Busboys and Poets Books Presents SILENT SHORE
Date and Time
Apr 18, 2022 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Apr 18, 2022 6:00 pm
14th & V
Drawing on his discovery of previously unreleased documents, Dr. Charles Chavis Jr. meticulously reconstructs the full story of Mr. Williams’s murder and the legacy of “modern-day lynchings” in his new book, THE SILENT SHORE. Taking place on December 4, 1931, in Salisbury Maryland, twenty-three year old Matthew Williams was lynched and set ablaze by a mob of white men. Though not considered as notorious for racial violence as states like Alabama or Mississippi, Dr. Chavis informs readers of at least 40 spectacle lynchings after the abolition of slavery. The stock market crash in 1929 triggered a wave of silent white terrorism, and black laborors were exposed to white rage in response to economic crisis. For nearly a century, the lynching of Matthew Williams has lived in the shadows of the more well-known incidents of racial terror in the deep South. But in THE SILENT SHORE, Dr. Chavis breaks the silence surrounding williams death and reveals the truth around one of the last lynchings in Maryland, and the subsequent impact as an ambitiuous governor Albert C. Ritchie became one of the first governors in the United States to investigate the lynching of a black person. An eye-opening and heart-wrenching account, Dr. Chavis brings his knowledge to the Busboys audience, joined by Tulani Salahu-Din
Our program begins at 6pm, with an introduction from a member of our Busboys and Poets team, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Signed copies of THE SILENT SHORE will be available for purchase before, during and after the event. Copies can be purchased through Eventbrite. Please be aware that this event will not be livestreamed.
We recommend that viewers RSVP in order to receive direct links to the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Charles Chavis, Jr., Ph.D is the Founding Director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race at George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, where he is also an Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and History. Dr. Chavis is a historian and museum educator whose work focuses on the history of racial violence and civil rights activism and Black and Jewish relations in the American South, and the ways in which the historical understandings of racial violence and civil rights activism can inform current and future approaches to peacebuilding and conflict resolution throughout the world. He is editor of For the Sake of Peace: Africana Perspectives on Racism, Justice, and Peace in America(Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).
Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din, MA is an educator, writer, and researcher in African American history and culture. Underlying her work in higher education and public history is the belief that cross cultural education is a prerequisite to mutual understanding, respect, and tolerance among individuals and groups. She maintains that within a national and international context, crossing cultural bridges can help resolve conflict and avert clashes of culture on both an individual and group level. Currently a museum specialist in the Office of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Ms. Salahu-Din develops academic content and identifies and collects artifacts, photographs, and graphics for exhibition development.Developing her career along dual lines, Ms. Salahu-Din was also a full-time, ten-year member (1997 – 2007) of the Morgan State University faculty, Department of English and Language Arts.
