Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of civil rights pioneer Ida B. Wells, speaks after President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris looks on at left. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WHEELING — The Ohio County Public Library’s Ann Thomas Memorial Lecture will welcome acclaimed author Michelle Duster Tuesday in the library’s auditorium.

A public speaker, historian, professor and champion of racial and gender equality, Duster is the great-granddaughter of civil rights pioneer, groundbreaking journalist and suffragist Ida B. Wells. Duster has written, edited or contributed to several dozen articles and more than 20 books, including “Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells” and the children’s book “Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader.”

Both books will be available for purchase and signing at the library event. Patrons are encouraged to contact the library in advance to RSVP and hold books for purchase at the event.

This year’s lecture will take place at noon on Tuesday, Feb. 21, as part of the library’s weekly Lunch With Books program series, and it is also being dedicated to Wheeling educator Eileen Miller. An African American teacher who taught at the Lincoln School, Miller then went on to be a teacher at Warwood after school desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

Sponsored in part by Bordas & Bordas, Tuesday’s special event is free and open to the public.

Duster’s presentation is called Separate and Unequal Education: From Ida B. Wells’ Time to the Present.

African Americans have faced barriers in obtaining equal educational resources since the end of the Civil War. Wells was formally educated and worked as a teacher in separate and unequal schools. She exposed the inequality and lost her job.

“My great-grandmother Ida B. Wells left a legacy of activism in education,” Duster said. “We need that now.”

Wells was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862, six months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. She went on to become a civil rights and women’s rights champion, a daring journalist and anti-lynching activist, speaking out publicly against civil inequalities that lingered after the Civil War. She formed the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 and is considered a founding member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Duster will discuss the realities that African Americans have faced in their quest for education, why they built their own institutions and how equality is still elusive.

Duster co-wrote the popular children’s history book, “Tate and His Historic Dream,” co-edited “Impact: Personal Portraits of Activism,” “Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth Through Change,” and Michelle Obama’s “Impact on African American Women and Girls,” and edited two books that include the writings of her paternal great-grandmother, Wells.

She has contributed to several anthologies and written articles for Ms. Magazine, TIME, Essence, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, The Hill, Daily Beast and The North Star. She also was involved in the development of the Ida B. Wells doll, released January 2022, which is part of Mattel’s Inspiring Women Barbie doll series.

Duster has appeared on television programs on MSNBC, CNN, WTTW, CBS and CW, as well as numerous radio shows.

Her advocacy has led to multiple public history projects that include street names, monuments, historical markers, murals and documentary films that highlight women and African Americans, including Wells.

Her many awards include the 2022 Ripple Effect Award from Public Narratives, 2019 Multi-Generational Activist Award from the Illinois Human Rights Commission and the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from Dartmouth College.

She is a native Chicagoan who earned her B.A. in Psychology from Dartmouth College, and M.A. in Media Studies from The New School in New York City. She also completed MFA coursework in film and video production at Columbia College Chicago.

As a creative outlet, Michelle makes beaded jewelry.

The presentation Tuesday will take place in person at the library and will also be available to view live online. To watch this special Lunch With Books program on the library’s livestream, find Lunch With Books on Facebook or Youtube.

The namesake of the Ann Thomas Memorial Lecture was Wheeling’s first African American registered nurse. She migrated with her mother to Wheeling from North Carolina as a child. Ann grew up during Wheeling’s Jim Crow era and became one of the first African American students to leave segregated Lincoln School for Wheeling High School after Brown vs Board was decided in 1954. Thomas thereafter became Wheeling’s first African American nurse. Her husband, Clyde, was a standout football player for the semi-pro Wheeling Ironmen and the only African American elected to Wheeling’s City Council in the modern era.

Thomas was well known as a wonderful, optimistic, courageous and genuinely kind woman, as well as a dedicated patron of the library and library programs. After she passed on Feb. 22, 2019 (having bravely battled cancer and endured suffering for many years), library officials decided to create an annual memorial lecture series at the library in her honor.

Lunch with Books is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and enjoy presentations by authors, poets, historians, musicians and a variety of other people. Complimentary beverages are provided.

For more information, call the library at 304-232-0244 or visit www.ohiocountylibrary.org.