Karen Branan - "A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets and My Search for the Truth"
Karen Branan (https://karenbranan.com) "is a veteran journalist who has written for newspapers, magazines, stage, and television for almost fifty years. Her work has appeared in Life, Mother Jones, Ms., Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Today’s Health, Learning, Parents, Star Tribune (Minneapolis), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and on PBS, CBS, ABC, CBC, BBC, and CNN." She is also an educator and the author of "The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth," which explores the lynching of four people in her home town Hamilton, Georgia and her family's connection to that event. Karen is also an antiracist speaker and a long-time member of "Coming to the Table" (https://comingtothetable.org), a national organization committed to racial healing and racial reconciliation. Today Karen and I chatted about her powerful book, what it means to be white and southern, the American legacy of lynching and racial terrorism, and the need for racial reconciliation and healing, among other related topics. It was a great conversation with many layers, and it was so good to talk with another white, southerner grappling with our shared "southern heritage" and the question of how to work against white supremacy.
