The Sawyer Free Library is pleased to host local author Aime Alley Card on Thursday, March 7 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. She will be discussing her book The Tigerbelles: Olympic Legends from Tennessee State. Joining her in the conversation will be fellow author, Jean Duffy, author of Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World. 

The Tigerbelles: Olympic Legends from Tennessee State chronicles the 1960 Tennessee State University all-Black women’s track team, which found Olympic glory at the 1960 games in Rome. It is an epic story of desire, success, and failure—of beating the odds—against the backdrop of a changing America. 

Published this month to coincide with Women’s History Month in March,  the author, who lives in Wenham, will speak as part of the Sawyer Free Library’s author event series from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at the library, 21 Main Street (upstairs) in Gloucester. There will be books available for to sign. No registration required.

Tigerbelles is a multi-layered inspirational tale of triumph over adversity.  The elite group of talent includes Wilma Rudolph, Barbara Jones, Lucinda Williams, Martha Hudson, Willye B. White, and Shirley Crowder.  These are women who once were and should still be known worldwide.  Ultimately, the team’s drive is for more than medals.  Their coach, Edward Temple, and the Tigerbelles offer a challenge to the world’s perception of what a group of young Black women in the Jim Crow South are capable of.

For the past several years, Aime Alley Card has been researching, interviewing, and writing about the Tennessee State Tigerbelles and those who supported them along their path. She conducted and reviewed hundreds of hours of interviews and read just as many books and articles, ranging from concurrent to retrospective. She is a nonfiction editor for Pangyrus literary magazine and a board member for the Women’s National Book Association, Boston Chapter, and serves on her town’s cultural council supporting educational programs.

Please join us for this special event. For more information visit: sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500.