Langston Hughes’s 1931 visit to Chapel Hill: The Scottsboro Case and Legal Lynching

OCCRC, Carolina Public Humanities, and the Chapel Hill Public Library will host NCSU English Professor Dr. Jason Miller to discuss Langston Hughes’ most famous anti-lynching poem, which he debuted in Chapel Hill during his 1931 visit to Orange County. His appearance was so controversial that police were stationed outside the door of his public reading. Though he wrote nearly three dozen anti-lynching poems between 1919-67, none equaled the immediate or lasting impact of “Christ in Alabama.” This multimedia presentation documents and contextualizes the most unforgettable moment in Hughes’s lifelong national campaign against American lynching culture. Special guests include NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green and spoken word artist Nick Courmon.