The Maryland Center for the Book at Maryland Humanities is partnering with the Virginia Center for the Book at Virginia Humanities to present a free, virtual talk by Charles Chavis, Jr., featuring his latest book, “The Silent Shore: The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State.” Dr. Chavis will be in conversation with Maya Davis, Director of the Riversdale House Museum and Commissioner on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In “The Silent Shore,” Dr. Chavis draws on his discovery of previously unreleased investigative documents to meticulously reconstruct the full story of one of the last lynchings in Maryland, that of Matthew Williams in 1931. “The Silent Shore” explores the immediate and lingering effect of Williams’s death on the politics of racism in the United States.