Birmingham-Southern invites faculty, staff, alumni, and the larger community to be part of our Virtual Book Clubs. Our first-ever book clubs, hosted by the Office of Alumni Engagement, launched this summer with an amazing turnout, bringing members of our community together from across the country.

This fall, we are offering 10 book clubs, five of which will focus on systemic racism. Discussions, led by two facilitators over Zoom, will aim to inspire a deeper understanding of race, racism, and equal justice. The other five book clubs will focus on pandemics, which you can read about here.

There is no charge for this program. All you need to do is choose a book (purchase, borrow, or check out from your local library), agree to ground rules for the discussion, and commit to finishing the book before the virtual meeting. To allow for discussion, book clubs will be limited to 12 participants each.

Here’s how you can participate:

• Sign up online starting September 8 through the Eventbrite links below.
• Reading period ends October 23.
• Book Clubs will meet the week of October 26.

You can also purchase the books from the BSC Bookstore by visiting the Bookstore website and following these steps:

1. Click on Fall 2020
2. For “Department,” click on ALUM
3. For “Course,” click on FBook Club
4. For “Section,” select All for a list of the 10 books

“Four Spirits” by Sena Jeter Naslund ’63
Facilitators: Mary Lucas Powell ’67 and Sherry Brundidge ’92
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

Weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, racists and civil rights advocates, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression, Naslund creates a tapestry of American social transformation at once intimate and epic. The story follows Stella Silver, an idealistic white college student in Birmingham sent reeling off her measured path by events of 1963; African American Christine Taylor, a single parent, night school teacher, and political activist, discovering she must heal her own bruised heart to actualize meaningful social change; and child Edmund Powers, who embodies hope for future change. In this novel of maturation and growth, Naslund makes vital the intersection of spiritual, political, and moral forces that have redefined America.

Mary Lucas Powell ’67, Ph.D. entered BSC in the fall of 1963, just a few weeks before the tragic bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. She met several people who had witnessed the attacks on protestors by fire hoses and vicious police dogs that summer, and their stories filled her with horror. That year, she also met Sena Jeter Naslund, an English major renowned for writing and directing a full-length play about the ancient British Queen Boadacia for the Advanced Playwriting course. Since then, Powell has followed Naslund’s career as an outstanding author and heard her speak at various literary events in Kentucky. Powell pursued her childhood dream of becoming an archaeologist and completed her master’s degree at University of Arkansas and her Ph.D. at Northwestern University, where she focused on bioarchaeology – the study of health, growth, and disease in ancient peoples.

Sherry Brundidge ’92 attended school in the Birmingham City School system and started a career with the South Central Bell system in 1969. She transferred to Michigan Bell in 1972 before relocating back to Birmingham in 1977. Brundidge worked in banking for more than 30 years before retiring from BBVA Compass in 2016 after 17 years of service. She studied accounting at BSC in our Adult Studies program.

“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson
Facilitators: Evan Milligan ’03 and Katie Glenn ’11
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship — and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. “Just Mercy” is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

Evan Milligan ’03 is a Montgomery native who spent years advocating for racial equity and economic justice as a community organizer and Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) justice fellow before attending New York University School of Law. After law school, he returned to EJI and worked for several years as a law fellow and program manager, focusing primarily on re-entry services and efforts to memorialize Black victims of racial violence. He then spent a year in Houston, Texas, serving as a policy advisor for Commissioner Rodney Ellis of the Harris County Commission, where he led a research and advocacy initiative focusing on community-based violence interruption. Now serving as executive director of Alabama Forward, Milligan hopes to solidify this civic engagement table as a source of technical support, funding, and coordination for progressive advocates working throughout the state of Alabama.

Katie Glenn ’11 (she/her/hers) is a native Alabamian and policy associate at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). There she helps lead the center’s Alabama policy work, focusing on legislative advocacy, direct lobbying, coalition building, and community engagement. About half of the year, she spends her days (and far too many of her nights) at the Alabama State House, working on issues related to the Center’s main focus areas – criminal justice reform, children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ rights, and voting rights. Prior to her time at SPLC, Glenn worked at Planned Parenthood Southeast, VOICES for Alabama’s Children, BSC, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein
Facilitators: Beth Martin ’92 and Denzel Okinedo ’16
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

In “The Color of Law,” Rothstein argues with exacting precision and fascinating insight how segregation in America – the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife – is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Rothstein has spent years of his career documenting the evidence that government not merely ignored discriminatory practices in the residential sphere, but promoted them. The impact has been devastating for generations of African Americans who were denied the right to live where they wanted to live, and raise and school their children where they could flourish most successfully.

Beth Martin ’92 is a Teaching Professor in Environmental Studies and the Interim Director of the Climate Change Program at Washington University in St. Louis. She teaches courses at the intersection of science, engineering and policy. In particular, she teaches a course on the environment of St. Louis in which students explore the evolution of the built environment and its intersection with environment. She also serves as the co-focal point of the Research and Independent NGO constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A registered professional engineer, Martin received her master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and second bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, after studying math at BSC.

Denzel Okinedo ’16 is an attorney at Burr & Forman LLP’s Birmingham office, where he practices in the firm’s Financial Services Litigation Practice Group. He received his J.D. from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 2019, where he served as president of the Student Bar Association and as an award-winning member of the Cumberland National Trial Team.

“How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
Facilitators: Kristin Harper ’92 and Jessica Pincham King, Director of Rise3
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism – and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas, along with his own personal story, that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kristin Harper ’92 is the Director of Service-Learning in the Bunting Center for Engaged Study and Community Action at BSC. A religion and sociology major during her undergraduate years at BSC, she has since directed a youth group of a large United Methodist Church, facilitated prejudice reduction and conflict resolution workshops, and traveled extensively with groups around the world. She returned to the College as a staff member in 1999 and has established and strengthened community partnerships, encouraged and empowered student leaders, and traveled with students to local, national and international sites to live and learn in community. Under Harper’s leadership, BSC’s service-learning program has become nationally recognized for its success.

Jessica Pincham King, Ph.D. is Engaged Programs Area Chair, Director of Experiential Learning (Rise3 Initiative), and Instructor of Sociology at BSC. King assists faculty and students with designing collaborative undergraduate research projects, internships, and service-learning integrated courses with intentional critical reflection, and teaches a variety of sociology courses.  In addition, she has co-led domestic and international study travel projects that incorporate intercultural learning and critical dialogue across issues of equity, equality, and justice. King obtained her Ph.D. in social work and master’s degree in school psychology from the University of Alabama and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Clark Atlanta University.

“Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America” by Tanner Colby
Facilitators: Bernard Mays ’04 and Lane Estes, Vice President for Administration and COO
Eventbrite Sign-Up Here

Frank, funny, and incisive, “Some of My Best Friends Are Black” offers a profoundly honest portrait of race in America. In a book that is part reportage, part history, part social commentary, Colby explores why the civil rights movement ultimately produced such little true integration in schools, neighborhoods, offices, and churches – the very places where social change needed to unfold. Weaving together the personal, intimate stories of everyday people – black and white – Colby reveals the strange, sordid history of what was supposed to be the end of Jim Crow, but turned out to be more of the same with no name. He shows us how far we have come in our journey to leave mistrust and anger behind and how far all of us have left to go.

Bernard Mays ’04 is a Birmingham native and currently works as the Assistant Vice President and Controller for Financial Affairs at UAB. After he received his master’s degree in accounting from the University of Virginia, he worked at the public accounting firm Ernst & Young with clients in banking and real estate and worked with publicly traded companies in the energy and retail industries. Mays has served on the executive committee for several non-profit and civic boards including Camp Fire Central Alabama, Children’s Village, and Homewood Commercial Development Authority. He has also served in several volunteer roles with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and is a member of the 2013 class of Leadership UAB.

Lane Estes currently serves as Vice President for Administration and COO at BSC as well as Interim Vice President for Finance and CFO. He has been at the College since he first joined the President’s Office in 1998. He has been charged with duties as wide ranging as co-chairing the SACS reaffirmation process, co-chairing the church rebuilding and reconciliation projects, working with the Division III athletics change, managing the Marti Turnipseed March, co-chairing the Strategic Planning process, and co-writing the Presidential Debate bid proposal, among others. Previous to coming to BSC, Estes worked in sports marketing in and around the Southeastern Conference. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee.