Sumter County Museum's 'Meet the Author' series continues with 2 free events in July

Sumter County Museum will host two free book talks and receptions in July as part of its Meet the Author series.

Former Sumterite Glen Browder will speak on Tuesday, July 18, at 6 p.m. in the museum's McKenzie Hall about his late wife, Rebecca Browder's book Sorry Men in Southern Literature. Rebecca Browder labeled this collection of short stories as "creative nonfiction" that she drew from personal observations growing up in a cotton mill village in South Carolina. She revealed in the introduction to her book that she was dying of ovarian cancer and "aspired to leave something of broader value." Her husband, Glen Browder, professor emeritus of American Democracy at Jacksonville State University and former U.S. Congressman, Alabama Secretary of State and member of the Alabama Legislature, carries on his wife's legacy by traveling and sharing her work.

Author Julie Brickman explains, "Rebecca Browder depicts the real South broiling beneath the beguiling charm of its surface, rife with significant questions about brutality, racism, religion and camaraderie. God-fearing and mean duke it out in these darkly humorous stories about life in the South, where existence is so raw, you can literally see the hand of fate reach into it and deliver its own surprises."

Thanks to a grant from S.C. Humanities, Sumter County Museum will also welcome preservationist and Civil War reenactor Joseph McGill Jr. and journalist Herb Frazier for a talk and book-signing reception on their new book, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery, on Saturday, July 22, at 2 p.m.

McGill founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 and has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings since then. Events and gatherings are arranged around these overnight stays, and it provides a unique way to understand the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. The book focuses on McGill's experiences during these stays and his conversations with various communities. Altogether, McGill and co-author and award-winning journalist Herb Frazier give readers an important, unexpected immersion into the history of slavery and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history.

Charleston Magazine reports, "This book serves to further wash away that sugarcoating and awaken us to what it might have been like to work the fields all day then sleep on the floor at night, with a family of 10 crammed into one room. As McGill discovers, the realities were harsh and the comforts few, but in these pages, his dream of bringing those realities into the limelight are realized."

Both of these events are free and open to the public with books available for purchase and signing at them. Each will feature a talk, opportunity for questions, and reception with light refreshments. They will take place in the museum's McKenzie Hall located in the Heritage Education Center on the main museum grounds at 122 N. Washington Street, Sumter, SC 29150. Visit the museum website at www.SumterCountyMuseum.org to learn more and see future events.

Sumter County Museum explores historical experiences through programs and exhibits that allow all of us to inform and shape our future. Museum facilities include the Williams Brice House (1916), Heritage Education Center, Carolina Backcountry Homestead, and the Temple Sinai Jewish History Center.