Lunch and Learn returns with special guest W. Ralph Eubanks in conversation with the Prince George's County Office o f Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System disc ussing his new book\, "When It's Darkness on the Delta."
\nR egistration not required. Click on the YouTube video linked below to strea m the program live or watch the recording later.
\nAbout the Book:
\n
Once the powerhouse of a fledgling country&rsquo\;s economy\, the Mi ssissippi Delta has been consigned to a narrative of destitution. It is of ten faulted for the sins of the South\, portrayed as a regional backwater that willfully cleaved itself from the modern world. But buried beneath th e weight of good ol&rsquo\; boy politics and white-washed histories lies t he Delta&rsquo\;s true story.
\nMississippi native and award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks unearths the region&rsquo\;s buried history\, rev ealing a microcosm of economic oppression in the US. He traverses the Delt a\, examining its bellwether efforts to combat income inequality through v ivid portraits of key figures like: \;
\nTheodore G. Bilbo and W
illiam Whittington\, segregationist congressmen who sabotaged federal repa
rations for former sharecroppers in the 1940s and &rsquo\;50s
Gloria
Carter Dickerson\, founder of the Emmett Till Academy\, whose parents were
instrumental in desegregating schools in Drew\, MS\, where Till was murde
red
Calvin Head\, a community organizer who runs a farming co-op in M
ileston\, who revived the legacy of his hometown\, the only Black resettle
ment community in Mississippi
Eubanks delivers a powerful and insi ghtful examination of how racism and economic instability have shaped life in the Mississippi Delta. He traces the enduring consequences of politica l decisions that have entrenched inequality across generations. At the sam e time\, he brings attention to the resilience of local communities and th e grassroots movements working toward meaningful change. The book offers a thoughtful framework for policy reform and community investment\, undersc oring the need to support those who have long sustained the region through their labor and lived experience.
\nAbout the author: \;
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\nW. Ralph \;Euban ks \;is a faculty fellow and writer in residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the aut hor of \;A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagin ed Literary Landscape\, as well as 2 other works of nonfiction\, \;Eve r Is a Long Time \;and \;The House at the End of the Road. He is a writer and an essayist whose work focuses on race\, identity\, and the Am erican South\, and his writing has appeared in \;Vanity Fair\, the&nbs p\;American Scholar\, the \;Georgia Review\, and the \;New Yorker. He is a 2007 Guggenheim fellow\, a 2021-2022 Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellow\, and the recipient of a 2023 Mississippi Governor&rsquo\;s Arts Aw ard for excellence in literature and in recognition of his role as a cultu ral ambassador for the state of Mississippi.
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