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Informative,
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Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
by Gilbert King

Published: 2013-02-19
Paperback : 464 pages
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3 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 3 members
* Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
* Nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award 
* Book of the Year (Non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor

In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow ...
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Introduction

* Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
* Nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award 
* Book of the Year (Non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor

In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day's end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

And so began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as "Mr. Civil Rights," and the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, into the deadly fray. Associates thought it was suicidal for him to wade into the "Florida Terror" at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but the lawyer would not shrink from the fight--not after the Klan had murdered one of Marshall's NAACP associates involved with the case and Marshall had endured continual threats that he would be next.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI's unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund files, King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader, setting his rich and driving narrative against the heroic backdrop of a case that U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson decried as "one of the best examples of one of the worst menaces to American justice.

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by Judith M. (see profile) 08/04/22

I loved this book and it’s hero! Next time someone asks, “ Who would you most like to have a drink with?” Heck-“Who would you most like to be marooned on a desert island with?” ... (read more)

 
by Mara Z. (see profile) 03/27/19

 
by Theresa F. (see profile) 02/03/19

 
  "Devil in the grove"by Mary P. (see profile) 10/21/16

Thought provoking. Rating says I liked it, but it was really not an enjoyable book to read because of the circumstances and relating part of our history that few know about.

 
  "I wish I could have given it 10 stars!"by Gail R. (see profile) 03/24/14

This book was read beautifully by Peter Francis James. If I could have, I would have given it ten stars. It should be required reading in schools across the country. I grew up, went to schoo... (read more)

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