08/29/2026
Don't miss! This Saturday, September 5 at 1pm at the Ypsilanti District Library-Superior location. Dr. Talitha L. LeFlouria, an Ypsilanti native and award-winning historian, will present her newest book, "Searching for Jane Crow: Black Women and Mass Incarceration in America From the Auction Block to the Cell Block."
Dr. LeFlouria tells a new origin story of mass incarceration, revealing that the system did not begin with the War on Drugs but with slavery. Placing Black women at the center of the nation's long carceral history, she exposes how the architecture of today's punitive system was designed to safeguard slavery and the profits it generated—a legacy that remains.
Black Stone Bookstore & Cultural Center currently has books in the store and will have books available for purchase at the event.
"Paradigm-shifting...This book ought to change forever how the history of mass incarceration is told." —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Dr. LeFlouria is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the history of Black women, mass incarceration, and the legacies of American slavery. She is an associate professor of history at The University of Texas at Austin and author of the multi-award-winning book, Chained in Silence. She has received numerous awards including an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, The Root, and Vox.
