Mayor Brown donates copies of Mark Talley's 5/14 book to Buffalo Public School

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The City of Buffalo and surrounding communities will never forget what happened nearly two years ago at the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue, where 10 Black community members lost their lives due to the ideologies of a teenage White supremacist.

As we approach the two-year remembrance period of that horrific Saturday, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown on Friday donated 10 copies of Mark Talley's book entitled, "5/14: The Day the Devil Came to Buffalo" to the Buffalo Public School District.

"What happened on that day is still very raw, it's still very painful," said Mayor Brown.

"There are still individuals who were in the store on that day, who have not been able to return to work. It's important because as a community, we don't want to forget, we never want to forget what happened here on 5/14. We want to continue to respect and honor those whose lives were taken and we want to send a message to the nation that what happened here on May 14th 2022 must end, must stop. Things like this continue to happen in communities all across our country, urban, suburban, and rural."

Mark Talley lost his mother Geraldine Talley at the supermarket that day. The book is what the mayor describes as a "very powerful and raw account from a son's perspective on his mother being taken from him in a senseless, brutal way and the impact on him as a son."

"People ask me, 'Is this book appropriate to be in Buffalo Public School system?' And I give my get my honest answer, probably not. But neither is slavery. We have to talk and discuss the bad along with the good," said Talley.

Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tonja Williams notes that the book itself will not be readily available in school libraries, but will be accessible in designated parent centers and will be distributed to school administration and staff.

"District leadership will be doing a book study because there is information contained within the book that developmentally we have to review and see how we can help to make the events that are covered in the book teachable moments for our children that are developmentally appropriate. Because we have children as young as three years old that go all the way up through the age of 18 years old," the superintendent notes.