Senator Gordon Douglas Jones is an American attorney, and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Jones was previously the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001.

Jones's most prominent cases were the successful prosecution of two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African-American girls and the indictment of domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph.

On September 15, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. The blast killed four young girls and injured twenty-two others. The FBI suspected four particularly radical Ku Klux Klan members. Yet due to reluctant witnesses, a lack of physical evidence, and pervasive racial prejudice the case was closed without any indictments.

Years later, Alabama Attorney General William Baxley reopened the case, ultimately convicting one of the bombers in 1977. Another suspect passed away in 1994, and US Attorney Doug Jones tried and convicted the final two in 2001 and 2002, representing the correction of an outrageous miscarriage of justice nearly forty years in the making. Jones himself went on to win election as Alabama’s first Democratic Senator since 1992 in a dramatic race against Republican challenger Roy Moore.

Bending Toward Justice is a dramatic and compulsively readable account of a key moment in our long national struggle for equality, related by an author who played a major role in these events. A distinguished work of legal and personal history, the book is destined to take its place as a canonical civil rights history.

This book discussion will be moderated by New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer

No registration or tickets required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. A book signing will be held at the end of the event.

Books will be available for purchase the day of *while supplies last. 

Cameras are allowed at our events, however, if you have not been given permission by the Wilmington Library director, you must remain seated with your camera. Please do not stand on chairs or in the aisles in an attempt to record or take photos, this will obstruct the view of others as well as our cameras that will be streaming this event live. Please be kind and courteous to one another as well as library staff who work hard to bring you these events.