Burden Movie TieIn Edition, Courtney Hargrave
Burden Movie TieIn Edition, Courtney Hargrave
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Burden (Movie Tie-In Edition)
A Preacher, a Klansman, and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South

Author: Courtney Hargrave, Andrew Heckler

Narrator: Dion Graham, Andrew Heckler

Unabridged: 6 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/14/2018


Synopsis

The true story behind the film starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker and Garrett Hedlund; written and directed by Andrew Heckler; produced by Academy Award nominee Robbie Brenner (Dallas Buyers Club)

A powerful, timely story about an African American reverend whose faith compelled him to help a KKK member leave a life of hate
 
“Honest, empowering, incredibly enjoyable, and unforgettable.”—Bret Witter, bestselling co-author of The Monuments Men, Dewey, and Stronger

In 1996, the town of Laurens, South Carolina, was thrust into the spotlight when a white supremacist named Michael Burden opened a museum celebrating the Ku Klux Klan in the community’s main square. Journalists and protestors flooded the town, and hate groups rallied to the establishment’s defense, dredging up the long history of racism and injustice.
 
What came next is the subject of the film Burden, which won the 2018 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. Shortly after his museum opened, Burden abruptly left the Klan in search of a better life. Broke and homeless, he was taken in by Reverend David Kennedy, an African American leader in the Laurens community, who plunged his church, friends, and family into an inspiring quest to save their former enemy. 

In this spellbinding Southern epic, journalist Courtney Hargrave further uncovers the complex events behind the story told in Andrew Heckler’s film. Hargrave explores the choices that led to Kennedy and Burden’s friendship, the social factors that drive young men to join hate groups, and the difference one person can make in confronting America’s oldest sin.

About The Author

Courtney Hargrave is a journalist and co-author who has worked on numerous New York Times bestsellers. She lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by J.J.

3.5 There was a lot of KKK history in this book, way more than I anticipated. However, when the preacher said "they are human beings" and looked beyond their past and current beliefs, it was a powerful example, especially set in the modern South.......more

Exceptional reporting on the life of Reverend David Kennedy, his church and his conflicts with the Klan in Laurens, South Carolina. This book details much of the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan and its history right up to our present time. Kennedy was a man of deep forgiveness and offered help to......more

Goodreads review by Kally

“Racism, he often told his parishioners, is a strange organism. A living thing. You can trim the branch, you can try to cut it out by the root, you can bury it deep in the ground and deprive it of light. But when the conditions are right, it blooms.” Read this book. Read it if you know racism is sti......more

Goodreads review by Diane

There's just far too much hate in this world. Reverend Kennedy's a brave and special man.......more

Goodreads review by Elliot

Prodigal Klansman? First I watched the film “Burden,” then I read this book. Hargrave has done a solid job narrating the story of a South Carolina town’s conflict with the Klan. In essence: one of the Klansmen, Mike Burden, a wastrel taken in by a maniacal Klan leader, becomes one of the faces of th......more


Quotes

“A crucial story for these times of escalated racial division and cultural strife, Burden uses cinematic storytelling to compel us to take a good, hard look at who we are and who we can be. Ultimately, it is a story that shows us love really can conquer all and leaves us with a profound sense of hope for the future.”—Robin Gaby Fisher, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, bestselling author of After the Fire and The Boys of the Dark

“I’m a Southerner. Maybe that’s why I usually don’t like books set in the South, with all their cliches and justifications. But Burden isn’t like that. By digging deep and exhaustingly researching one small relationship in one small South Carolina town, Courtney Hargrave uncovers the big truths that usually elude us.”—Bret Witter, bestselling co-author of The Monuments MenDewey, and Stronger

“Courtney Hargrave has produced a mesmerizing narrative with a powerful social and political message. This is a book for our times.”—Bart D. Ehrman, bestselling author of The Triumph of Christianity