Judy Bebelaar, bay area poet and author of Jonestown’s book And Then They Were Gone will read from her book. The book tells the story from the perspective of the teachers who knew, loved, and lost many students who died.
The book provides the social context for understanding Opportunity High, People’s Temple, and Jonestown as part of the complex decade of turbulent cultural change.
The murder-suicides in Jonestown on November 18, 1978, constituted the largest mass death of American civilians until September 11, 2001. One-third of those who died in Jonestown were under 18, one half in their twenties or younger.