The Organ Thieves: Author Talk by Chip Jones

Join us for an author talk with local Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, Chip Jones! Jones will discuss his title, The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South, which was awarded the 2021 Nonfiction Literary Award by the Library of Virginia.

The Organ Thieves examines the circumstances surrounding the horrifying death of Bruce Tucker, a Black factory worker who went into Virginia's top research hospital with a head injury in 1968, only to have his heart taken out and put into the chest of a white businessman without his family’s permission or knowledge. Jones explores how the race to the first heart transplant reflects a much longer history of the medical mistreatment and exploitation of the Black community. 

Chip Jones has been reporting for nearly thirty years for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times, Virginia Business magazine, and other publications. As a reporter for The Roanoke Times, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the Pittston coal strike. He is the former communications director of the Richmond Academy of Medicine, which is where he first discovered the heart-stopping story in The Organ Thieves.

This event will take place Thursday, February 24 from 7-8:30PM at Tuckahoe Library. We hope to see you there!