Böcker av Monte Akers

The ';well-written and compelling history' of a 1922 racist reign of terror in a small Texas townnow updated with a shocking deathbed confession (USA Today).What happened in Kirven, Texas, in May 1922, has been forgotten by the outside world. But in Flames After Midnight, historian Monte Akers uncovers the true story behind a young white womans 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 killed blacks while local authorities concealed the identity of the white murder suspects 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. He sets this tragedy within the story of a region prospering from an oil boom but plagued by lawlessness, and traces the lynchings repercussions down the decades to the present day. In an epilogue, Akers reveals new information that came to light as a result of this books publication, including an eyewitness account of the burnings from an elderly man who claimed to have castrated two of the men before they were lynched.