Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker
In a study similar to James R. McGovern's Anatomy of a Lynching: the killing of Claude Neal ( LJ 5/1/82), Smead has written a vivid account of one of the last lynchings of a black man to occur in the United States, the beating and murder of Parker in Poplarville, Mississippi, in 1959. Based upon considerable research as well as numerous interviews with townspeople, including two members of the lynch mob, Smead's story draws several parallels between this murder and earlier lynchings, e.g., the situation involved the rape of a white woman by a black man, a mob storming the jail to remove the prisoner, detailed knowledge of the conspiracy both before and after the murder, and the fact that no individual member of the lynch mob was ultimately punished. An excellent account of intense white racism in a small Southern town; recommended for academic and large public libraries. Louis Vyhnanek, Washington State Univ. Lib., PullmanCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.