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Gathering of the Groups

Investigative reporter and author Jerry Mitchell will discuss his book "Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era."

The Fayetteville Public Library welcomes book clubs across Northwest Arkansas and interested members of the public to our annual Gathering of the Groups. This year, author Jerry Mitchell will sit down with KUAF's Kyle Kellams for a book discussion in the Fayetteville Public Library's Event Center on March 7th at 6 p.m. A book signing will follow. Some light refreshments will be available, and Pearl's Books will offer books for sale. Registration is encouraged, but not required. 

The stories of investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell have helped put four Klansmen and a serial killer behind bars. His work has also helped free two people from death row and exposed injustices and corruption, prompting investigations and reforms as well as the firings of boards and officials. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and a winner of more than 30 other national awards, including a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” grant.
His memoir for Simon & Schuster, Race Against Time, details how some of the nation’s most notorious murders came to be punished decades later. The New York Times made it an Editors’ Pick, and NPR selected it as a Best Book of the Year. In 2019 Mitchell left newspaper work to found the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit that exposes injustices, investigates cold cases, gives voice to the voiceless and raises up the next generation of investigative reporters.

This year's Gathering of the Groups was made possible through a partnership with Northwest Arkansas Community College, as part of their Spring Arts and Culture festival, which runs March 6-10. The Spring Arts and Culture Festival (SACF) is a multi-day, interdisciplinary festival that brings together artists, academics, intellectuals and other members of the NWA and NWACC community to reflect on an annual theme. The festival offers in-person, streaming and recorded events that are FREE and open to the public, unless otherwise noted on the schedule. This spring, SACF will explore the theme of embodiment, which can be defined as giving form to what is abstract or ideal or expressing principles, thoughts, intentions in an institution, work of art, action, etc.

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