Tonight’s session on the final chapters of Stamped from the Beginning will feature Vice Mayor Joe Cobb as our guest presenter.
Note that notes and videos from the sessions are posted here at our landing page. For convenience, they’re also shown below.
BACKGROUND
In collaboration with Roanoke Public Libraries builds, the Stamped from the Beginning book club builds around the Summer with the National Book Award event Indecent Histories, held on August 29th at the new Melrose Branch Library, featuring Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Justin Phillip Read.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
February 4 – Section 5: Angela Davis (Add the Facebook Event to your calendar)
Guest: Vice-Mayor Joe Cobb on the civil rights movement and today
February 11 – We take a break so that the group can attend the listening session of the Virginia African American History Education Commission at the Harrison Museum of African American Culture at 6 PM.
February 18 – Wrap-up conversation: Bring your strategies for being an anti-racist. Submit below your questions or conversation points you’d like to discuss.
SESSION NOTES
January 7 – Section 1: Cotton Mather
Guest: Points of Diversity’s Katie Zawacki on learnings from Changing the Narrative.
Thirty readers joined the conversation on January 7. We heard the outcomes from Katie Zawacki on the community’s 2019 Changing the Narrative project funded by the Kellogg foundation through Virginia Humanities. Watch soon for a video of Katie’s presentation. Additional resources mentioned in the meeting:
- Changing the Narrative Ritual of Prayer & Healing Invitation – Sunday 1/19, 3 PM
- Changing the Narrative identified priorities
- Points of Diversity website – stay tuned for an LGBTQ+ and a family dinner
- Additional reading: 1619 Project from The New York Times
- Additional viewing: Dr. Kendi on CBS News –Why are hate crimes rising? (Jan. 3)
- Agenda and Section One Timeline (YouTube video)
January 14 – Section 2: Thomas Jefferson
Guest: Sculptor and Author Lawrence Reid Bechtel on Thomas Jefferson and Isaac Granger
A group of 25 people discussed the contradictions and complexity of Enlightenment thinkers including Thomas Jefferson. Guest Larry Bechtel described his interest and process in exploring the life of Isaac Granger Washington, an enslaved man on the estate of Thomas Jefferson, imagined in his novel, A Partial Sun. Additional resources mentioned in the session:
- Inhabiting other lives in historical fiction with Lawrence Reid Bechtel
- Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories, New York Times, 1.12.20)
- Africa’s Great Civilizations, PBS Documentary
- Larry Bechtel’s website
- A Partial Sun by Lawrence Reid Bechtel
- Section II Timeline
- Lawrence Reid Bechtel Presentation
January 21 – Section 3: William Lloyd Garrison (Add the FB Event to your calendar)
Guest: Virginia Tech’s Dennis Halpin on the legacy of the Civil War
Thirty readers discussed William Lloyd Garrison and the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Then Dennis Halpin presented on reconstruction and the long-lasting effects of W.E.B. DuBois’ approach to history. Here are additional resources from the session.
- Dennis Halpin webpage
- Dennis Halpin presentation
- Our timeline for this section
- Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy (Southern Poverty Law Center)
- A Brotherhood of Liberty by Dennis Patrick Halpin – order directly from publisher Penn Press with this 20% discount code courtesy of our guest: PP20
- Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
- A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn
- Gender & Jim Crow by Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore
- Richard Neave’s historical Jesus painting – BBC NEWS article
January 28 – Section 4: W. E. B. Du Bois (Add the Facebook Event to your calendar)
Guest: Virginia Humanities’ Justin Reid on Reconstruction and the Great Migration
Check out Virginia Humanities’ Justin Reid’s presentation.
Additional resources mentioned in the session:
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Virginia Festival of the Book
- The Road to Healing by Ken Woodley
- Something Must Be Done about Prince Edward County by Kristen Green
- “A Reading List for Ralph Northam” by Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic, Feb. 12, 2019)
- “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic, June 2014)
- Our timeline for this section
BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke 