Award-winning journalist and author Michele Norris will headline the Nashville Public Library’s 10-year anniversary of the Civil Rights Room and Collection with a conversation on race, class and current civil rights issues on December 7, at 1 pm, as part of the library’s ‘conversations@npl’ series.
Michele Norris is one of the most trusted voices in American journalism. As NPR host and special correspondent, Norris produces in-depth profiles and interviews as well as NPR News programs. Norris also leads ‘The Race Card Project,’ an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America. Norris is the author of The Grace of Silence. In the book, she turns her formidable interviewing and investigative skills on her own background to unearth long hidden family secrets that raise questions about her racial legacy, shedding new light on America’s complicated racial history. Ms. Norris will sign copies of The Grace of Silence after the program.
The ‘conversations@npl’ series promotes reflection, discussion and debate on topics ranging from poverty and immigration to race, class and economics. For more information about A Conversation with Michele Norris, contact Andrea Blackman at <andrea.blackman@nashville.gov> or 615-862-5842.
Nashville Public Library maintains a collection of two million items, including books, periodicals, DVDs, CDs, audio books, and downloadable books, movies and music. The library also offers more than 800 public-use computers, free art exhibits, educational programs, events for all ages, 24/7 reference assistance, online databases, interlibrary loan and special collections. Equal access is provided by the Talking Library audio reading service for the print disabled and Library Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. For more information, call 615-862-5800 or visit .
Visited by tens of thousands since opening in 2003, the Civil Rights Room at Nashville Public Library captures a time when thousands of African American citizens in Nashville sparked a nonviolent challenge to racial segregation in the city and across the South. The collection consists of primary and secondary sources on key events, participants, and reform movements aimed at abolishing public and private acts of racial discrimination. Materials in the collection include published audio and video imprints, ephemera, oral histories, periodicals, photographs, dissertations, and manuscripts. For more information, visit <library.nashville.org/civilrights/collection.htm>.
