Katie Jackson to present 10/16 Food For Thought lunchtime lecture at the Alabama Archives

Montgomery, AL (10/09/2025) - The Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) will continue its 2025 Food for Thought lunchtime lecture series on Thursday, October 16, at 12:00pm CT. Katie Lamar Jackson will present A Tiger Among Us: The Bennie Adkins Story. The program will be held in the ADAH's Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium in Montgomery. It will also be livestreamed on the ADAH's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Admission is FREE.

Katie Jackson is a writer and photographer with more than four decades of experience as a journalist, author, communications specialist, and educator. Her work has been featured in a wide range of regional and national publications, and she has written or coauthored over a dozen books, including A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam's A Shau Valley, co-written with 2014 Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Bennie G. Adkins. A graduate of Auburn University with bachelor's and master's degrees, Jackson is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University.

Jackson will draw from A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam's A Shau Valley to explore the life and legacy of Army veteran and longtime Opelika resident Command Sergeant Major Bennie G. Adkins. Using excerpts from the book, personal reflections from her collaboration with Adkins, and historical context from the Vietnam War, Jackson will highlight the courage and resilience that defined Adkins's service. She will also offer insight into both the art of storytelling and the responsibility of preserving true accounts.

For additional information, contact Alex Colvin at [email protected] or (334) 353-4689. A complete schedule of our 2025 lunchtime lecture series is available at archives.alabama.gov. Food for Thought 2025 is sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Alliance and 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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