Author talk with book signing on his first published book, "Thursday Night Lights, The Story of Black High School Football in Texas." The talk will also serve as an introduction to a screening of the documentary, "The PVIL Story...Separate But Equal?"

Michael Hurd is a writer, historian and former sports writer for the Austin American-Statesman, USA Today, and Yahoo Sports. He is also a retired director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture at Prairie View A&M University. His third book, "Thursday Night Lights, The Story of Black High School Football in Texas," has been lauded by Texas Observer magazine as "one of the best Texas books for the 2010-2019 decade," and by the Houston Chronicle as "one of the 30 Most Essential Books About Texas." "Thursday Night Lights" tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of high school football played in the Prairie View Interscholastic League which governed extracurricular activities for Black high schools in Texas during segregation. Hurd introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where entertaining, powerful football programs thrived. The league produced eight members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including Joe Greene, Ken Houston, and Dick "Night Train" Lane. The book covers fifty years (1920–1970) of PVIL football history that includes legendary rivalries such as the annual Turkey Day Classic game between Houston schools Jack Yates and Phillis Wheatley, which was the largest prep sports event in postwar America. Hurd also explains how football offered a potent source of pride and ambition for black communities, and shows the effects of integration and the league’s merger with the University Interscholastic League that led to the PVIL's closure.