I am pleased to announce Jim Crow and Me by Solomon Seay, Jr. as the book selection for the first Alabama Book Festival Student Readers Group. This new program, which is an outreach effort for the festival, seeks to connect student readers in high school and college with Alabama-related books and Alabama authors and to encourage high school students and college undergraduates to engage Alabama’s culture, literature and history through books. Attorney Seay’s memoir of his life as a lawyer and Civil Rights pioneer seems to be an appropriate and compelling starting point for this annual journey.

While this new program would be most optimally used when incorporated by a teacher in a classroom, individual students (including home-schooled students) are more than welcome to participate. Being a teacher myself, I understand that it is not always feasible and sometimes not even possible to incorporate a readers group text into a class assignment since courses of study are often very specific about what readings are to be taught.

To find out more about the group or to sign up to participate, either “Like” the Alabama Book Festival Student Readers Group on Facebook, or e-mail me. The convening of the student readers and Attorney Seay for a discussion of the book is planned for 9:00 AM on the third Saturday in April at the Alabama Book Festival.