S. Jonathan Bass

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is arguably the most important written document of the civil rights protest era and a widely read modern literary classic. Personally addressed to eight white Birmingham clergy who sought to avoid violence by publicly discouraging King’s civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, the nationally published “Letter” captured the essence of the struggle for racial equality and provided a blistering critique of the gradualist approach to racial justice. It soon became part of American folklore, and the image of King penning his epistle from a prison cell remains among the most moving of the era. Yet, as S. Jonathan Bass explains in the first comprehensive history of King’s “Letter,” this image and the piece’s literary appeal conceal a much more complex tale. - from the publisher… (altro)

"He Calls Me by Lightning", by S. Jonathan Bass, points out a number of the problems of racial injustice in Alabama during the Jim Crow era. The book starts by telling the story of Caliph Washington, who learned to be wary of the local Alabama police when he was unjustly beaten by white policemen as a youth. Later, as a young man, when driving to his brother's house late at night, Washington noticed a car following him, and feared it may have been the KKK. It actually was a policeman, driving without siren or flashing lights, thinking Washington may have been a local illegal booze smuggler. A chase ensued, with Washington fearing for his life. When the officer put his flashers on, Washington pulled over, but the officer wasn't much interested in anything Washington had to say. While the exact circumstances aren't clear, at some point Caliph ended up grappling for the officer's pistol, and the officer end up being shot and killed. It's probable, but left unproven, that there were mitigating circumstances in the shooting, with Washington and his supporters believing the shooting was done in self defense, and the police and the white townsfolk believing it was a clear case of murder. Not in dispute was the fact that Washington ran away from the scene with the officer's pistol and flashlight, leaving the policeman bleeding from the gunshot wounds. The policeman subsequently died, and a manhunt began for Washington. Caught on a bus out of town still in possession of the officer's gun, Washington was subsequently charged and tried for murder. The twelve white men making up the jury in Washington's trial quickly determined that he was guilty of murder, and sentenced him to death. There were technical flaws with the jury pool and trial, and on appeal, his conviction was overturned twice, but subsequently re-convicted. By the time a third appeal was scheduled, witnesses and evidence had disappeared, and Washington was finally released after fifteen years of incarceration.
While a good part of the book stays focused on the story of Washington and his trials, at times the book loses that focus and drifts into long discussions of political figures and courts in the Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama area, and those sections seemed to be an unnecessary distraction to the main story.
Books rightly should be judged on their own merits, and not by how they compare to other books dealing with similar issues, but I couldn't help doing just that. Per the book jacket, this book is about a black teenager, wrongfully convicted of killing a white police officer, and about Southern justice, and about the Jim Crow South. But I feel that other books dealing with these subjects did a better job of staying on track, and told more compelling stories. When discussing the Jim Crow South, racism in judicial proceedings, and blatant injustice in jails and courts, other books I've come across were much more compelling. When judging this book, I couldn't help comparing it to several others, especially Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy", which reviews injustices in criminal sentencing of the poor; and Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" looking at race and mass incarceration after the Jim Crow era. Others which tell moving stories about racial injustice and prejudice against poor blacks in the South during the 1950's and 1960's include Gilbert King's "Devil in the Grove" about Thurgood Marshall's fight against injustice, Doug McAdam's "Freedom Summer" which discusses voter registration issues in the South, and ​"The ​Port Chicago 50​"​​, by ​Steve Sheinkin. If choosing only one book on this subject area, I'd choose one of these other books over "He Calls Me by Lightning".… (altro)

It took me multiple tries to get through this book. Essentially it tries to do too much with too little. Caliph Washington is a passive character in his own story, which, while not his fault as he's trapped in jail, is made even more boring and slow by the narrative's meandering from one topic to another. There are too many points of focus, too many characters great and small, and just not enough heart and soul in any of it. I'm pretty disappointed, considering this book is very timely, as we watch Alabama once more try to implode itself (this time by choosing a pedophile) rather than allow progress. Overall slow, disjointed, and too wide a focus with far too much detail into legalese that is probably an interesting read to a law student but left this reader bored and skimming. Not a book on civil rights issues that I could recommend to anyone, which is disappointing because I think underneath the drudgery is a good study of ugly history and abuse.… (altro)