The East Side Freedom Library invites you to

A conversation between ESFL board member Todd Lawrence and his colleague Kanishka Chowdhury about Todd’s new book, When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri

Thursday, November 15, 7PM

This new book contrasts conflicting narratives about a 2011 flood–one promoted by the Corps of Engineers that boasts the success of their flood diversion, and the other gleaned from displaced Pinhook residents, who, in oral narratives, tell a different story of neglect and indifference on the part of government officials.

The authors’ use of critical ethnography reveals a long history of discrimination and neglect of the rights of the Pinhook community, beginning with their migration from the Deep South to southeast Missouri, their lives as farmers, and then their displacement by the levee breach nearly eighty years later.

Ultimately, the stories of the displaced citizens of Pinhook reveal a strong African American community, whose bonds were developed over time and through shared traditions, a community persisting despite extremely difficult circumstances.

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