Community Conversation Features Samantha Power

On March 12, 2008 Samantha Power spoke to over 450 community members at the Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center. Power is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard University.  She discussed her new book, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World, which tells the story of the political career and tragic death of the incomparable humanitarian Sergio Vieira de Mello, a UN diplomat for four decades and the former Secretary-General's Special Representative in Iraq. Vieira de Mello died in a suicide bombing on UN headquarters in Iraq in 2003.

Following Power's speech, three Facing History teachers joined her on stage and discussed ways to engage high school students in content relevant to preserving and protecting human rights. 

The event was part of a national series of community conversations sponsored by The Allstate Foundation and Facing History which feature prominent scholars, authors, filmmakers and policy leaders addressing issues of tolerance, civic engagement, and individual and collective responsibility.