Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series

  Thirteen of us met on Saturday February 8 th  to discuss  Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America  by Joy-Ann Reid. This non-fiction book, published in February 2024, chronicles the courtship and marriage of Medgar and Myrlie Evers. At the time of their meeting, he was a WWII veteran who was returning to college after his time in the military. She was a 17-year-old college freshman who was majoring in Education. Myrlie’s aunt and grandmother, who raised her, discouraged her from dating an “older man” who just back from Europe, and was ready to be treated like a man by white Mississippians. Barb L. started us out, saying, "It was the early chapters of their lives and of their romance, it was beautiful but then for me it just got harder and harder, the granular details of what it was like in Mississippi and all of the terrible things that happened." Robin added, "I think the book was really beautifully done and easy to read. I c...

  Eight of us met on Saturday October 14 th to discuss Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America by Dr. Keisha N. Blain.    The one thing we all agreed on about this book is that it was short on biographical information about Fannie Lou Hamer, and instead more focused on the events of the last few years. It seems that the author’s p oint was to relate Fannie Lou Hamer’s work and legacy to modern activists and point out her influences on today’s justice seekers.    Fannie Lou Hamer entered the Voting Rights arena after attending a SNC C meeting. SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinati ng Committee) was established under the mentorship of Ella Baker. The group resisted the top-down leadership model and focused on every person in the group. Fannie Lou Hamer attended her first SNCC meeting when she was 44 years old. She didn’t even know she had a right to vote , before attending this meeting.      Robin started us out, sayin...