Finished Mo 5/2/16
One of my hardback books that I got many years ago at the library book sale
Terrific expose of the Race Issue- written in 1967.
I was struck by the 'sexual frenzy' of the State's Rights position. Black men sleeping with White Women seemed to be the underlying fear of those in power.
Atoka County, Alabama. The area had been used for cotton growing, but for the last couple of generations it was a tree farming area (pine). The man that owns the largest tree farming operation is the 'power behind the throne'.
Sheriff Bascomb- Highly decorated war hero. Trying to do his job, but quite clearly run by the local power structure. His son Allen is not warped by the extreme prejudice of the area.
Breck Stancill- Also a highly decorated war hero (lost a leg in the war). A rich white progressive who takes issue with the racist philosophy. His family plantation stood for a kind of racial equality for generations.
Black Agitators are believed to be descending from the North and stirring up trouble. "Our blacks are happy and content".
Loretta Sykes is a black woman who was tutored by Breck Stancill. She was able to migrate to Chicago and has gotten a job at Montgomery Wards. She's on track for a middle class life and she has returned to Alabama to tend to her dying mother.
The Town Fathers, with the help of Sheriff Bascomb's police department kidnap Loretta and rape her in the local jail. They have a local black mentally challenged man to preform the rape, and then they blame this crime on Negro organizers.
Bascomb's son and Breck Stancill are killed in the final showdown.
I loved the book
Author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bradford_Huie
No comments:
Post a Comment