Author James Loewen to Speak at Allen Hall
September 13, 2005
Urbana - Announcing "Sundown Towns: All-White Communities Across Illinois and the Nation," a book premiere, lecture, and book signing by James Loewen, author of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of Segregation in America and the best-selling Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong.
Monday, September 19, 7pm
Main Lounge of Allen Hall
1005 W. Gregory, U
Free and open to the public
James Loewen wrote the best-selling Lies My Teacher Told Me, in part a critique of existing textbooks, but also an account of American history as it should be taught. He taught race relations for 20 years at the University of Vermont and previously taught at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He now lives in Washington, D.C., continuing his research on how Americans remember their past. His other books include Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong; The Truth About Columbus; and Mississippi: Conflict and Change, which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction. This book was rejected for public-school text use by the State of Mississippi, leading to the path-breaking First Amendment lawsuit, Loewen et al. V. Turnipseed, et al.
This event is sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee, the Office of the Chancellor, UIUC, the Office of the Provost, and Unit One/Allen Hall Living Learning Community.