"Paradigm-shifting...This book ought to change forever how the history of mass incarceration is told." —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Celebrate the publication of Talitha L. LeFlouria's groundbreaking new book, Searching for Jane Crow: Black Women and Mass Incarceration in America from the Auction Block to the Cell Block. Dr. LeFlouria will be joined in conversation by Dr. Leonard N. Moore, George Littlefield Professor of American History at The University of Texas at Austin. Book signing to follow author talk. Searching for Jane Crow will be available for purchase at event. The Neill-Cochran House Museum and Slave Quarters will be open and available for tours during event. Listed as one of Ms. Magazine's "Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2026" About the book: Searching for Jane Crow tells a new origin story of mass incarceration, revealing that the system did not begin with the War on Drugs but with slavery. Placing Black women at the center of the nation's long carceral history, Talitha L. LeFlouria exposes how the architecture of today's punitive system was designed to safeguard slavery and the profits it generated—a two-hundred-year legacy that remains deeply entrenched. About the author: Talitha L. LeFlouria is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the history of Black women, mass incarceration, and the legacies of American slavery. She is an associate professor of history, and the Mastin Gentry White Fellow in Southern History at The University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of the multi-award-winning book, Chained in Silence. Dr. LeFlouria has received numerous awards for her research, including an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and her work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, The Root, and Vox. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required due to limited space. If event is sold out, please contact our Communications Manager, Lilly Bruner, to be put on a wait list via email: lbruner@nchmuseum.org
