ABHM Book Club: Time of Terror by Dr. James Cameron
We are pleased to announce ABHM’s February's Book of the Month: Time of Terror by ABHM's founder, Dr. James Cameron. We invite you to join us on February 21 at 1:30 p.m. for a discussion of the book at America’s Black Holocaust Museum or virtually via Zoom.
History Toward Tomorrow: Why This Matters
In the year 2026 the United States is celebrating its semiquincentennial. At ABHM, we are using this as an opportunity to create programs where we can collectively reflect on our country’s history honestly to build a better, more equitable future. The selections for the ABHM Book Club in 2026 will emphasize historical truth-telling, compelling storytelling, and diverse perspectives on our collective past. We invite participants to consider what they want the country to look like over the next 250 years. What can we learn from visionaries, historians, and thought leaders from the past in how we envision the United States of the future? In the spirit of Dr. Cameron, we invite you to join us on this journey of reflection, healing, and dreaming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story by Dr. James Cameron is a first-person account of racial terror and moral reckoning rooted in one of the most infamous lynching episodes in twentieth-century America. In 1930, Cameron—just sixteen years old—was arrested alongside Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana, and seized from jail by a white mob numbering in the thousands. While Shipp and Smith were brutally lynched before a cheering crowd, Cameron, beaten and with a noose already placed around his neck, was spared at the final moment after an unidentified woman in the mob declared his innocence. Returned to jail, Cameron was nonetheless tried and convicted as an accessory to the alleged crime and sentenced to prison, where he spent five formative years confronting both the injustice of his punishment and the deeper realities of American racism.
The memoir follows Cameron’s transformation from a traumatized youth into a lifelong witness and activist. During his imprisonment, he began documenting his experience, laying the foundation for a life devoted to truth-telling and racial justice. After his release, Cameron became a pioneering civil rights organizer, helping to establish NAACP chapters across Indiana and later founding America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. Through unflinching testimony and reflective insight, A Time of Terror explores themes of survival, memory, forgiveness, and moral responsibility, offering a rare and essential account of Jim Crow–era racial violence in the North and the enduring necessity of remembering it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. James Cameron was a trailblazing civil rights leader, historian, and founder of America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His extraordinary life journey—from surviving one of the last public lynchings in America to becoming a dedicated advocate for racial justice—made him a uniquely powerful voice in the fight against racial terror and inequality. Beyond his own personal story, Cameron devoted decades to educating communities about the systemic violence inflicted on Black Americans and the importance of preserving this history for future generations.
As a pioneering organizer, Cameron helped establish multiple NAACP chapters in Indiana and used his experience to inspire activism and remembrance nationwide. His vision for America’s Black Holocaust Museum was rooted in a belief that confronting painful truths through historical education is vital to healing and change. Cameron’s enduring legacy is one of resilience, moral courage, and an unwavering commitment to justice—a legacy that continues to inform and empower the work of America’s Black Holocaust Museum and its community today.