Unpunished Murder

Unpunished Murder

YA history
"Democrats, virtually all of whom were white, loathed those
changes--most considered freed slaves little more than beasts. The
most ferocious of the white supremacists, who called themselves
redeemers, had banded together across the South in groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan to fight any attempt to raise the political and economic
status of freedman. Their weapons were terror and murder. In one
period, between April and November 1868, more than one thousand
freedmen were murdered by whites."
In the spring of 1873 army men made a gruesome discovery in
Colfax, Louisiana, a town in a recently formed black parish. Nearly
all of the men of that town had been slain by a huge mob of well armed
redeemers, including some who had traveled hundreds of miles (in those
pre automobile days) to participate in the blood sport. Many were
shot in cold blood after they had set down the weapons with which they
had tried to defend their families and community. Others died when
the courthouse in which they sought refuge was burned down.
The Colfax Massacre is the pivot on which Lawrence Goldstone's
Unpunished Murder spins. Goldstone considers its story to be
America's story. As proof of his hypothesis, he goes backward and
forward (from the event) in time.
Goldstone starts off in the 1780s when the issue of slavery
divided states that weren't all that excited about being united in a
nation. He visits the Supreme Court Dredd Scott decision in which the
majority asserted that blacks "had for more than a century before been
regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to
associate with the white race, either in social or political
relations; and so far inferior, that the white man was bound to
respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to
slavery for his benefit.". He examines the politics of the
Reconstruction Era and the rise of the KKK.
Moving Forward from the massacre, Goldstone traces the quest for
justice. Merely nine men out of a huge mob would be charged. Three
would be found guilty. Their convictions were overturned,
necessitating the involvement of the Supreme Court which issued a
disastrous ruling that led to Jim Crow.
The power of Unpunished Murder is its ability to tie the
decisions of the Supreme Court to brutal historical events for
students. I highly recommend the book for the middle and high school
set.
On a personal note, Joey is still with us and loving his baby food.
Life was made much better for him (and all of us) when Eugene
installed one of the air conditioners right before the heat wave.
The humans in the family had an eventful weekend. Saturday Eugene and
I had a lovely picnic with Amber, Brian, Katie, and Jacob. It started
at Webster park and soon moved to Amber and Brian's apartment. Sunday
we went for a ride in his new used truck. We drove through an intense
storm with pouring, pelting, torrential rain, which means it's pretty
safe. But it feels antiseptic compared to the old green truck with
its precious memories of the children's growing up years. Do I ever
miss that green truck!
jules hathaway


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