The National Archives Hosts -Roundtable on Civil Rights- July 16 at 7 PM
Press Release · Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Washington, DC
On Thursday, July 16, at 7 p.m., the National Archives hosts a special “Writers and Scholars Roundtable on Civil Rights.”Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Taylor Branch, Gilbert King, and Diane McWhorter will be joined by Clarence Jones, noted civil rights activist, personal counsel and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These experts will explore some of the critical and little-known events of the Civil Rights era, and share personal accounts. Journalist, author, and National Archives Foundation Chair A’Lelia Bundles will moderate this dynamic discussion. The program will include a short performance by the Howard University vocal jazz ensemble Afro Blue, and a book signing will follow. Presented in partnership with the 2015 March on Washington Film Festival.
This event is free and open to the public and will take place in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum and on YouTube. Attendees should use the Special Events entrance on Constitution at 7th Street NW. Reservations are recommended and can be made online. The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, is Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial station. For upcoming programs, see the Calendar of Events.
A’Lelia Bundles is a longtime journalist and author, and Chair of the National Archives Foundation. She is president of the Madam Walker/A'Lelia Walker Family Archives, and is working on her fourth book. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, her best-selling biography of her great-great-grandmother, was named a New York Times Notable Book.
Taylor Branch is an American author and public speaker best known for his landmark narrative history of the civil rights era, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963. He has returned to civil rights history in his latest book, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement.
Gilbert King is the author of Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. King has written about Supreme Court history and the death penalty for the New York Times and the Washington Post and is a featured contributor to Smithsonian magazine and The Marshall Project.
Diane McWhorter is the author of Carry Me Home, a history of the Civil Rights revolution in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Carry Me Home won the Pulitzer in 2002. She also wrote A Dream of Freedom, a young-adult history of the Civil Rights movement. McWhorter is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and writes for other publications on the topics of race, politics, and culture.
Clarence Jones, noted civil rights activist, served as political advisor, counsel and draft speechwriter for the Reverend Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., and played an influential role in the drafting of King's 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. Jones would later become the first African American partner at a Wall Street investment bank. He is co-author of What Would Martin Say? and Behind the Dream-The Making of the Speech That Transformed A Nation.
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