Excerpt from ‘A Shot in the Moonlight’ by Ben Montgomery Ben Montgomery A Shot in the Moonlight by Ben Montgomery.
After moonrise on the cold night of January 21, 1897, a mob of twenty-five white men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in southwestern Simpson County, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns, and a few tucked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning, a freed slave who’d farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years, and who had been wrongfully accused of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began firing through the doors and windows of Dinning’s home, he fired back in self-defense, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library will host two authors who wrote books that share insight into Black history and racial justice. The free events will take place in accordance with Black History Month and the library s goal of continuing conversations surrounding racial issues.
Ben Montgomery, author of four books including the New York Times bestseller Grandma Gatewood s Walk, will host a discussion at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 about his new book, A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South.
A second virtual event will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 with author Frederick Gooding, who wrote Black Oscars: From Mammy to Minny, What the Academy Awards Tell Us About African Americans.
Our national conversation about anti-Black racism made 2020 a pivotal year painful for many, cathartic for others, memorable to all. Now a new year brings new opportunities to listen to Black voices and stories. Pick up one of these titles to deepen your knowledge of our country’s past, and join the chorus of voices advocating for a better future.
Ida B. the Queen
Ida B. Wells gets the royal treatment in
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, written by Michelle Duster, Wells’ great-granddaughter.
From the 1890s through the early 20th century, Wells was a pioneering activist and journalist who fought racism by publicizing heinous acts of violence toward Black Americans during the Jim Crow era. Crafted with empathy for and intimate knowledge of this American icon, the book recounts Wells’ many groundbreaking achievements, which caused the FBI to dub her a “dangerous negro agitator” in her time. Unlike in a typical biography, however, Duster
12 books we re excited about this year hot1063.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hot1063.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The coronavirus pandemic, protests over the police killing of George Floyd, the Blue Ridge fire, lockdowns, and the closing of schools rocked the Chino Valley and the rest of the nation during this extraordinary year.
The devastation was matched by the goodness of residents who helped school children cope with social isolation, collected food and items for those hit hardest by the pandemic, and rallied around frontline healthcare workers.
Barely had the year begun when the coronavirus pandemic originating in Wuhan, China spread across the globe resulting in 334,000 deaths in the United States by the end of the year.
There were 11 deaths in Chino Hills and 70 in Chino, with 26 of those at the California Institution for Men in Chino and one at the California Institution for Women.