Sunday, Jun 02, 2019 3:00 PM

Location:
Auburn Avenue Research Library
101 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30303

The Auburn Avenue Research Library, in collaboration with The Baton Foundation, will host historian and journalist Cameron McWhirter, who will discuss and sign copies of his book, "Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America." "Red Summer" is the first narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings.

About the Book

After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War.

Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings swept the country for eight months. From April to November of 1919, the racial unrest rolled across the South into the North and the Midwest, even to the nation's capital. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost. Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before.

"Red Summer" is the first narrative history written about this epic encounter. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings—including those in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Omaha and Knoxville—Cameron McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society 40 years later.

About the Author

Cameron McWhirter is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Based in Atlanta, he covers politics, economics, breaking news and other subjects. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Hamilton College, where he majored in history, and he earned a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Prior to joining the Journal in 2010, he worked for several news organizations including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Detroit News, reporting in various cities across the U.S. as well as Bonia, Iraq, Costa Rica, and other countries. He has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson fellowship for research in Eritrea and the Sudan, and a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University.

McWhirter lives in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife, two children, two dogs, two rabbits, a cat and two bee hives.