GOOD TROUBLE: The Selma, Alabama and Derry, Northern Ireland Connection 1963-1972 by Forest Issac Jones, Ed.D.
Published by Anthem Press. Paperback £19.99
ABOUT THE. EVENT:
The Derry Book Launch of GOOD TROUBLE by author Forest Issac Jones in conversation with author Julieann Campbell
Tickets £4 (includes booking fee, refreshments and £2 off book at event). Doors open from 6:45pm and close at 7:15pm
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This year, 2025, commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Selma march and the book, GOOD TROUBLE, illustrates the strong connection between the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the Catholic Civil Rights Movement in N Ireland – specifically the influence of the Selma to Montgomery march on the 1969 Belfast to Derry march through oral history, based on numerous interviews of events leading up to both marches and afterwards.
The author, JONES, interviews Richard Smiley and Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who were both at Bloody Sunday in Selma and in the march to Montgomery at ages sixteen and eight respectively, as well as relatives of the Courageous Eight (whose family members were Selma citizens who started the movement and invited Dr. King to Selma to help fight with them).
JONES also travelled to Dublin, Belfast, and Derry to conduct interviews with those who were involved in that movement (including Billy McVeigh – featured in the BAFTA winning documentary, Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland). He further spoke with Eamonn McCann, who is known as the John Lewis of Northern Ireland due to his leadership on the Belfast to Derry march which concluded at the infamous Burntollet Bridge attack in 1969, strikingly similar to Bloody Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965.
Unlike most books on Northern Ireland which focus on Bloody Sunday, GOOD TROUBLE focuses on the pivotal incidents at Burntollet Bridge and the Battle of the Bogside. It provides one of the few objective, comprehensive histories of the connection between the two movements that have transformed both countries.
With clarity and precision, JONES examines the movements’ origins, its links, marches, protests, riots and dangerous confrontations, and the roles of individuals that helped bring change in both countries.
Julieanne Campbell (award-winning author of On Bloody Sunday) contributed the Introduction, which sets up the story of how the Catholics saw the courage of the Black civil rights movement on television and found inspiration.
This book is close to the author’s heart as both of his parents marched to integrate lunch counters and movie theatres in Salisbury, North Carolina, in 1963 as college students. His mother was at the 1963 March to Washington where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Forest Issac JONES is an award-winning author of non-fiction and essays, specialising in the study of Irish History, the US Civil Rights Movement and Northern Ireland. His latest essay, ‘The Civil Rights Connection Between The USA and Northern Ireland’ was awarded honorable mention in the category of Non-fiction Essay by Writer’s Digest in their 93rd annual writing competition. Over the years, JONES has won awards from Writer’s Digest in 2022 and 2023. His award-winning essay about African Americans at D-Day was published in 2024 by WWII History Magazine.
In addition to writing, he is a frequent speaker who has given talks about everything from African Americans at D-Day and The Troubles in N Ireland. SEE: www.forestissacjones.com
REVIEWS:
"By viewing the events in Derry through the prism of those in Selma, Forest Jones draws attention to the striking commonality in cause and consequence of both the American and Northern Irish Civil Rights movements, and the awful violence which attempted to silence those twin cries for equality. In doing so, he creates an insightful and compelling examination of a terrible period in our shared histories and highlights the need for society to learn from the past for a more equitable future.”― Brian McGilloway, Author
"An important book that traces the parallels between two different fights for civil rights."―Sharon Dempsey, Author
“The first comprehensive look at the connection between the two Civil Rights movements in the USA and Northern Ireland. Jones has written a book that is worthy of its subject.”― Chris Riches, Journalist
“Jones is a detailed researcher, and Good Trouble is based on a wide array of material, old and new... Jones offers affecting accounts of both the Selma to Montgomery march and the Belfast to Derry march. His book reads like a historical thriller at times. A must read.”―Richard Moriarty, Editor
**
You may also like the following events from Little Acorns Bookstore (Derry):
Also check out other
Arts events in Derry,
Literary Art events in Derry,
Entertainment events in Derry.
