The Daphne Public Library will host authors Anthony Sampson and Janis F. Kearney during the first week of its month-long black history celebration.

Sampson—the Baldwin County Board of Education’s human-resources supervisor—at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the library’s community room will talk about his new book, “Get Out of Line—How Ordinary People Get Extraordinary Results.”

The book focuses on developing avenues of success for students by creating positive learning environments while working with limited education funding.

Kearney, at 6 p.m. Friday in the Daphne Recreation Center’s Fitness Hall, will share about her journey, from growing up the daughter of sharecroppers on rustic Arkansas farmlands to walking the White House halls as President Bill Clinton’s personal diarist.

Kearney’s latest work, “Once upon a Time There Was a Girl: A Murder on Mobile Bay,” is a fictional murder mystery set in the Jubilee City.

In the story, Angel Jackson—a beautiful, young black girl—is raped and murdered by two white brothers.

The plot builds while characters reconcile their own prejudices.

The library will continue its black history celebration with two “Resolve to Read” book talks set for later this month.

“What did Abraham Lincoln Read?” is at 6 p.m. Feb. 12.—the bicentennial of the 16th president’s birth.

Lincoln is most noted for signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery and freed nearly 4 million people held in bondage.

Reference librarian Anne Morris said the library has ordered new books for the discussion, including:

<“Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief,” by Pulitzer Prize winner James M. McPherson.

<“The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now,” edited by Harold Holzer; authors include Winston Churchill, Frederick Douglass and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

For younger readers, the library has ordered Rosemary Wells’ “Lincoln and His Boys” and Russell Freedman’s “Lincoln: A Photobiography.”

The second “Resolve to Read” talk—part of the library’s promotion of reading as a new year’s resolution—is “100 Books to Read Before You Die,” at 6 p.m. Feb. 26.

Both discussions will be in the community room with coffee and drinks served at 5:30 p.m.

These events are free and open to the public. The Friends of the Daphne Public Library will provide refreshments.