Author Talk: Frederick Allen

Frederick Allen is the author of Reckoning with Race: An Unfinished Journey, a collection of eighteen essays, where he explores his ongoing efforts to understand the struggle of black and white Americans to navigate a shared history at once wicked and intimate, full of love and hate, as they seek to level an uneven playing field. Allen examines issues from the era of Reconstruction through Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, the rhythms of resistance and progress, into today’s contentious debates over redlining, reparations, and critical race theory.

In his fifty-year career as an award-winning journalist, CNN commentator, and author of multiple books, Rick Allen has had a front-row seat on dramatic change in race relations in America. Throughout Reckoning with Race, Allen is candid about his own shortcomings as a white native Northerner learning gradually about the complexities of race in his adoptive South. The essays highlight his continuing journey toward understanding the forces that both hinder and promote equality and harmony between the races.

Online ticket sales will close at 5 p.m. on the day of the event; however, tickets can still be purchased at the door. The event will be hosted at Woodruff Auditorium, located inside McElreath Hall. Doors and cash bar open at 6 p.m.