
Date and Time
Mar 6, 2022 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Mar 6, 2022 6:00 pm
450K
The killing of Emmett Till is widely remembered today as one of the most famous examples of lynchings in America. In the Name of Emmett Till: How the Children of the Mississippi Freedom Showed Us Tomorrow weaves together the riveting tales of the young women and men of Mississippi who were galvanized into action afterwards. The children of Mississippi felt the terror of what took place deeply, and as they got older, they rose up. This story has not been told before. From the violent Woolworth’s lunch-counter sit-ins in Jackson to the school walkouts of McComb, the young people of Mississippi picketed, boycotted, organized, spoke out, and marched, working to reveal the vulnerability of black bodies and the ugly nature of the world they lived in. These children changed that world and through In The Name of Emmett Till we meet figures such as Brenda Travis, the Ladner sisters, and Sam Block who risked their lives to face down vicious Jim Crow segregation. We also discover the adults who guided the young people, elders including Medgar Evers, Robert Moses, and Fannie Lou Hamer. Readers are drawn into the powerful narrative through strong characterization, a novel-like sense of time and place, and the actual words of the children and their adversaries, helping them to better understand the rootedness of problems and questions the country struggles with today. As the United States still reckons with racism and inequality, the activists working In the Name of Emmett Till can serve as models of activism for young people today.
Award winning author Robert H. Mayer comes to busboys to discuss his work. Mayer also wrote When the Children Marched: The Birmingham Civil Rights Movement (Enslow Publishers, Inc.) and edited The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Greenhaven Press). Mayer grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has lived in Pennsylvania his entire adult life, as a social studies teacher in Lewisburg and then a professor of education at Moravian College in Bethlehem. Along the way, he earned an M.A. in history from Xavier University in Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the Pennsylvania State University in State College. Retiring after 41 years of teaching, Mayer now researches and writes most of the day, living in Bethlehem with his wife Jan and his cat Lucy. In truth, he does still teach a little.
This event is free and open to all, accessible through our Facebook and Youtube pages (@busboysandpoets).
The program will begin at 6 PM with an introduction from a member of our team. There will be time for Q&A with the audience before the end of the program, and you can purchase a SIGNED copy of IN THE NAME OF EMMETT TILL. Dinner service will be available throughout the event.
