The fishermen and the dragon : fear, greed, and a fight for justice on the Gulf Coast / Kirk Wallace Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Kirk W., author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Refugees--Texas--Social conditions--20th century.

Refugees.

Vietnamese--Crimes against--Texas--History--20th century.

Vietnamese.

Fisheries--Texas--History--20th century.

Fisheries.

Refugees--Social conditions.

Ku Klux Klan (1915- )--History--20th century.

Ku Klux Klan (1915- ).

Texas.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 363 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

[New York] : Viking, [2022]

Summary:

"A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster-a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman's relentless battle for environmental justice. By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing. Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen's rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else "it's going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!" The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal. A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays-and who now represents the fishermen's last hope"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ACT I BLOOD IN THE WATER

1. The Deformed Crab

2. The Lone Fisherwoman of Seadrift

3. A Hurricane Warning

4. One Day in June, 1979

5. Newcomers

6. Collision Course

7. "No, Man No!"

8. Seadrift Awakes to Ashes

9. The Klan Comes to Seadrift

ACT II THE COLONEL AND THE FELON

10. The American Fishermen's Association

11. The Colonel

12. The Seabrook Agreement

13. A Fragile Peace, Torched

14. Escalations

15. Louis Ray Beam Jr.

16. The Collins Ranch

17. A Valentine's Day Klan Rally

18. The Bald-Heads of Seabrook

19. The Klan Boat Patrol

ACT III 90 DAYS

20. The Cookbook Salesman from Montgomery

21. Allies and Enemies Gather

22. Unquiet before the Storm

23. The Vietnamese Fight Back

24. The Speedboating Lawyer and the Judge

25. Guns and Depositions

26. "You Die You Die You Die"

27. A Suit on the Brink

28. "This Court Is Their Only Hope"

29. Freedom of Speech and Assembly

30. The Ruling

31. Fallout

ACT IV POISONED WATER

32. Bill Bailey's Newspaper

33. Stirring the Pot

34. Chairman Wang Comes to Seadrift

35. Stop Plant No. 6 or Die

36. Hunger

37. Losing It

38. The Sea Bee

39. The Whistleblower

40. Justice.

Notes:

Place of publication from publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-353) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Johnson, Kirk W. Fishermen and the dragon

ISBN:

9781984880123

1984880128

OCLC:

1291601252

Publisher Number:

99991466625