The St. Louis County Library is launching its 2026 Black History Celebration with a historian whose work refuses to let America forget the stories it once tried to bury. On Monday, Feb. 2, civil rights scholar and bestselling author Matthew F. Delmont will headline the Westfall Politics & History Series for a discussion and signing of his new book, Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America’s Soul.
The event, presented in partnership with the Missouri Historical Society and Ameren, will take place at 7 p.m. at the Clark Family Branch. Delmont will be in conversation with Cicely Hunter, Public Historian for the African American History Initiative at the Missouri Historical Society.
Delmont’s latest work examines a chapter of American history that is often overshadowed: the more than 300,000 Black troops drafted into the Vietnam War and the activists who challenged the conflict from home. “For Black Americans, the Vietnam War forced a generation to ask what it truly meant to fight for justice,” Delmont said in a recent interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “They were fighting abroad, but they were also fighting for dignity and equality at home.”
Until the Last Gun Is Silent centers two figures whose stories illuminate the contradictions of the era: Coretta Scott King, whose antiwar advocacy helped shift national consciousness, and Dwight “Skip” Johnson, a Medal of Honor recipient whose life unraveled after returning home. According to Delmont, their lives reveal the emotional and political cost of being both Black and American in a time of war.
“We talk about patriotism in such narrow ways,” Delmont said in an interview with The Washington Post. “But Black patriotism has always been expansive — it’s about service, yes, but also about holding the country accountable to its own promises.”
Delmont, the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, is one of the nation’s leading voices on African American history and the civil rights movement. His previous book, Half American, was widely praised for reframing the role of Black soldiers in World War II. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and on NPR.
The new book continues that mission, weaving together archival research, oral histories and narrative storytelling. “I wanted readers to understand the human stakes,” Delmont told The Atlantic. “These were young men and women trying to navigate racism, war, activism and survival all at once.”
“Until the Last Gun Is Silent is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the legacy of Black military service, protest and patriotism,” St. Louis County Library said in their statement announcing the event.
Books will be available for purchase and signing through EyeSeeMe African American Children’s Bookstore.
For more information, call 314.994.3300 or visit www.slcl.org.