num_pages: 432
description: In this profound and fascinating book, the authors revisit an overlooked Supreme Court decision that changed forever how justice is carried out in the United States.In 1906, Ed Johnson was the innocnet black man found guilty of the brutal rape of Nevada Taylor, a white woman, and sentenced to die in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Two black lawyers, not even part of the original defense, appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution, and the stay, incredibly, was granted. Frenzied with rage at the deision, locals responded by lynching Johnson, and what ensued was a breathtaking whirlwind of groundbreaking legal action whose import, Thurgood Marshall would claim, "has never been fully explained." Provocative, thorough, and gripping, Contempt of Court is a long-overdue look at events that clearly depict the peculiar and tenuous relationship between justice and the law.
language: English
title: Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism
titlecomplete: Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism
genres: Historical, True Crime, Crime, History, Law, African American, American History, Politics, Social, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 369
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award
category: Books
publisher: Anchor