Lesa Carnes Shaul to present 5/21 Food For Thought lunchtime lecture at the Alabama Archives

Montgomery, AL (5/6/2026) - The Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) will continue its monthly Food for Thought lunchtime lecture series on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 12:00pm CT. Lesa Carnes Shaul will present Family Lore, Local History, and True Crime on Sand Mountain. The program will be held in the Archives' Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium in Montgomery. It will also be livestreamed on the ADAH's Facebook page and YouTube channel. The program is FREE and open to the public.

Dr. Lesa Carnes Shaul will present on her book Midnight Cry: A Shooting on Sand Mountain, which draws on court documents, trial transcripts, newspaper articles, and personal interviews to examine a 1951 shooting in north Alabama and the trials that followed. Shaul's presentation will explore the story's intersections of family lore, local history, and archival research. She will reflect on her research process and how personal connections informed her approach to interpreting the historical record.

Shaul grew up in a small community on Sand Mountain in northeastern Alabama, which greatly influenced her research and work. She is an English professor at the University of West Alabama.

For additional information, contact Alex Colvin at [email protected] or (334) 353-4689. A complete schedule of our 2026 lunchtime lecture series is available at archives.alabama.gov. Food for Thought 2026 is sponsored by the Friends of the Alabama Archives.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state's government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The Museum of Alabama is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. The EBSCO Research Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364.

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