Back at the beginning of June I wrote a post about nine books I planned to read over the summer. Some of them I read quickly, and I knew when I selected them that they would be fast and easy reads. Other books I knew were on my list because if I didn't actually post somewhere that I would read them, I might never get around to it.
Devil in the Grove is one of the latter types of books. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading it, or find it important, but it is a hefty book - both in size and content.
Annie B. Jones raved about this book on her podcast From the Front Porch and it was her recommendation that finally pushed me to commit to reading this book.
King's book is truly non-fiction at it's best. He transported me back to the late 1940s and a time of Jim Crow laws in tropical Florida, a place covered in fields of orange trees. When a seventeen year old girl claims she has been raped, law enforcement round up four young black men (all innocent) to be tried for the crime.
King looks at the legal process of this time, the court trial and how it unfolded, Thurgood Marshall's involvement in the case and his quest to give African Americans a fair trial, the Ku Klux Klan and the way it's presence was felt, and racism in the South.
This is an amazing detailed account of this event and time period. It is extremely interesting. But it is not a fast read. I have picked this book up and read ten pages and then had to set it back down. There is so much in each and every page.
Anyone who enjoys history will want to pick this up, and it is definitely worthy of the Pulitzer Prize.
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