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Sto caricando le informazioni... Devil in the Grove (2012)di Gilbert King
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. A well-researched and well-rounded accounts of one of the most important and overlooked civil rights cases in American history. While Thurgood Marshall's name is on the title King provides a detailed look at the key figures on all sides of this case, from Marshall's fellow lawyers at the Legal Defense Fund, to a sheriff and deputies willing to do what it takes to keep Jim Crow intact, to skeptical journalists to the Klan and their sympathetic politicians. Probably the most important character was the community in Lake County, Florida where many had doubts about a white couple's charges of rape against four young black men --charges whose details did not seem to add up -- and yet supported the prosecution of the men out of both self-interest and a desire to keep the white supremacist structures intact. The description of how the tentacles of bigotry reached every aspect of southern life provides great insight into how some of the worst atrocities in American history could happen and gives insight into injustices that continue to happen. I'm probably in the minority, but this is a really poorly written book on a fascinating combination of topics (The Groveland Case, Civil Rights, and Thurgood Marshall). The main problem is that the author can't seem to decide which topic to focus on, even within a chapter. There are so many loose threads of information started but never completed that I feel as though I've just unraveled one of the most intricately-woven tapestries of American history just by picking up the book. Secondly, [mild SPOILER ALERT] the author adopts most of the racist, mysogynist, and exclusionary language of the time period without any distancing language included (example, "The flower of Southern Womanhood" without adding "white" to describe the alleged victim in the case; or calling the four suspects "rapists" throughout instead of "alleged rapists"). [Devil in the Grove] is a nonfiction book that takes place in Florida the 1940s-50s. It follows a case where four young Black men were accused of raping a white woman when she and her boyfriend find themselves in a broken down car along the side of the road. It is absolutely obvious from the very beginning that these Black men had nothing to do with raping her or injuring the couple in any way. In fact only two of the accused were even on the scene at all - they had stopped briefly to see if the couple needed help - but the other two were honestly just the closest Black men at hand to round out the 4 needed to support the woman's accusation. One of the 4 Black men that they try to arrest runs and is killed. The other three will stand trial in Lake County, Florida. The NAACP gets involved in this case, and Thurgood Marshall as well, so the book includes some detail about Marshall's life. But mainly, the focus is on the trial and the brutal conditions for Black people living in Lake County, Florida. The police brutally coerce confessions from some of the accused men through some of the worst torture you can imagine. The community burns down the family home of one of the accused, Samuel Shepard. They were one of the most successful Black families in the county. During the trial, any evidence that would stand against the prosecution's case is blatantly hidden and not introduced and the local judge supports all of it. Supporting evidence is obviously fabricated. The NAACP defense knows that their only chance is to try for an appeal. This book also briefly describes other similar trials around the country to show that this is not only happening in Florida. There is a nationwide focus to the book and there are other cases making their way to the Supreme Court concurrently with this case. These parts give a little break to the reader to catch your breath from all the horror happening in Florida. One of the most evil people (with plenty to choose from in this book) is the Sheriff of Lake County, Willis McCall. There is no way to view this man without complete disgust. I found it unbelievable that he didn't die until 1994 - when I was a sophomore in high school. It's so easy to think about the Jim Crow South as existing in a different era, but that fact connected it to me. These things were happening when my grandparents were adults and my parents were just being born. It's not the distant past. I think books like these make it so obvious why we are still where we are today - with police brutality against Blacks and inequalities in our schools, just to scratch the surface. It's only been 70 years since lynchings were commonplace and there were no rights for Black people in the courts. Despite this rather long review (for me), I didn't even scratch the surface of what actually happened in this trial or the outcomes for these accused. I think every American should read this book. I think it's vital for us to acknowledge what life was like for Black people in the South in the not so distant past, both because it's part of our history and because it informs what is happening in our country today.
“Gilbert King has done a remarkable job of weaving together history, sociology, law and detective work of his own, to reveal facts that even I, one of the defense counsel in the case, had not been aware of until now.” (Jack Greenberg, Alphonse Fletcher Professor of Law, Columbia University, former Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund. ) Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiHarper Perennial Olive Editions (2017 Olive) Premi e riconoscimentiMenzioni
In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming with cheap Jim Crow labor. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, vicious Sheriff McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves. Then the Ku Klux Klan rolled into town, burning homes and chasing hundreds of blacks into the swamps. So began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as "Mr. Civil Rights," into the fray. Associates thought it was suicidal for him to wade into the "Florida Terror" at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but the lawyer would not shrink from the fight--not after the Klan had murdered one of Marshall's NAACP associates and Marshall had endured threats that he would be next. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI's unredacted Groveland case files, as well as the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund files, King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader against a heroic backdrop.--From publisher description. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)305.896Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Ethnic and national groups ; racism, multiculturalism Other Groups African OriginClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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The book does an excellent job setting the scene and trying to recreate events although he never tries to present anything he doesn't know for sure as fact leading to certain gaps in the story of the night in question. The men are hunted down, confessions are beaten out of them, evidence manufactured, there is an attempted lynching and later in the book certainly a murder by law enforcement that goes unpunished due to the complicity of cracker white supremacy. It is truly sickening.
One of the worst parts of this book are seeing the attitudes reflected in the people of today. I have family that lives in that part of Florida. I hear the things the State's politicians say - "where woke goes to die." It seems a chilling echo of this legacy. As one of the NAACP lawyers says in the book - "They have just taken their hoods off."
The book escapes a higher rating from me only because it felt long. I really enjoyed learning more about Thurgood Marshall and the other cases he tried, but some parts about the NAACP politics etc were a drag. At times the book was not engaging.
Anyway, this book is deserving of its Pulitzer Prize and I think should be required reading in any US History course. The one thing I do know is that I never want to step foot in the State of Florida again. I'll be damned if if ever give them another dime of my vacation budget. ( )