Flames after midnight
Subtitle: murder, vengeance, and the desolation of a Texas community
By: Monte Akers.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: African Americans -- Texas -- Kirvin -- History -- 20th century.; Lynching -- Texas -- Kirvin -- History -- 20th century.; Murder -- Texas -- Kirvin -- History -- 20th century.; Kirvin (Tex.) -- Race relations.
Description: What happened in Kirven, Texas, in May 1922 has been forgotten by the outside world. It was only a co-worker's whispered words, "Kirven is where they burned the [Negroes]," that set Monte Akers on a quest to find out what happened and, more important, why.

After years of following clues found in old newspaper clippings, NAACP reports, and the memories of the few remaining witnesses who would talk, Akers here pieces together the story of a young white woman's brutal murder and the burning alive of three black men who were almost certainly innocent of it. This was followed by a month-long reign of terror as white men hunted down and killed blacks while local authorities concealed the real identity of the white probable murderers and allowed them to go free.

Akers paints a vivid portrait of a community desolated by race hatred and its own refusal to face hard truths.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-212) and index.