5437. A Murder in Virginia Southern Justice on Trial. by Suzanne Lebsock (read 26 Jan 2017) (Parkman Prize for 2004) This is the 25th winner of said prize I have read. It is a meticulously researched study of the events surrounding the murder in 1895 in Lunenburg County of Lucy Pollard. Three black women and a black man were arrested for the crime. The first trial was a farce, rushed and poorly managed, and resulted in all four defendants being found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. One has to admire the fact that the convictions were set aside and the defendants were not lynched--the governor of Virginia being determined to prevent a lynching. There were two subsequent trials, each more carefully conducted. Some of the evidence related gets a bit tedious, but the study is worthwhile and tells us that justice in the 1890's in Virginia was a bit more likely than thereafter for a time. The evidence is revelatory of the life in rural Virginia at the time. ( )

In 1895 a white woman was axed to death in her farmyard. A young black man accused of the crime named three local black women and said they plotted the murder and committed the crime. A sensational story that captured the media at the time, now recounted by a leading historian.

ABA Silver Gavel Honorable Mention, 2004 ( )