Author of the National Book Award winning classic Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball returns to the legacy of weight of family history, this time to examine the forces behind white supremacy in a portrait of one of his ancestors. In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball reconstructs the story of his great-great-great grandfather, an antiblack militant, just as he shares the stories of descendents of African Americans who were once victimized by his kinsman. Part memoir, part American history, Life of a Klansman is a cautionary tale during our current era, as whiteness as a cause is again spinning into new ways of inflicting violence and perpetuating hate. Edward Ball will be joined in conversation with Kalela Williams, the Free Library's Director of Neighborhood Library Enrichment Programming and Philadelphia's "Black History Maven."

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