M. J. (Mike) O

M. J. (Mike) O'Brien is a writer and researcher who spent 30 years as the chief communications and public relations officer for a national not-for-profit cooperative. His first book of narrative non-fiction, We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired, won the prestigious Lillian Smith Book Award in 2014.

His latest work, The Tougaloo Nine: The Jackson Library Sit-In at the Crossroads of Civil War and Civil Rights explores the impact of the first student-led civil rights demonstration in the State of Mississippi and its overlap with that state's Civil War Centennial celebration in March 1961. Earlier this year, The Tougaloo Nine won the Mississippi Historical Society's 2026 Book of the Year Award.

O'Brien lives in Northern Virginia with his wife of 35 years and their wonder dog Tiki. He currently serves as Secretary for the Fairfax County (VA) NAACP and is a proud member of the Author's Guild and the Two Mississippi Museums.