One Family’s Post-Enslavement Legacy: Lee Hawkins’s Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk

TOMS RIVER – Institutionalized inhumanity carries repercussions across generations. So we learn in journalist and podcaster Lee Hawkins’s powerful I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free. Learn how Lee’s discoveries shaped his views of his forebears and America during his Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk, 2 PM Tuesday, February 18.

I Am Nobody’s Slave, available in print, eAudiobook and digital versions at the Ocean County Library, is a parable of America in terms of struggle, resilience and the cost of success. It explores the ways that his family bore the traumas of enslavement, systemic racism, Jim Crow and racial violence and reinforced their resilience and ingenuity to overcome obstacles to success.

The Hawkins family of his youth appeared solid and successful to their Minnesota neighbors. But the aftermath of enslavement and the menace of racism drove Lee’s father to blind rage as he strove to protect his family. Lee discovered how slavery and oppression fed his father’s anger, led to family deaths, and even shaped his family’s customs.

His probing book extols the value of genealogical research and genetic testing to help Americans of all races learn about themselves and each other.

Lee Hawkins worked for two decades at the Wall Street Journal, and was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. Host of the What Happened in Alabama? podcasts, he is a five-time winner of the “Salute to Excellence” award bestowed by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Please register at https://libraryc.org/theoceancountylibrary to attend this free program, to view the upcoming schedule, and to view previous talks. Registrants will receive links to the program by email and may submit questions for the author during signup.

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