The Color of the Law Race, Violence, and Justice in the Post-World War II South / Gail Williams O'Brien.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Brien, Gail Williams.

Series:

The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture The color of the law

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mobs--Southern States--History--20th century.

Mobs.

African Americans--Southern States--History--20th century.

African Americans.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration--Southern States--History--20th century.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration.

Southern States--Race relations--History--20th century.

Southern States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 334 p. :) ill. ;

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2014

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On February 25, 1946, African Americans in Columbia, Tennessee, averted the lynching of James Stephenson, a nineteen-year-old, black Navy veteran accused of attacking a white radio repairman at a local department store. That night, after Stephenson was safely out of town, four of Columbia's police officers were shot and wounded when they tried to enter the town's black business district. The next morning, the Tennessee Highway Patrol invaded the district, wrecking establishments and beating men as they arrested them. By day's end, more than one hundred African Americans had been jailed. Two days later, highway patrolmen killed two of the arrestees while they were awaiting release from jail. Drawing on oral interviews and a rich array of written sources, Gail Williams O'Brien tells the dramatic story of the Columbia "race riot, " the national attention it drew, and its surprising legal aftermath. In the process, she illuminates the effects of World War II on race relations and the criminal justice system in the United States. O'Brien argues that the Columbia events are emblematic of a nationwide shift during the 1940s from mob violence against African Americans to increased confrontations between blacks and the police and courts. As such, they reveal the history behind such contemporary conflicts as the Rodney King and O. J. Simpson cases.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-326) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780807882306

0807882305

9781469603421

146960342X

OCLC:

607208220