Blood at the Root

A Racial Cleansing in America

21 October 2016

Description

A gripping tale of racial cleansing in the American South and a harrowing testament to the deep roots of racial violence in America.

In 1912, a young girl’s murder rocked the rural community of Forsyth County, Georgia and led a mob of whites to lynch a black man on the town square. Later, bands of night-riders declared Forsyth “whites-only” and sent 1,100 citizens running for their lives, slowly erasing all evidence of their crime.

Blood at the Root is a sweeping American tale, spanning the Cherokee removals of the 1830s, the promise of Reconstruction and the crushing injustice of Forsyth’s racial cleansing. The story continues, including a violent attack on civil rights activists in 1987 as residents fought to “Keep Forsyth White”, well into the 1990s. Patrick Phillips breaks the century-long silence of his hometown and uncovers a history of racial terrorism that shapes America in the twenty-first century.

Awards

Shortlisted — PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, 2017

Shortlisted — ALA Carnegie Medal, 2017

Hardback

9780393293012

165 x 244 mm • 320 pages

£20.99

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Ebook

9780393293029

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£12.99

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