Blood at the Root

This article is about the non-fiction book. For other uses, see Blood at the Root (play) and Blood at the Root (novel).
Blood at the Root
AuthorPatrick Phillips
LanguageEnglish
GenreNon-fiction, history, race and ethnicity in the United States
Published2016
PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
Publication placeUnited States
Pages302[1]
ISBN978-0-393-29301-2

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America is a 2016 non-fiction book written by Patrick Phillips investigating the 1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County, Georgia, the ensuing racial cleansing of the county, and later developments including the 1987 Forsyth County protests.[1][2][3]

Overview

In September 1912 in Forsyth County, Georgia, a young white girl was assaulted, raped, and later died. Following the coerced confession of a young black man, an alleged accomplice was lynched. What then followed was bands of white "night riders"[a] that drove the black citizens out of the county, via arson and terror. The title Blood at the Root comes from the song Strange Fruit about the lynchings of African Americans in the South.[4]

Summary

Reviews

Carol Anderson, reviewing the book for The New York Times, said it "meticulously and elegantly reveals the power of white supremacy in its many guises."[4] Anderson commented that some of the book was "weighed down by supposition and tangents", noting that the author "is hampered by the scarce records, biased contemporary newspaper reporting, traumatized family memories and oral histories that are few and far between."[4]

Notes

  1. ^ The Ku Klux Klan had disbanded in the early 1870s and did not re-form until 1915.

References

  1. ^ a b Fresh Air transcript (September 15, 2016). "The 'Racial Cleansing' That Drove 1,100 Black Residents Out Of Forsyth County, Ga". npr.org. NPR.
  2. ^ Phillips, Patrick (August 26, 2016). "Blood at the Root (book excerpt)". MyAJC. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  3. ^ "Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  4. ^ a b c Anderson, Carol (September 28, 2016). "American Apartheid: A Georgia County Drove Out All Its Black Citizens in 1912". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 8, 2017.

Further reading