Wednesday, September 21, 2011

UGA Press author's new play recalls a woman's lonely stand against racism

Julia Oliver
The latest work by Montgomery, Alabama writer Julia Oliver, whose third novel DEVOTION was published by the UGA Press, is a one-act play titled Juliette's Journal. The play is about a white librarian, Juliette Hampton Morgan, who publicly empathized with the protest that became the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal chapter in the civil rights movement. Oliver was inspired to write the script after she read Westchester, New York author Mary Stanton's scholarly biography of the Montgomery heroine, JOURNEY TOWARD JUSTICE (also published by the UGA Press).
Juliette Hampton Morgan
(courtesy Encyclopedia of Alabama and
Birmingham Public Library Archives)

When the Staged Reading and Scholarly Discussion of Juliette's Journal takes place on Sunday afternoon, September 25, in Smith Hall Auditorium of Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Mary Stanton will participate as one of the scholars. Sponsors for this event, which has received grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Alabama Humanities Foundation, are the Cloverdale Playhouse and Huntingdon College. The cast of fourteen area actors is directed by Caroline Reddick Lawson.
Mary Stanton

Julia Oliver writes a column, The Literary Scene, which comes out on the third Sunday of each month in the Montgomery Advertiser. She also reviews books for the Alabama Writers' Forum website.