Betty Read is Featured Speaker at "Author Talk" Nov. 2

Betty Reed

    Betty Jamerson Reed of Brevard, NC, educator and author, will be the guest speaker at the annual “Author Talk” on Saturday, Nov. 2. The event will be held at 2 p.m. at the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School, 454 Mount Vernon Church Road in Iron Station. Attendance is free, and refreshments will be served.

   Reed is the author of three nonfiction books. “The Brevard Rosenwald School” (2004, McFarland) relates the history of a school in Transylvania County that received funds for the renovation of an existing black school in the 1920s.

    “School Segregation in Western North Carolina, A History, 1860s-1970s” (2011, McFarland) surveys the black schools in that region, their faculties and staff, students, curriculum, and the problems facing small, segregated schools. 

    In 2019, WestBow press published “Soldiers in Petticoats” which relates the efforts of Martha Berry, Sophia Sawyer, and Emily Prudden to educate Native American, black, and white students from the Appalachian region.

    In addition to writing nonfiction, she also writes poetry. Her poetry has been included in numerous anthologies.