Not Butlers with Ron and Sean

February 24, 2026
12:00pm - 1:00pm

 Instead of another familiar, unchallenging race relations story like those found in “The Butler (2013),” “The Help (2011),” or “Driving Miss Daisy (1989),” join Ron Scott Jr. of the Wheeling Y.W.C.A. and the library’s Seán Duffy for a discussion of two lesser known African American men who made history through valor and action. Robert Smalls escaped slavery during the Civil War to commandeer a Confederate ship, and David Fagen defected from the U.S. Army in the Philippine-American War to join the Filipino independence movement. Both men did what they believed was right during dangerous historical eras for African American people. We will be joined during the program via Zoom by Rob Edwards, author of the new graphic novel, Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls. Edwards has also written the Disney animated feature films Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog, both of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Presenter Profile: ROB EDWARDS has written two classic animated films for Walt Disney Feature Animation: the Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG and the Academy Award-nominated TREASURE PLANET. In 2025, he has three films being released, including MARVEL’S CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD and THE KING OF KINGS.  Edwards also consulted on TANGLED, WRECK-IT RALPH, and FROZEN. He also wrote and directed the award-winning animated short film THE PARK BENCH. Edwards is a 20-year veteran of television where he wrote and produced, several television shows, including "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” "Full House,” “A Different World,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Roc” and "In Living Color.” His debut graphic novel, DEFIANT, is a best seller in three categories on Amazon and is currently being made into a motion picture by Legion M. Edwards is an adjunct professor of screenwriting at the School of Cinematic Arts at USC and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where he also serves on the SUMA Advisory Council. 

Featured Books:

DEFIANT VOL. 1

Written by Rob Edwards (Princess and the Frog)
Cover by Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Interior Art by Sean Damien Hill & Alex Paterson
Colors by Mauro Salgado & Blond
Layouts by Darrell May
Edited by Sebastian A. Jones & Joshua Cozine

Robert Smalls is a true American hero with a life that is as inspiring as it was unlikely. He was a statesmen, a member of congress, and a businessman whose impact still affects the country to this very day. 

But before that... Robert Smalls was born a slave, yet he was destined for greatness. He became the first African American Captain in the United States Navy after he commandeered a Confederate ship and faced almost certain death as he and his crew saved their families before turning themselves and their ship over to the Union.

This is his story.

112 PAGES | COLOR COMIC BOOK | ALL AGES

Stranger Comics partnered with Legion M to tell this true story ofRobert Smalls. This comic precedes the movie in development by Legion M that includes producersMarvin Jones III, Bill Duke, and Smalls' descendant Michael Boulware Moore in addition to the Stranger and Legion M teams and our esteemed author above.

Fagen: An African American Renegade in the Philippine-American War Hardcover – February 5, 2019
by Michael Morey (Author)

In 1898, during an era of racial terror at home and imperial conquest abroad, the United States sent troops to suppress the Filipino struggle for independence. The deployment included three regiments of the famed African American “Buffalo Soldiers.” Among them was David Fagen, a twenty-year-old private in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, who achieved notoriety after deserting to join the Filipino guerrillas.

The outlines of Fagen’s legend have been known for more than a century, but the details of his military achievements, his personal history, and his ultimate fate have remained a mystery—until now. Michael Morey tracks Fagen’s life from his youth in Tampa as a laborer in a phosphate camp through his troubled sixteen months in the army, and, most importantly, over his long-obscured career as a guerrilla officer. Morey places Fagen’s life in its larger military, political, and social context, to tell the story of the young renegade whose courage and defiance challenged the supremacist assumptions of the time.