Glaude’s Book Conversation at Two Mississippi Museums Retraces America’s Past Anniversaries Ahead of Nation’s Sesquicentennial

Author and native Mississippian Eddie S. Glaude Jr. offered his take on the nation's legacy when he recently stopped by the Two Mississippi Museums for a conversation about his book, America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries.

Glaude sat down with Two Mississippi Museums Director Michael Morris to talk about how his latest writing project evolved into an America 250 theme. Each chapter of the book walks the reader through America’s anniversaries and celebrations. Ahead of each chapter is a bar of music written by award-winning classical composer Joel Tapson. The music’s role, Glaude said, is to help capture the feeling of that chapter’s narrative.

“You’ll hear quotes of familiar American theme songs. A motherless child you can hear in the middle part, the upper registers of the piano and the lower registers of the piano going at each other,” Glaude expressed. “I'm still emotional when I listen to it.”

He described his approach as “a risk” and said he was going outside of his comfort zone.

“I knew I took a huge risk at that level of form and content. … I was doing something I never had done before,” he said.

Glaude’s book explores American history and how race has played a crucial part in shaping nations. He discusses other prominent authors and figures such as W.E.B DuBois, John Dos Passo and Herman Meville.

The book conversation was in partnership with Lemuria Books and the Mississippi Book Festival. Attendees were able to purchase a copy of the book and receive a signed copy.

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