Melanie S. Morrison is the author of five books, including Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham (Duke University Press, 2018) and she has written more than fifty articles for American and Dutch periodicals. Her newest book, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies, will be published in September 2025 by Duke University Press.
She is a seasoned racial justice educator, speaker, and author with thirty years experience designing and facilitating transformational group process.
Melanie is currently engaged in intensive research and writing about her ancestors in Montevallo, Alabama, who accumulated wealth from two systems of theft: the violent dispossession of Native people from their homelands and the enslavement of African Americans. The working title of her project is “Why We Must Remember: A Descendant’s Reckoning with Her Enslaving Ancestors.”
Melanie believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the history of systemic injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her spouse, April Allison.
