History Book Festival Presents: J. Chester Johnson - Damaged Heritage

Join us for an interactive talk with J. Chester Johnson, author of Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation, featured at the 2020 virtual History Book Festival. The Elaine Race Massacre took place in 1919 around the town of Elaine, Arkansas, when white residents felt threatened by black sharecroppers’ attempts to unionize. Author J. Chester Johnson was an adult before he learned that his beloved grandfather had participated in an event that led to the deaths of at least 100 African Americans. In 2014, Johnson met Sheila L. Walker, a descendant of massacre victims, and the two joined to pursue a path toward racial reconciliation. Walker wrote the foreword to the book. J. Chester Johnson is a poet, essayist, and translator who has written extensively on race and civil rights. Sheila L. Walker will be in conversation with Johnson. She became involved in the civil rights movement at an early age and has served in federal law enforcement, the U.S. Army Reserve, and the healthcare field. Online program from the History Book Festival and the Lewes Public Library. NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting. Venue: Lewes Public Library.