The Color of the Law: Race, Violence, and Justice in the Post-World War II South (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) - Softcover

O'Brien, Gail Williams

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807848026 ISBN 13: 9780807848029

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999

Book by OBrien Gail Williams

Críticas:

A model of careful and courageous scholarship and should be standard reading for students of law and justice ."Law and Politics Book Review" Well-written, well-researched, and extremely thought-provoking."American Historical Review" An exemplary book."Journal of American History" O'Brien's readable and well-researched account of an extraordinary story makes innovative contributions to the growing literature on American violence."Times Literary Supplement" A deeply textured book about the so-called race riot provoked by a white mob's attempt to lynch a young black World War II veteran."Journal of Southern History" [A] model of careful and courageous scholarship and should be standard reading for students of law and justice ."Law and Politics Book Review" "Well-written, well-researched, and extremely thought-provoking."American Historical Review"" [An] exemplary book."Journal of American History"

Reseña del editor:

On February 25, 1946, African Americans in Columbia, Tennessee, averted the lynching of James Stephenson, a nineteen-year-old, black Navy veteran accused of attacking a white radio repairman at a local department store. That night, after Stephenson was safely out of town, four of Columbia's police officers were shot and wounded when they tried to enter the town's black business district. The next morning, the Tennessee Highway Patrol invaded the district, wrecking establishments and beating men as they arrested them. By day's end, more than one hundred African Americans had been jailed. Two days later, highway patrolmen killed two of the arrestees while they were awaiting release from jail. Drawing on oral interviews and a rich array of written sources, Gail Williams O'Brien tells the dramatic story of the Columbia ""race riot,"" the national attention it drew, and its surprising legal aftermath. In the process, she illuminates the effects of World War II on race relations and the criminal justice system in the United States. O'Brien argues that the Columbia events are emblematic of a nationwide shift during the 1940s from mob violence against African Americans to increased confrontations between blacks and the police and courts. As such, they reveal the history behind such contemporary conflicts as the Rodney King and O. J. Simpson cases. |Exploring the famous 1956 race riot in Columbia, Tennessee, this book reveals the roots of black distrust and conflict with the criminal justice system. The Columbia events are viewed as emblematic of the nation's postwar shift from mob violence against blacks to increased confrontations between blacks and the police and the courts.