“Anatomy of a News Story,” part of Stonington Free Library’s Thoughtful Thursday series, will feature Tom Schuch and me at 5 p.m. on Aug. 6 discussing a July 3 story I wrote in The Day headlined “Freedom fighter Douglass spoke in New London just before state banned slavery.”

The story highlighted Schuch’s recent discovery that famed former slave Frederick Douglass had given four speeches in New London in May 1848, just weeks before the General Assembly outlawed slavery in Connecticut. It also noted that four years later Douglass had given a rip-roaring Independence Day speech in Rochester, N.Y., questioning how Americans can celebrate a day of freedom when so many African American men and women at the time were still in bondage.

I received a lot of positive feedback on the story from members of the community, and one of the correspondents was Belinda de Kay, director of the Stonington Free Library. She said something at the end of her note that intrigued me: “I am thinking very hard about what libraries can do — not say, but DO!”

And it immediately hit me: Why not do a program that speaks to one of the most relevant issues today — systemic racism — while also peeling the onion off the process of writing a news story and the choices that go into it.

Belinda immediately saw the benefits of such a program, and so the Thoughtful Thursdays event was scheduled. To register for the Zoom discussion, visit stoningtonfreelibrary.org. Hope to see you there!

Lee Howard is The Day’s community editor. He can be reached at l.howard@theday.com.