Historical Book Club

Important Update Regarding Meeting Usage During Library Renovation

During 2026, we will be undergoing a renovation to better serve the people of Dearborn County. 

Due to the renovation, access to the Youth Services Department will be closed to the public during January and February. You will still be able to use the Ewbank Meeting Room throughout this closure, but our procedures for using the room have been modified:

  • Please enter the library via the High St. entrance. This entrance provides direct access to the Ewbank Meeting Room only. To access other areas of the library, you must use the Mary St. or Parking Lot entrances.
  • Once inside, please call our Adult Services Department at 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125. Let us know that you have arrived and provide your group's name. A staff member will come to unlock the room for your group.
  • If you need any assistance at any time during your meeting, please call 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125 and a staff member will come to help.
  • When your meeting has finished, please call 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125 again to let us know. Please leave your clipboard in the room. A staff member will come to lock the room and collect the clipboard. There is no need to wait for us.

We are excited to share our upgraded spaces with you once renovations are complete. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to improve your library.

Program Type:

Book Club, Genealogy/Local History

Age Group:

Adults
Please note you are looking at an event that has already happened.

Program Description

Take a book back in time!  In November we will be reading Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad, by Matthew F. Delmont.  

Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.”

Half American is American history as you’ve likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black heroes such as Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., leader of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was at the forefront of the years-long fight to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; James Thompson, the 26-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign; and poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading.