Ralph Eubanks. Photo credit: Maude Schuyler Clay
Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 5:30 pm @ Off Square Books
Author Ralph Eubanks in conversation with Wright Thompson for When It’s Darkness on the Delta, an essential new look at the roots of American inequality–and the seeds of its transformation.
“When It’s Darkness on the Delta is as brilliant and necessary as the greatest books made by a Mississippian….Goodness gracious. We are thankful.”
–Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
About the book
“This is an important book. Eubanks speaks truth to power about an iconic and ill-understood American landscape and proves beyond question that as the Mississippi Delta goes, so goes our republic.” —Richard Ford
Once the powerhouse of a fledgling country’s economy, the Mississippi Delta has been consigned to a narrative of destitution. It is often faulted for the sins of the South, portrayed as a regional backwater that willfully cleaved itself from the modern world. But buried beneath the weight of good ol’ boy politics and white-washed histories lies the Delta’s true story.
Mississippi native and award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks unearths the region’s buried history, revealing a microcosm of economic oppression in the US. He traverses the Delta, examining its bellwether efforts to combat income inequality through vivid portraits of key figures like:
● Theodore G. Bilbo and William Whittington, segregationist congressmen who sabotaged federal reparations for former sharecroppers in the 1940s and ’50s
● Gloria Carter Dickerson, founder of the Emmett Till Academy, whose parents were instrumental in desegregating schools in Drew, MS, where Till was murdered
● Calvin Head, a community organizer who runs a farming co-op in Mileston, who revived the legacy of his hometown, the only Black resettlement community in Mississippi
Eubanks delivers a powerful and insightful examination of how racism and economic instability have shaped life in the Mississippi Delta. He traces the enduring consequences of political decisions that have entrenched inequality across generations. At the same time, he brings attention to the resilience of local communities and the grassroots movements working toward meaningful change. The book offers a thoughtful framework for policy reform and community investment, underscoring the need to support those who have long sustained the region through their labor and lived experience.
About the author
W. Ralph Eubanks is a faculty fellow and writer in residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape, as well as two other works of nonfiction, Ever Is a Long Time and The House at the End of the Road. A Guggenheim fellow and a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow, he is
also the recipient of a 2023 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for excellence in literature. His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, the American Scholar, the Georgia Review, and the New Yorker.
About the conversation partner
Wright Thompson is the bestselling author of The Barn, Pappyland and The Cost of These Dreams. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his family.
When It’s Darkness on the Delta
By W Ralph Eubanks
$30
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807045329
About the Author
