Today: Crowd-Funding Campaign Launched to Publish “A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story”

Today the nonprofit Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation, parent organization of America’s Black Holocaust Museum, is pleased to announce a six-week effort to raise the money needed to republish Dr. Cameron’s memoir and properly preserve his original manuscript. This is the only known written account by the survivor of a lynching, and as such is an important historical document.

With his book, A Time of Terror: A Survivor's Story, circa 1994. Courtesy of the Cameron Family.

With his book, A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story, circa 1994. Courtesy of the Cameron Family.

Like Solomon Northrup’s 12 Years a Slave, it is a very personal story, full of intimate details and fascinating descriptions of the life of a black boy and his family in the South and North during the Great Migration and beginning of the Great Depression.

We are very excited about this 3rd edition of A Time of Terror, because it includes five never-before-published chapters, photographs, and materials useful to students and teachers. It will be published in both paperback and ebook formats, making it accessible for the first time to people around the world. The book will be sold through Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Proceeds from its sales and from speaking engagements will help support ABHM.

The slogan of the campaign is “Know the Past / Heal the Present.” As Congresswoman Gwen Moore reminds us in the campaign’s video, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. As a result of deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Reneisha McBride and others, our nation is engaging in conversation about the dehumanization and false criminalization of black men and women – of a new Jim Crow. This has a long history in our country, and we won’t get past it without examining its sources. A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story can help with that process.

ABHM Resident Historian Dr. Robert Smith says about the book, “You can’t ask for a better primary document about the Jim Crow era, written by an intellectual who was also an activist.”

The fundraising effort will continue through November 28th.

Donors to the campaign will be acknowledged by name in the book and receive other “perks.” You can join the community of donors and supporters by visiting the campaign’s web page or donating online directly from the box below. And please spread the word! Thank you very much.

 

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