South to America

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 6pm

Middleton Auditorium, Strickler Hall

On November 3 Dr. Imani Perry delivered the 16th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture. Dr. Perry’s lecture was based upon her most recent book, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. As Perry demonstrates in South to America, the foundations, changes, and tensions of the United States can be found when traveling to the American South. In her travels, including a stop in Derby City, Louisville, Kentucky, Perry confronts history in the present through connections with human beings and their stories, inviting Southern identity as a tool of her own self-discovery and in overall reflections on its importance to the formation of America.

Following the lecture, on November 16, she was announced as the winner of the National Book Award in nonfiction for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. Watch her acceptance speech here. The Anne Braden Memorial lecture, organized by the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research (ABI), drew over 150 students, staff, faculty, and community members for an evening of critical thought and discussion around racial and social justice themes from Perry’s book.