Buxton Books is honored to host Mayor Billy on February 22 from 6-7 pm for a virtual event.
Mayor Billy is a Beaufort native — the grandson of a Lithuanian Jew fleeing czarist Russia who arrived in rural SC in 1888, son of a rural doctor who treated mostly those who would otherwise not get adequate healthcare and a mother who at 54 launched a notable career as a liberal Jewish woman in the SC Legislature which was essentially a white men’s club — Billy Keyserling has a broad range of career experiences through which he refined his inherited moral compass, working on and around Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, around and in the SC State Capitol as as public affairs consultant and then following his mother as a member of the SC House of Representatives.
After two terms, he served one term Beaufort City Council and the past twelve years as a popular Mayor in Beaufort. Billy decided not to seek a fourth term because he wanted to address more global issues especially, ending racism, social and political unrest while focusing on civility and sharing common ground as the center of a movement he founded know as “The Second Founding of America."
To RSVP, please email Monica@BuxtonBooks.com.
You will receive your Zoom link and password the day of the event to the email you provided.
To purchase a copy of the book, please visit - https://buxton-books.square.site/product/sharing-common-ground-promises-unfulfilled-but-not-forgotten/3346?cs=true&cst=custom
About the Book:
SHARING COMMON GROUND: Promises Unfulfilled but Not Forgotten. By Billy Keyserling with Mike Greenly.
Billy Keyserling – after serving as a congressional staffer, a member of the SC House of Representatives and for three highly acclaimed terms as mayor of Beaufort, SC – has decided not to run for office again. Instead, he’ll do his utmost to make a positive difference for society in a new way ... via this book.
In a nation riled by deepening divides, racial tensions, the killings of Black citizens during law enforcement encounters and other examples of societal turmoil, Mayor Billy’s book offers a new approach to helping citizens gain a shared understanding of our value to each other.
SHARING COMMON GROUND is leading the engagement of Middle School students (grades 6-8) in discovering some currently buried American history. These kids uncover, learn about and interactively share with each other (along with families, friends and communities) the untold and often mistold stories freed slaves and their suffering and achievements in the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War.
Current education largely ignores these impressive stories and what they can teach us about our fellow humans. Nor are most students today taught about the way that Black successes and rights were ultimately stripped away as new Jim Crow laws legalized segregation and unequal treatment.
As noted by Dr. Eric Foner – DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History: Columbia University – this important book can be a positive step toward making America a more just society.