devil in the grove

An enraging and gripping book about an under-remembered chapter in the history of 20th-century white supremacy and civil rights. Been thinking about white supremacy a lot recently, thanks in part to Ta-Nehisi Coates's string of wonderful pieces on the subject. This book fit right into that groove. Gilbert King is an excellent reporter and storyteller and his characters are larger than life, perfect avatars for this country's hideous history of white violence against blacks and blacks' constant struggle to assert their humanity in the face of overwhelming prejudice.

Reading this book and thinking about Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride, and other recent murder victims -- and about the infinite other forms that racism takes every day in America -- reminds me of that Faulkner quote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."