BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//sebbo.net//ical-generator//EN NAME:Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library X-WR-CALNAME:Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library BEGIN:VEVENT UID:087e961e-8ba7-4be9-8e4f-3e5dd0bf46d9 SEQUENCE:0 DTSTAMP:20260802T060620Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20210128T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20210128T200000 SUMMARY:Ben Montgomery: Virtual Book Launch LOCATION:Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library\nTopeka and Shawnee Coun ty Public Library X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library;X-APPLE-RADIUS=10;X-TITLE=Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library:geo:39.0507561,-95.6965309 GEO:39.0507561;-95.6965309 DESCRIPTION:Ben Montgomery\, Pulitzer Prize finalist & author of "Grandma Gatewood's Walk\," will launch his new book\, "A Shot in the Moonlight" vi a Zoom. Register for Zoom link to hear his talk & be part of Q&A..\nhttps: //tscpl.libnet.info/event/4643083 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed S lave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South is the sensational true story of George Dinning\, a freed slave. In 189 9 Dinning joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice i n the Jim Crow south.

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For this event Montgomery will be joined by Anthony Denning Sr.\, the great-grandson of George Dinning. \;
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After moonrise on the cold night of January 21\, 1897\, a mob o f 25 white men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in southwestern Simpson County\, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns\, and a few tu cked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning\, a freed sla ve who'd farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years. He was wrongfully acc used of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began fir ing through the doors and windows of Dinning's home\, he fired back in sel f-defense\, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.

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So began one of the strangest legal episodes in American history &mda sh\; Dinning become the first Black man in America to win damages after a wrongful murder conviction.

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Drawing on a wealth of never-before-pu blished material\, Ben Montgomery resurrects this dramatic but largely for gotten story. There is an unusual convergence of characters including a Co nfederate war hero-turned-lawyer Bennett H. Young\, Kentucky governor Will iam O'Connell Bradley\, and George Dinning himself. This is an unlikely st ory of justice that unfolded in a time and place where justice was all too rare.

\nhttps://tscpl.libnet.info/event/4643083 URL;VALUE=URI:https://tscpl.libnet.info/event/4643083 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR