The Union League Club of Chicago Library Committee invites Caxton Club members to a live program: Dr. Simon Balto in Conversation with Dr. Adam Green on Occupied Territory

Please join us for a very timely conversation as we celebrate Simon Balto's award winning history of the Chicago Police Department, Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power. Simon will be in conversation with distinguished University of Chicago history professor and scholar Adam Green.

In this history of Chicago from 1919 to the rise and fall of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s, Simon Balto narrates the evolution of racially repressive policing in black neighborhoods as well as how black citizen-activists challenged that repression. Balto demonstrates that punitive practices by and inadequate protection from the police were central to black Chicagoans’ lives long before the late-century “wars” on crime and drugs. By exploring the deeper origins of this toxic system, Balto reveals how modern mass incarceration, built upon racialized police practices, emerged as a fully formed machine of profoundly antiblack subjugation.

This event will start with a reception at 5:30 PM. The program will begin at 6:00 PM followed by Q & A. The price is $24 per person. A cash bar will be available. Advance reservations are mandatory, and prepayment is required by October 16. 

Note that registering for the event will provide you with the opportunity to purchase copies of Occupied Territory for $33. Books must be pre-paid and will be available for pickup at the event. If you are not attending, books will be shipped.

The ULCC is following the Illinois and Chicago mask mandate: masks must be worn indoors unless actively eating and drinking. For more information, please contact Cheryl Ziegler at cziegler@ulcc.org.