Council Literary Series: Eugene Robinson
11am | Reception
11:30am | Author Program
12:30pm | Lunch and Book Signing
Bel-Air Country Club (10768 Bellagio Road, Los Angeles, CA 90077)
Parking Information
*Valet parking is included
Dress Code
Business Attire
The Bel-Air Country Club maintains a dress code. You may read more about it here. Please note that jeans or denims of any color are not permitted.
If you have any questions, please email The Council office at thecouncil@lfla.org or call 213.228.7506.
Our Guest Author:
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist, and associate editor of The Washington Post, author, and political analyst. His prior positions included foreign editor, London correspondent, and South American correspondent. Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before joining The Washington Post.
About the Book:
Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America
On March 27, 1829, a wealthy white planter and entrepreneur named Richard Fordham purchased four enslaved African Americans from a woman named Isabella Perman. One of them was journalist Eugene Robinson’s great-great-grandfather, a boy called Harry.
Starting from this transaction, which took place in Charleston, South Carolina, Freedom Lost, Freedom Won brings to life 200 years of our nation’s history through the eyes of the remarkable family that Harry founded. Assigned a formal name—Henry Fordham—and put to work as a blacksmith, he achieved his own freedom a decade before the Civil War. He was there when victorious Union troops marched into Charleston in 1865, ending slavery and guaranteeing liberty for Black people—only on paper, though, and only for a time.
Robinson traces the arc of his familial lineage through the repeated cycles in which African Americans have fought their way upward toward freedom and opportunity, been forced back down again, and renewed their determined climb.
Praise
“Robinson…has written a deeply personal and moving book that explores American history through his family’s story.” — The Washington Post
“A skillfully narrated journey into the past.” —Kirkus Reviews
