Join us for an author talk with Robert W. Fieseler on Wednesday, June 18th, at 7 PM at Gerber/Hart. Robert will be joined in conversation with local historian and author Owen Keehnen. Copies of American Scare will be available for purchase from Women & Children First Books.

American Scare: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives

A vital exposé for both our history and our present day, American Scare tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century.

In January 1959, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accounting class by three police officers. In a motel room, blinds drawn, he sat in front of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, nicknamed the “Johns Committee.” His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it.

Using a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and de-censored for the first time in history, journalist Robert Fieseler unravels the mystery of what actually happened behind the closed doors of an inquisition that held ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers.

Learn more about American Scare here.

Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards, including the Edgar Award, and his reporting has appeared in Slate, Commonweal, and River Teeth, among others.

Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia Journalism School and is pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. He lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orleans.

Queer historian and writer Owen Keehnen is the author of several fiction and nonfiction titles. His books of LGBTQ Chicago history include Dugan’s Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady, Man’s Country: More Than a Bathhouse, and two upcoming books of Chicago LGBT history—Gay Chicago Memories 1300 N. Wells and A Place for Us: LGBT Life at the Belmont Rocks. Both titles are due later this year. Keehnen is a cofounder of the LGBTQ education/history organization, the Legacy Project and was on the founding committee for AIDS Garden Chicago. He was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2011.