Archive - "One Book" 2007
The City of East Lansing and Michigan State University Proudly Present The Sixth Annual
One Book, One Community Selection
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands,
By Susan Carol McCarthy
"The best fiction always bears a strong resemblance to real life. In Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands, McCarthy blends fact, memory, imagination and truth with admirable grace." -The Washington Post
"Evocative... The sincerity of her tale and its simple telling would make the book as interesting to young adult readers as it will be to those who remember or want to learn about the tangled moral questions of the '50s." -Publishers Weekly
If you would like to receive updates regarding events and programming for the 2007 One Book, One Community, please use this link to send an email.
Susan Carol McCarthy’s “Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands” tells an amazing and true story of courage in the face of racial and religious hatred and violence. It is the story of the emergence of the Civil Rights movement in local communities across this country as ordinary people demanded their freedom from fear and lawlessness. A core strategy was voter registration. It was a drive that went door to door, new voter to new voter, empowering people to demand protection from their government and justice from the courts. No less important today, voters still shape the future with their vote.
Stay tuned for details about voter registration opportunities happening on campus.
One Book, One Community Announces 2007 Book Selection
March 6, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich. — One Book, One Community announces its 2007 book selection, "Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands," by author Susan Carol McCarthy. The One Book, One Community program, co-sponsored by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen.
The writing in "Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands" reflects the grace and flow of a writer who knows her characters and their circumstances well. Author Susan Carol McCarthy has written a fictionalized account of her father's real-life and frightening clash with the Ku Klux Klan. It is the story of a brave family's struggle during a year-long reign of terror, including bombings, beatings, and murders, carried out by the Klan against African Americans, Jews, and Catholics in Florida in 1951.
The story is told through the eyes of a spunky twelve-year-old girl, Reesa McMahon, whose innocence is destroyed when her gentle black friend, Marvin Cully, a citrus picker in her father's orange grove, is brutally murdered by the Klan. Proud of their accomplishment, Marvin's killers brag of it within earshot of Reesa's grandmother, setting off an escalating sequence of events.
Reesa is challenged repeatedly to try to understand the violence and hate around her. Overnight the McMahon family's world is turned upside down and she must confront the reality that the deeply-held beliefs by many in the community are not the ones she can comprehend or ever accept.
McCarthy evokes both southern charm and orange-blossom beauty of rural Florida while peeling layers of hypocrisy that attempt to hide the harsh truth of underlying bigotry and hate, poisoning many in its community.
A work of fiction, McCarthy draws upon her father's memories of deeply embedded racial hatred by Klan members, many of whom were community leaders, to tell her story. The facts of the events are drawn from media coverage at that time and from the official Grand Jury court records unsealed 40 years later.
Through Reesa's eyes, McCarthy evokes the fear and the extraordinary courage and characterizes early initiatives in the civil rights movement. While her colorful characters are fictionalized, the major events are true. Among the real-life characters were Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, then Chief Counsel for the NAACP, and Florida NAACP leader Harry T. Moore. Moore, along with his wife, were both violently murdered for successfully registering African Americans to vote.
Meet Susan Carol McCarthy as she kicks-off the month-long One Book, One Community program on Wednesday, Aug. 22 at the East Lansing High School. She will welcome freshmen to the MSU campus on Thursday, Aug 23. McCarthy will return to East Lansing on Thursday, Sept. 20 to participate in a community-wide book discussion. Other activities will include exploration of local civil rights heroes.
Susan Carol McCarthy was born in Florida in 1951, too young to remember the fear or the courage that filled her family's life. She describes the young narrator she invented to tell the story for her as "the sister I always wanted." "Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands" is McCarthy's first novel. She currently lives in San Diego, California.
For additional information about the One Book One Community program, contact Ginny Haas, Director of Community Relations, MSU at 355-5060 or Ami Van Antwerp, Communications Coordinator, City of East Lansing at 319-6927.
To visit Susan Carol McCarthy's website, click here.
Click here to see the 2007 One Book, One Community Flyer.
The Book
A Brief Synopsis of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Adapted from the book jacket of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
One orange-blossom-scented night in 1951, Reesa McMahon woke to find her world shattered by violence and hatred. Her friend and mentor, nineteen-year-old Marvin Cully, had been brutally murdered by the local Klan. The killing of this innocent black man, who worked in the McMahons' orange grove, will forever change Reesa's life and the life of everyone in the genteel town of Mayflower, Florida, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a conflict that would ultimately divide a nation.
Against this backdrop, Reesa draws strength from her indomitable grandmother "Doto," who drove hell-bent down from Chicago in her new blue DeSoto... Warren, her slow-to-anger Yankee father, who never quite fit in to the closed society of Good Ol' Boy citrus growers... Miss Maybelle Mason, the elderly postmistress, who knew a rattlesnake when she saw one- and the bite of heartbreak as well- and Luther and Armetta and the black community of Mayflower. Through Reesa's painful search for meaning, we experience the unforgettable rites of passage of a young girl's and of a small town's shattering confrontation with racial prejudice, injustice,
and- ultimately- truth.
Want to enjoy your reading even more?
Click here to find guided questions for the book.
An alternative format of Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands is available for eligible MSU Students who are registered with the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD).
Please contact RCPD for the alternative format:
MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities
120 Bessey Hall, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824-1033
Phone: 517-353-9642
Email: rcpd@msu.edu
Web site: rcpd.msu.edu
About One Book
The "One Book, One Community" program encourages the East Lansing and Michigan State University community to read the same book over a six-week period this fall and to come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. Although dozens of similar programs have been sponsored nationwide, this is one of the very few that bring together a city and a university.
The 2007 program will run from August 22nd to September 25th. The book selection this year is Susan Carol McCarthy's Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands.
The kick-off event will take place at East Lansing High School on Wednesday, August 22. The author, Susan McCarthy, will speak and sign books. She will be joined by special guest, Evangeline Moore.
If you would like to receive updates regarding events and programming for the 2007 One Book, One Community, please sign up here.
The Author: Susan Carol McCarthy
Susan Carol McCarthy was born and raised in the rolling grovelands of pre-Disney central Florida. The daughter of independent citrus growers, she recalls "picking fruit, packing bushel baskets and pouring fresh-squeezed orange juice for the tourists who stopped by my family's packing house" on Florida's heavily-traveled Route 441.
A graduate of University of South Florida (BA in English Literature), McCarthy wrote advertising for newly-opened Walt Disney World in Orlando. Later on, after successful stints at larger ad agencies in Atlanta and San Francisco, she settled in San Diego as a full-time freelancer.
In 1991, McCarthy received a package that changed her life: Inside a rather large envelope, the front page news article from the Orlando Sentinel detailed a series of shocking race crimes that occurred in Florida in 1951-1952. (Records of an FBI investigation, a Grand Jury hearing, and KKK indictments had been sealed for 40 years.) Underneath the clipping was a startling eight-page letter from her father. "Everybody in town knew the local Klan was involved," he wrote, "but nobody was willing to do anything about it. I want you to hear, from the horse's mouth, what I did and why."
McCarthy's father's account of his daring cooperation with the FBI became the basis for her award-winning debut novel, Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands.
Her second novel, True Fires, published January 2004, is also inspired by true events, circa 1954. Kirkus Reviews called the book "a vivid portrait of mid-century corruption and of some brave enough to risk everything for justice."
McCarthy says, "I'm drawn to the stories of ordinary people who, when backed into a moral corner, choose, often at great risk, to do the right thing. Where do they get such extraordinary courage? How do they achieve that level of grace?"
Taken from Susan Carol McCarthy's webpage, www.susanmccarthy.com.
Info for First Year Students 
The One Book, One Community Project
Michigan State University and City of East Lansing
What’s the assignment? All first-year students are expected to have read Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands before arriving on campus for the Welcome Days for the fall, 2007, semester. There is no written assignment, although you may want to use the guide questions on the back of this information sheet to provoke your thinking about the book.
How will I use this book? Susan Carol McCarthy, the author of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands, will speak to you on your first full day at MSU, August 23, 2007. You will likely be involved in a discussion of the book in your residence hall, have an opportunity to join a book discussion during the Academic Welcome activities, get an opportunity to attend theme-related events on campus and in the community, and may find the book assigned in one of your courses designed for first-year students.
How do I obtain a copy of the book? You will receive a copy of the book at check-in at your Academic Orientation Program (AOP). Unless you return the book before leaving AOP, the cost of the book will be charged to your account as part of the fall semester bill. If you choose not to purchase the book at AOP, you must return the book to the Academic Orientation Office, Club Spartan Room, Case Hall, before checking out of your AOP session.
How do I pay for the book? You do not need cash! A charge of $10.00 will be posted to your MSU account. This cost is substantially below the retail price of the book. If you decide to return the copy of the book provided to you at AOP, you are still responsible for acquiring the book, either from your local library or bookstore.
Why have a required reading before the beginning of school? Welcome to college life! At MSU, students are expected to accomplish learning in their own time, independently, outside of the classroom. You will regularly be asked to navigate texts and to interpret and apply what you have read. This is an introduction to what will become routine. Reading Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands will prepare you to take part in a variety of activities across campus and within the community where you can meet and learn with other students and with members of the community. This "One Book, One Community" assignment gives each new student something in common with every other new student.
Why Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands? Colleges and communities all over the country have selected Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands as required reading. The book appeals to college students with its themes of family, personal courage, and human dignity. The book was inspired by real-life events, and weaves together actual and fictional events with characters in ways that create a window into a time and place when practicing acceptance, tolerance, and inclusiveness required personal courage. The book allows students a chance to reflect on how much – and perhaps how little – has changed.
Want to enjoy your reading even more?
Click here to find guided questions for the book.
Parents seeking information about the One Book, One Community assignment should click here.
An alternative format of Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands is available for eligible MSU Students who are registered with the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD).
Please contact RCPD for the alternative format:
MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities
120 Bessey Hall, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824-1033
Phone: 517-353-9642
Email: rcpd@msu.edu
Web site: rcpd.msu.edu
News
The Spartan Podcast - Susan McCarthy & Evangeline Moore
August 23, 2007 @ 10:58 am
From MSU Today on Impact Radio: The One Book, One Community program encourages the East Lansing and MSU community to read the same book over a six-week period and to come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The 2007 selection is Susan Carol McCarthy’s “Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands.”
Susan talks about her father and how he inspired her to write the book. And she talks about her decision to tell the book’s story through the eyes of the Reesa McMahon character. Evangeline Moore, whose father and mother also inspired McCarthy, joins the conversation and talks about her feelings about the book and about the continuing struggle for civil rights and racial equality.
Hosted by Russ White.
Hear the Conversation 17:55 - 10.3 mb mp3
2007 Calendar of Events
All events are free and open to the general public unless otherwise noted
Wednesday, August 22; 7:30 p.m.
Kick-Off: An Evening with Susan McCarthy
Lecture/Book signing Kick-off event
Featuring, Susan McCarthy, Author of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
with special guest, Evangeline Moore
East Lansing High School Auditorium
509 Burcham Drive
This event is free, but tickets are required.
We are out of tickets for this events.
McCarthy’s Aug. 22 visit will be recorded and rerun on East Lansing’s government channel, Channel 22 (WELG). Air times will be Sundays, Mondays and Saturdays at noon and 8 p.m. from Aug. 26 through Sept. 10.
The recording of McCarthy’s Aug. 22 visit will also be made available to borrow at the East Lansing Public Library, 950 Abbott Road, beginning Monday, Aug. 27.
Thursday, August 23; 9:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m.
University Welcome for Incoming MSU Students featuring Susan McCarthy and Evangeline Moore
Wharton Center for Performing Arts, MSU Campus
The General Public is Welcome
Friday, August 24; 10:00 a.m., 10:45 a.m. & 11:30 a.m.
Fall Welcome Engagement Session
During your first year in college, you’ll make some big decisions about who your friends will be, what your values in life are, and who you want to become - some of the same things that Reesa faced in the deeply segregated South of the 1950s. Come share your response to Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands and engage in a discussion with Susan Carol McCarthy, the author of this year’s One Book selection.
Presenter/Office: Susan Carol McCarthy & Katie Stolz, Department of Residence Life
306 Bessey Hall, MSU Campus
Tuesday, September 4, Tuesday, September 11 & Tuesday, September 18; 4:00-6:00 p.m. & 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Writing Workshop: In Our Own Time: Personal History and Personal Connections with History
Each of us inhabits our own lives, our own countries, with timelines and events that are significant to us. Sometimes these events coincide with or are part of the significant events of others’ lives. Sometimes they are not. And while we are creating and living in our own histories, the history of our nation, and our world, is occurring around us.
Dr. Anita Skeen of MSU’s Residential College of Arts and Letters will lead a three-part writing workshop in which participants will reflect upon moments of their own personal histories, perhaps newsworthy and/or life changing, perhaps quiet and/or unremarkable, that we recall as moments of courage, beauty, growth, failure, or understanding. “And in each life,” writes the poet Yevtushenko, “one excellent minute, one tragic minute. These are private.” Participants will also stop to consider how these personal moments are connected to what we think of as History (with a capital “H”) and the effect one might have upon the other.
As Susan Carol McCarthy writes in her prologue to Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands, “In the end, all we have, all we can take refuge in, is how, for each of us, one thing led to quite another.”
This workshop is open to writers in all genres and at all levels, particularly those who like to work with a specific exercise or assignment.
Registration is required as there is limited capacity. Register for this session beginning on August 1 by calling 351-2420.
Both the 4:00-6:00 p.m. and 7:00-9:00 p.m. time slots are now full.
East Lansing Public Library, Community Room
950 Abbott Road
Tuesday, September 25, 7:00 p.m.
Reading of works
MSU Museum, MSU Campus
Friday, September 7; 5-7 p.m.
Family Event: “Toot Your Horn” - A Celebration of Our Community
Family funfest for all ages featuring a storyteller, singer, and crafts.
East Lansing Public Library
950 Abbott Road
Sunday, September 9; 2:00 p.m.
“Civil Rights in East Lansing”.
The East Lansing Historical Society and East Lansing Centennial Commission present a panel of local individuals who recount their personal experiences during the time of the civil rights movement in East Lansing.
Panelists include: Clarence Underwood, Don Coleman, Charles McMillan, and Claudette Nelson. George Brookover will moderate.
East Lansing Hannah Community Center
819 Abbott Road
Banquet Room
Monday, September 10; 7:00 p.m.
Movie and Popcorn: “A Time to Kill” (R)
Based on the novel by John Grisham, this film tells of the story of a young lawyer's (Matthew McConaughey) fight to save the life of a black man (Samuel L. Jackson) accused of killing two men with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The film has an all-star cast that also includes Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Ashley Judd, and Donald and Kiefer Sutherland.
Rated R for violence and for some graphic language.
East Lansing Public Library
950 Abbott Road.
Community Room
Friday, September 14; 7:00 p.m.
MSU Friday Night Film Series; “Nothing But a Man”
MSU Main Library
Room W 449
MSU Campus
This event is free and open to the general public. Professor Jeff Wray from Michigan State University's English Department will be speaking at this event. Professor Wray will tie together themes in the book and the movie.
Click here to learn more about this film.
Sunday, September 16; 5 p.m.
MSU Gospel Choir
The MSU Gospel Choir will perform for members of the East Lansing and MSU communities. There will be a book discussion about Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands following the performance.
Peoples Church of East Lansing
200 W. Grand River Ave.
Monday, September 17; 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Breaking Barriers: MSU’s Role in Integrating Sports
In Lay that Trumpet in our Hands the integration of baseball serves as a backdrop, and in many ways, a metaphor, for the events of that time. During the same time period, Michigan State University was also paving the way for African-American athletes on the athletic field. This event will showcase some of this history, and allow participants to hear directly from former MSU athletes about their experiences during this turbulent period.
Clara Bell Smith Student Athlete Academic Support Center
S.E. Corner of Shaw Lane & Chestnut Street
MSU Campus
Thursday, September 20; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
"Life in Writing," Library Colloquia
Susan Carol McCarthy, author of Lay that Trumpet in our Hands, will meet with MSU creative writing students to discuss the craft of writing. Topics will range from identifying a genre to finding an agent, and will allow students interested in a career as a writer to engage with someone who has achieved commercial success. Students invited to the event will be from MSU's College of Arts and Letters, but any other MSU student interested in attending should contact Dr. Gordon Henry at 432-1990 or henryg@msu.edu for further details.
Thursday, September 20; 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Special theme dinners in MSU Residence Halls
Residence halls will feature dinners focusing on the joy of reading and the One Book, One Community program. The dinner theme is Florida and Southern Cuisine.The dinner will be served in all halls except Holden.
The dinner is free for people with meal plans; for guests the cost is $9.00.
Students will have the opportunity to register to vote during this event.
Thursday, September 20; 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Book Talk With Susan McCarthy: Community book discussion with author of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Book groups and individuals throughout the region are invited to join others for facilitated discussion of the themes, events and other dimensions of this book.
Registration is required for this event.
Call 351-2420 beginning August 1 to register.
East Lansing Hannah Community Center
819 Abbott Road
Banquet Room
Monday, September 24; 7:30 p.m.
World View Lecture Series: Rachel Naomi Remen: Becoming a Blessing
As Susan Carol McCarthy struggles to show us how individuals, family, and community deal with prejudice, loss, and social responsibility, Rachel Naomi Remen attempts to lead us down paths where personal and collective healing can occur in her books, My Grandfather's Blessings and Kitchen Table Wisdom. She writes of her many teachings about courage and how the ordinary people in her life have become heroes ("...brave does not mean being unafraid. It often means being afraid and doing it anyway.") and she encourages us to understand that "There is in life a suffering so unspeakable, vulnerability so extreme that it goes beyond words, beyond explanation, and even beyond healing. In the face of such suffering all we can do is bear witness so no one need suffer alone." Both McCarthy and Remen attempt, through their books, to bear witness and to show us that we are not alone.
Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Great Hall
MSU Campus
The event is free for MSU faculty, staff, and students; $20.00 for the general public.
CLick here to learn more about this event.
Tuesday, September 25; 7 p.m.
Reading of Works from Writing Workshop MSU Museum
MSU Museum, MSU Campus
Wednesday, September 26; 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Book Discussion
Join members of the East Lansing and MSU communities in a book discussion led by Aram Kabodian. Various themes and topics surrounding Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands will be visited. Please callthe church office to register.
Peoples Church Library
200 W Grand River Ave
East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 332-5073
Ongoing Exhibit through October 31st
Activism: The Fight for Civil Rights
Michigan State University's Library
MSU Campus
Since 2002 the "One Book, One Community" program has provided a reading selection for the Michigan State University and East Lansing community to read and discuss. The 2007 book selection is Lay that trumpet in our hands by Susan McCarthy. For this years program the library has produced the exhibit Activism: The Fight for Civil Rights, which focuses on historical events such as the murder of Harry T. Moore, student activism during the 1960's and the Civil Rights Movement. The materials displayed relate to the overall theme of the book, which portrays ordinary people carrying out extreme acts of courage in the face of terror.
A number of titles are displayed in this exhibit, including some materials from the Special Collections Reading Room. All of the books used in this exhibit are apart of the MSU Libraries Collection.
This exhibit can be found in the Main Library on 4-West until October 31st.
Reception for Partners & Sponsors
Wild Goose Inn
August 22, 2007
One Book, One Community Kick-off
An Evening with Susan McCarthy
East Lansing High School
August 22, 2007
Book Signing:Academic Welcome
Wharton Center
August 23, 2007
Evangeline Moore meets with Students
Brody Dining Hall
August 23, 2007
"Civil Rights in East Lansing"
Hannah Community Center
September 9, 2007
Breaking Barriers: MSU’s Role in Integrating Sports
September 17, 2007
Clara Bell Smith Student Athlete Academic Support Center
Susan McCarthy with US History Classes
East Lansing High School
September 20, 2007
Book Talk With Susan McCarthy:
Community book discussion with author of Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Hannah Community Center
September 20, 2007
Partners & Sponsors
Michigan State University
office of the provost
office of vp for governmental affairs
division of housing and food services
division of university relations
Department of residence life
City of East Lansing
East Lansing Public Library
East Lansing Public Schools
MSU Residence Halls Association
WKAR-TV
Friends of the East Lansing Public Library
Barnes and Noble BookSellers
Drs. Elene and Houston Brown
Shell Oil
East Lansing Educational Foundation
Brookover, Carr & Schaberg, P.C.
Meijer
Metzger Realty Company
MSU Federal Credit Union
The Wild Goose Inn
WLM Properties
I STOP Hate: MSU United
Friends of One Book, One Community
Eric Schertzing
Alan R. and Mildred J. Friend
The goal of the One Book, One Community program is to create opportunities for individuals to learn more about each other through the sharing of a common interest. We are very interested in seeing how we are doing in meeting this goal, as well as in satisfying the needs of our communities.