‘Lots of different viewpoints’ promised at Orem Public Library’s Black History Month event

Utah author and historian Rebecca de Schweinitz will appear at the Orem Public Library on Thursday at 7 p.m. to discuss the role of children in the Civil Rights era as part of the library’s Black History Month series.

De Schweinitz, a history professor at Brigham Young University and author of If We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality, was a consultant on the creation of the newest American Girl doll. The doll, named “Melody,” is a young African American girl living in Detroit, Michigan, during the Civil Rights Movement.

“I’m planning to talk a little bit about the time period of the story, and especially what it was like for children living in this era,” de Schweinitz said. She plans to read a few excerpts from Melody’s story, as well as “talk about some of our hopes for the Melody project.”

Orem Public Library event coordinator Marilee Clark said the library’s staff hopes to represent “lots of different viewpoints.”

“With these three presenters specifically,” Clark said, “we get a really good view of some of the aspects of black history that people might not be as familiar with.”

Clark recommended de Schweinitz’s presentation as an event that will be “great for families.”

Thursday is the final event in the three-night series. Other speakers included filmmaker Loki Mulholland, who recently released a picture book about his mother, civil rights activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, and author Margaret Blair Young, whose presentation focused on black history specific to Utah and the Mormon church.

De Schweinitz’s presentation will take place in the Storytelling Wing of the Orem Public Library, located at 58 N. State Street in Orem, and will be free to the public.