SLCL’s Black History Celebration Presents Keynote Event with MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid

St. Louis County Library’s Black History Celebration presents the 2024 Frankie Freeman Inspirational Lecture with MSNBC host and bestselling author Joy-Ann Reid. Reid will discuss her latest book “Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.”

The event will take place on Saturday, February 10, 7:00 p.m. at Shalom Church (City of Peace), 5491 N Hwy 67, Florissant, MO 63034.

Tickets go on sale at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 5 and can be purchased through Eventbrite. 

INDIVIDUAL TICKET $35 (Admits ONE and includes one copy of “Medgar & Myrlie”)

PACKAGE TICKET $42 (Admits TWO and includes one copy of “Medgar & Myrlie”)    

The host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” and bestselling author of “The Man Who Sold America,” Joy-Ann Reid traces the extraordinary legacy of civil rights icons Medgar and Myrlie Evers, situating Medgar Evers’s assassination as a catalyzing moment in American history.

Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.

Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most violent resistance to black voting rights in the country. Myrlie served as Medgar’s secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled against school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.

On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of a Klan-related assassination at that time; gunned down in the couple’s driveway. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy, becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.

In this groundbreaking and thrilling account of two heroes of the civil rights movement, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie’s relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans. 

The theme for SLCL's 2024 Black History Celebration is “African American Arts: Inspiring, Impacting, and Influencing Every Generation.” The event with Joy-Ann Reid is the 2024 Frankie Freeman Inspirational Lecture, named in honor of legendary St. Louis civil rights attorney Frankie Freeman. 

Program sites are accessible. With at least two weeks' notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Call 314-994-3300 or contact us.