11:00 am

“Racism and Classism in America’s Past and Present”

Scholars and authors Toure Reed and Adolph Reed discuss the deep institutional racism and classism that exists in America with Associate Professor of History at Washington University, Margaret Garb. Toure Reed, Associate Professor of Afro-American History at Illinois State University, is the author of the new book, Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910 – 1950. His father, Adolph Reed Jr., Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line.

12:15 pm

“Seeking Civil Rights: St. Louis Connections”

Washington University announces its second annual, Big Read, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. In January, 2009, all St. Louisans are invited to read To Kill A Mockingbird. The book discussion starts at the festival!

Washington University’s Cheryl Adelstein discusses and shows videos of landmark moments in the civil rights movement in St. Louis with:

Harper Barnes, author of Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement and David Rowntree, Washington University archivist of the collection, “Eyes on the Prize,” produced by filmmaker Henry Hampton.

Teacher Deborah Solomon Baker concludes by showing us how To Kill aMockingbird, the book and the video, influenced our views of civil rights in the past and in the present.

All attendees of the event will receive a free copy of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, thanks to Washington University.


2:00 pm

To Kill a Mockingbird – The Movie

Come in and relax – and watch the classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a great way to inspire you to read or reread the book.