HARMONY & HARASSMENT | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

Join us to trace critical race theory to the rural community of Harmony, Mississippi, at the height of the US civil rights movement. Harmony and Harassment traces the headwaters of critical race theory (CRT) to the rural community of Harmony, Mississippi, at the height of the 1960s US civil rights movement. As Aja Y. Martinez and Robert O. Smith explore these headwaters, readers meet key community leaders such as Behonor McDonald, Winson Hudson, and Dovie Hudson. These Black women's activism for civil rights, voting rights, and educational access transformed their community while also providing the foundations for Derrick Bell's legal theories, Alice Walker's womanist concept, and the enduring educational program now known as Head Start. Building on extensive archival research and a web of deeply human relationships, Martinez and Smith argue for renewed appreciation of counterstory as central to CRT methodology. Harmony and Harassment shows how CRT developed from the ground up; from this foundation, its insights continue to hold great potential for strengthening education, legal studies, and the humanities and social sciences. Aja Martinez and Robert Smith are joining us on the Busboys stage to share their “expertise as archival researchers to document and illustrate what it means metaphorically to 'search for the headwaters' of critical race theory” (Jacqueline Jones Royster, author of Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women ). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and there will be a signing following the program. This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 4:30pm. Our program begins at 5:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of HARMONY AND HARASSMENT will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed. We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books Aja Y. Martinez (she/her) is an associate professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of the multi-award-winning book Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory (now in its second edition). Robert O. Smith (he/him) is an assistant professor of History at the University of North Texas and author of More Desired Than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford). Robert is ordained in the ELCA as a Minister of Word & Sacrament under call through the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. Together, Martinez and Smith are the co-authors of The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement (NYU Press, 2025) and Harmony & Harassment: A New Critical Race Theory Story (UC Press 2026). Described as the “Bonnie & Clyde of CRT,” they have several more books forthcoming on CRT and other topics. BOOK DETAILS Harmony and Harassment A New Critical Race Theory Story Volume 1 By Aja Martinez and Robert Smith September 8, 2026 | Paperback, 284 Pages, $29.95