Macon Mississippi Welcomes Community Historian

MACON, Miss. - Aug. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Genealogist and writer, Sharon Leslie Morgan, will visit Macon to present her book Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (Beacon Press, 2012). The award winning book is informed by her extensive genealogical research in Noxubee County.

Morgan will begin her visit at the quarterly meeting of the Noxubee County Historical Society on Tuesday evening, August 19. On Wednesday, August 20, she will do an audiovisual presentation of her book from 4:30–6:00 pm at the Main Street Macon Welcome Center, 401 Jefferson Street.

Gather at the Table is the story of two everyday people from diverse backgrounds who are on a mission to overcome the trauma of America’s legacy of slavery and the lingering effects of present-day racism. Over a three year period, Sharon and co-author Tom DeWolf, a descendant of America’s most prominent slave trading family, traveled thousands of miles through twenty-seven states and overseas, building an improbable relationship. Using genealogy as an undercurrent, they visited each other’s families, ancestral towns, courthouses, sites of racial terror, cemeteries, plantations, and antebellum mansions, seeking to come to terms with the history out of which racism evolved.

Dr. John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding at Notre Dame University said: “I could not put this book down. An extraordinary story of an honest, meaningful conversation across the racial divide.” Sharon Orlopp, Global Chief Diversity Officer for Walmart says: “Gather at the Tableis a book that is transformative. It demonstrates the importance of relationships, transparent dialogue, and how traveling together can open doors and create bridges for challenging conversations and insights.”

Morgan is the founder of OurBlackAncestry.com (http://www.ourblackancestry.com/), a website devoted to African American genealogy. Her Mississippi ancestors include one of Noxubee’s first settlers, John Edward Gavin. His son, Robert Lewis Gavin, fathered 17 children with Morgan’s great great grandmother. Her first book, My Daddy Is A Cool Dude, was published in 1975 by The Dial Press and nominated for a Caldecott Medal.

The Main Street Macon event is free to the public. Books will be available for sale and the author will sign copies.