Ralph Eubanks in Conversation with Allison Vick

Join us for evening with W. Ralph Eubanks in conversation with Dr. Allison Vick. They'll be discussing Eubanks's new book When It's Darkness on the Delta, with a signing following directly afterward.

This event will be held at Converse University in the Zimmerli Room.

For readers of The Sum of Us and South to America, an essential new look at the roots of American inequality—and the seeds of its transformation
Once the powerhouse of a fledgling country’s economy, the Mississippi Delta has been consigned to a narrative of destitution. It is often faulted for the sins of the South, portrayed as a regional backwater that willfully cleaved itself from the modern world. But buried beneath the weight of good ol’ boy politics and white-washed histories lies the Delta’s true story.
Mississippi native and award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks unearths the region’s buried history, revealing a microcosm of economic oppression in the US. He traverses the Delta, examining its bellwether efforts to combat income inequality through vivid portraits of key figures like

• Theodore G. Bilbo and William Whittington, segregationist congressmen who sabotaged federal reparations for former sharecroppers in the 1940s and ’50s
• Gloria Carter Dickerson, founder of the Emmett Till Academy, whose parents were instrumental in desegregating schools in Drew, MS, where Till was murdered
• Calvin Head, a community organizer who runs a farming co-op in Mileston, who revived the legacy of his hometown, the only Black resettlement community in Mississippi

Eubanks delivers a powerful and insightful examination of how racism and economic instability have shaped life in the Mississippi Delta. He traces the enduring consequences of political decisions that have entrenched inequality across generations. At the same time, he brings attention to the resilience of local communities and the grassroots movements working toward meaningful change. The book offers a thoughtful framework for policy reform and community investment, underscoring the need to support those who have long sustained the region through their labor and lived experience.

W. Ralph Eubanks is a faculty fellow and writer in residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land as well as three other works of nonfiction: A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape, Ever Is a Long Time and The House at the End of the Road. He is a writer and an essayist whose work focuses on race, identity, and the American South, and his writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, the American Scholar, the Georgia Review, and the New Yorker. He is a 2007 Guggenheim fellow, a 2021-2022 Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellow, and the recipient of a 2023 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for excellence in literature and in recognition of his role as a cultural ambassador for the state of Mississippi.

At Converse, Dr. Allison Vick teaches American Government and the American Congress as well as other courses surrounding American political institutions and behavior. Dr. Vick has a passion for teaching the American Government survey course as an opportunity to cover a wide range of topics and help students find an area of politics that interests them.

Dr. Vick received her BA and MPA from Augusta University and her PhD from the University of Georgia. Outside of Converse, she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and watching sports. She especially loves catching an Atlanta Braves or UGA game.

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