In 2020, widespread demonstrations and protests—sparked in part by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery—amplified a national conversation about racism, criminal justice, policing, and the ways the three are connected. In their new books, Brittany Barnett (A Knock at Midnight), Doug J. Swanson (Cult of Glory), and Jamie Thompson (Standoff) continue that conversation by exploring the past and present of law enforcement in Texas and beyond—from the propaganda machine that put a heroic spin on the Texas Rangers’ violence to a crisis negotiator’s heart-to-heart with a gunman at a 2016 protest, to a mother sentenced to a lifetime in prison for a first-time drug offense.

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• Moderator: Gary Bledsoe, President of Texas NAACP

Doug Swanson, Jamie Thompson, Brittany Barnett, Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers, Standoff: Race, Policing, and a Deadly Assault That Gripped a Nation, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom