The Southern Political Report has posted an excerpt of Nobody But The People: The Life and Times of Alabama’s Youngest Governor, Warren Trest’s authorized biography of former Alabama Governor John Patterson. The excerpt recounts the murder of Patterson’s father, attorney Albert Patterson, an event that spurred John Patterson into politics and ultimately to the governorship …
Happy Birthday, Ms. Windham! NewSouth joins the over two-hundred people who gathered last Sunday, June 1, at the Selma Public Library in wishing Kathryn Tucker Windham a happy ninetieth birthday. Guests at the library serenaded Alabama’s favorite storyteller with the sound of comb music, played with a comb and wax paper. As Ms. Windham described, “I’m a great believer in laughter. That’s why I think these comb concerts work, because they make people laugh” …
Darrell Snodgrass of Checking on the Arts, a WKNO radio program, interviewed NewSouth Books Editor-in-Chief Randall Williams about the memoir Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom. Together, Snodgrass and Williams examine the book and its many facets, from birth of Louis Hughes into slavery in Virginia, to his escape from slavery and career as a nurse. Williams remarks that he’s “published close to three-hundred books now … and I think this is one of the best we’ve ever published … It will open a lot of peoples’ eyes to the realities of what slavery was like” …
Ruth Johnson, wife of Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., died at age 88 Sunday in Montgomery, Alabama. A native of Winston County, Mrs. Johnson attended Haleyville High School, graduated from the University of Alabama and received her Master’s Degree in Education from Alabama State University. She worked as a teacher and librarian at a junior high school and joined the U.S. Navy WAVES during World War II …
The Birmingham News has published an editorial by Ibrahim Fawal, author of the award-winning novel On the Hills of God, in their May 18, 2008 edition. In his editorial, Fawal discusses the displacement of approximately 2.5 million Palestinians by Israeli forces following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. He examines the controversial settlements built by Israelis in the West Bank, and also the wall erected in Bethlehem. In addition, Fawal touches on his own experiences following the Second World War …