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Download the 1919 ebook on Hoopla!

Moraine Valley's students, faculty and staff can download Eve Ewing's book, 1919, on our Hoopla app through this link.   (Ask a librarian if you need help.)

Spring 2021 Events

Live Event: Revisiting the Past and Looking Toward the Future: How society has dealt with diversity, equity, and inclusion 1919 - 2021.

  • Wednesday, February 17th 2021, 11am, online event (REGISTER HERE)
  • Special guest Dr. Tracy Crump, Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at St. Xavier University. Dr. Crump's talk will consider how to build inclusive spaces in our society by exploring the root causes of social unrest in Chicago over the last century. She will start with the Red Summer of 1919 and move forward. This will be a live event open to the general public (advanced registration required). 
  • Tracy Crump holds the Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a juris doctorate from from the John Marshall Law School, and earned the LL.M. (post-JD studies) at  Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Live Event: Poetry Reading & Contest Winner Announcements

Sidewalk Poetry: Take Your Chalk to the Streets!  

Recorded Event: Eve Ewing's 1919: A Critical Conversation with Dr. Janice Tuck Lively

  • A discussion on Eve Ewing's poetry in her book "1919." In this  interview, MVCC Counselor Shanya Gray interviews Dr. Janice Tuck Lively  of Professor of English at Elmhurst College and author of fiction and  non-fiction. This talk is part of our One Book, One College program on Ewing's 1919.  

Coming Soon: Are Confederate Monuments History? Assessing the Lost Cause, Monuments, and Race in 21st century America

  • In recent years, a vigorous debate has occurred online and in the streets over the meaning of monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders during the American Civil War.  In this presentation, Associate Professor of History Josh Fulton explores the Lost Cause movement and its efforts to reshape historical memory of the Confederacy and the Civil War through monuments and more. 

Recorded Event: The Bubonic Plague: The Ultimate Pandemic

  • History faculty member Jim McIntyre provides an overview of the history of one of the most deadly pandemics in history, the bubonic plague or the black death. This discussion reviews key outbreaks and the impacts they had in history. This is set in light of the current, Covid-19 pandemic.

Fall 2020 Event Videos

1919 Virtual Book Displays  

"Radically different and radically unchanged..."

In July of 1919, Eugene Williams, an African-American boy, accidentally floated into the “whites-only” section of the 29th Street beach on Lake Michigan. White sunbathers started throwing rocks. After being struck by a rock, Williams drowns. The South Side of Chicago exploded. Racism, neighborhood segregation, and economic instability became a tinder box that when lit, raged out of control. Once the fires were extinguished, 38 people were dead and 1000s were homeless. The 1919 Chicago riot was the worst out of over twenty riots across the United States that became known as the “Red Summer.”  

Eve Ewing’s book 1919 asks us to remember this often forgotten event. As she notes in the introduction, “This collection of poems is meant as a small offering, an entry point into a conversation about a part of our history that I think is worth talking about much more than we do” (p. 4) . 

In 1919, Ewing presents us with poetry that is accessible, yet deftly complex. Each poem connects with the official report that was published after the riots. She connects us to the history but helps us to feel the time and place in ways that that a “standard” history does not. Ewing explores the before, during, and after of the 1919 riots touching on the murder of Emmett Till, the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the murder of Laquan McDonald. 

Ewing has said that African American life in Chicago today is radically different from 1919 and radically unchanged.