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Blood at the Root

a Racial Cleansing in America
Feb 12, 2017LenRudner rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
In 1912, an African-American is lynched by an angry mob and a short time later, two teen-agers are executed in public after a very questionable trial. These horrific events are only the beginning of the story that Patrick Phillips relates in “Blood at the Root.” What follows is a concerted effort by the mostly white residents of Forsyth County to drive out their black neighbours. Over the course of a few months, so-called “night-riders” engage in acts of terror and violence and more than 1000 flee, in most cases leaving their possessions behind, property that was soon absorbed into the holdings of the white residents who remained. Forsyth remained a “whites only” country until the final decades of the 20th century. It was a part of the United States to which the civil rights movement never came. I had never heard of Forsyth County until I read this book, but Phillips’ narrative seemed eerily familiar nonetheless. Townspeople who demonized a minority; the suspension of the systems of justice; terrible deeds performed not by monsters but by ordinary men; the pride that the perpetrators showed in their violent acts (evidenced by their pictures taken with lynched victims); the manner in which the property of the victims enriched the perpetrator communities. And finally the denial of history, responsibility, and the need for reconciliation. These are themes that repeat themselves throughout history. Patrick Phillips does readers a service by reminding us that history happens all around us, and not just far away and to other people.