Professor Thomas Healy's latest release, Soul City

Professor Thomas Healy Receives 2021 Hooks National Book Award


November 1, 2022

Professor Thomas Healy has received the 2021 Hooks National Book Award for his most recent book, Soul City. The Hooks Institute’s National Book Award is presented to a non-fiction book published in the calendar year that best furthers understanding of the American civil rights movement and its legacy. The 2021 finalists for the award were chosen from 43 books that were nominated. The book award is presented in partnership with Memphis Public Libraries. Terrence Tucker, Chair of the Hooks National Book Award Committee explained the choice: “Thomas Healy’s Soul City stood out among a strong collection of finalists for its beautiful but tragic chronicle of a virtually forgotten manifestation of civil rights ideology, the decade-long attempt to construct a prosperous city from the ground up that was built around racial equality but rooted in black economic prosperity.” Healy will receive the award and discuss his book on November 15th at 6pm at the Benjamin Hooks central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave, Memphis, Tennessee.