Ethelene Whitmire will discuss how she uncovered the true, heart-wrenching story of a queer, African American scholar who traveled to Paris, Copenhagen, and Florence, and who defied the odds to live a life of love, freedom, and dignity in the face of Nazi captivity during World War II.

Award-winning historian Ethelene Whitmire unearthed a trove of Reed’s letters when she met one of his descendants at a lecture, awed that she’d heard so little of this charismatic man and his fascinating true story of love and war. In The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram, she introduces us to an unforgettable character who fled from country to country as fighting advanced, was captured by Nazis and outwitted them in a daring escape, and risked it all in a personal fight for a life of love, freedom, beauty and dignity in a world set against him.

*Copies of the book will be available for purchase*

Ethelene Whitmire is a writer and professor, and the former chair of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Ethelene is the author of The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram (February 2026) and Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian. Her research has won awards and funding from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the Lois Roth Foundation, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and the American Library Association.