Program Description
Event Details
**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**
We are so excited to welcome author Shannon McKenna Schmidt to our virtual stage! She will be discussing her new book, "You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her" - the story of a women-led operation and an appeal for understanding and civility. Lady Bird Johnson’s monumental journey expanded the role of women in politics and progressed the fight for women’s rights—a fight we still continue today. It's guaranteed to be a fascinating conversation and we hope you can join us for it!
About You Can't Catch Us:
At a time when political candidates' wives were expected to be seen and not heard, Lady Bird Johnson made history as the first presidential spouse to take a leading role on the campaign trail. Her mission: to aid her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, in his reelection bid.
Proud of her southern heritage and of what her husband had done for civil rights, Lady Bird undertook an eight-state whistle-stop tour in October 1964, both to garner votes for Lyndon and to help ease the animosity that arose from the signing of the Civil Rights Act three months earlier.
The "Lady Bird Special," a custom, nineteen-car train, forged headlong into the powder keg of Southern politics, traveling from Washington DC to New Orleans and making forty-seven stops in only four days. Despite the potential dangers, the First Lady, aided by a team of pioneering women, pressed forward, making speeches, shaking hands, and breaking ground.
Shannon McKenna Schmidt is the author of You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her and The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back. She is also the coauthor of Novel Destinations: A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West and Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads.
In addition, Shannon has written for National Geographic Traveler, Shelf Awareness, and other publications and websites. She has been a guest on radio and television programs including MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and she has spoken at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the National World War II Museum, and many other venues. An avid traveler, she spent a seven-year stretch on the road full-time, first trekking the United States by RV and then backpacking around the globe.
Shannon lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them. The email will be coming from Zoom.
This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library and is in collaboration with the Chelmsford, Groton, and Tewksbury Libraries and is in partnership with a multitude of MA & NH libraries.