Christopher Carmona: author and educational activist
Moderated by Jessica Lopez Lyman: Xicana feminist scholar

Following Reconstruction, racial violence exploded in the South. With the rise of the “New South” came the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and the KKK’s most powerful era. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers had been in power for decades, spreading state-sanctioned terror and violence along the Mexico-U.S. border. Author Christopher Carmona will discuss the shared histories of African Americans and Mexican Americans in the early 20th century and how his work as an educational activist with the Refusing to Forget project and young adult novelist offers avenues for sharing the long legacies of these stories. He asks: What is beyond representation? In his latest work, Carmona offers new heroes—superheroes, to be exact—to those who need them most.