Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Calvert Library to host Civil Rights Icon Simeon Booker on Oct. 7 (press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 17, 2013

Contact: Robyn Truslow 410-535-0291

 

Calvert Library Prince Frederick will be hosting Simeon Booker, 94-year old acclaimed journalist who covered the U.S. civil rights movement from its earliest days. He was a correspondent for Jet and Ebony and the first black staff reporter on the Washington Post.  He will be at the library on Monday, October 7, at 6:30pm.  This event is the fourth event in the Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle series sponsored by Gilder Lehrman Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The series is designed to encourage public conversations about the meanings of freedom and equality in America and started with a screening and discussion of The Loving Story, a documentary about the couple whose 1967 landmark case overthrew laws that disallowed people from marrying someone of another race. Booker covered this case.  The next film in the series will be Freedom Riders to be shown on September 30 at 6pm…Booker was a Freedom Rider.  Clearly, he has a story to tell that no history buff should miss.

 

Booker and his wife Carol McCabe Booker wrote Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement which has been described as “a searing and eye-opening memoir.”   According to Donald Graham, chairman of the Washington Post, “Simeon Booker was there when Emmett Till’s mother first opened his casket and saw his disfigured face.  He was on the bus when the first Freedom Riders rode into Alabama…his book is outstanding—sharp writing to equal his brave reporting.”  This book will be available for sale and signing.  Share this appointment with history with your friends, family, neighbors and congregation.  For more information, call Robyn Truslow at 410-535-0291. 

 

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Robyn Truslow

Public Relations Coordinator

Calvert Library

850 Costley Way

Prince Frederick, MD  20678

410-535-0291

410-535-3022 Fax

rtruslow@somd.lib.md.us 

 

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