Thursday, Sep 20, 2018 7:30 PM

Location:
MJCCA-Zaban Park • Brill Rooms
5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338

Website

A Prologue to the Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA) presents Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow in conversation with Allison Padilla-Goodman, director of the Southeast Region of the Anti-Defamation League. Saslow will be discussing and signing copies of his latest book about a prominent white supremacist who changed his heart and mind.

About the Book

Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father founded Stormfront, the largest racist community on the Internet. His godfather, David Duke, was a KKK Grand Wizard. By the time Derek turned nineteen, he had become an elected politician with his own daily radio show—already regarded as the “the leading light” of the burgeoning white nationalist movement. “We can infiltrate,” Derek once told a crowd of white nationalists. “We can take the country back.”

Then he went to college. Derek had been home-schooled by his parents, steeped in the culture of white supremacy, and he had rarely encountered diverse perspectives or direct outrage against his beliefs. At New College of Florida, he continued to broadcast his radio show in secret each morning, living a double life until a classmate uncovered his identity and sent an email to the entire school. “Derek Black…white supremacist, radio host…New College student???”

The ensuing uproar overtook one of the most liberal colleges in the country. Some students protested Derek’s presence on campus, forcing him to reconcile for the first time with the ugliness his beliefs. Other students found the courage to reach out to him, including an Orthodox Jew who invited Derek to attend weekly Shabbat dinners. It was because of those dinners—and the wide-ranging relationships formed at that table—that Derek started to question the science, history and prejudices behind his worldview. As white nationalism infiltrated the political mainstream, Derek decided to confront the damage he had done.

"Rising Out of Hatred" tells the story of how white-supremacist ideas migrated from the far-right fringe to the White House through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost.

With great empathy and narrative verve, Eli Saslow asks what Derek’s story can tell us about America’s increasingly divided nature. This is a book to help us understand the American moment and to help us better understand one another.

About the Author

Eli Saslow is a Washington Post staff writer and author of "Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President." He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2013, 2016, and 2017. He lives in Oregon with his wife and children.