William B. Gravely's Books

They Stole Him Out of Jail

Willie Earle, South Carolina's Last Lynching Victim

By: William B. Gravely

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They Stole Him Out of Jail

Willie Earle, South Carolina's Last Lynching Victim

By: William B. Gravely

“Reminds readers that the history of lynching and racial violence in the United States is not a closed book, but an ever-relevant story.” —Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books Before daybreak on February 17, 1947, twenty-four-year-old Willie Earle, an African American man arrested for the murder of a Greenville, South Carolina, taxi driver named T. W. Brown, was abducted from his jail cell by a mob, and then beaten, stabbed, and shot to death. An investigation produced thirty-one suspects, most of them cabbies seeking revenge for one of their own. The police and FBI obtained twenty-six confessions, but, after a nine-day trial in May that attracted national press attention, the defendants were acquitted by an all-white jury. In They Stole Him Out of Jail, William B. Gravely presents the most comprehensive account of the Earle lynching ever written, exploring it from background to aftermath and from multiple perspectives. Among his sources are contemporary press accounts (there was no trial transcript), extensive interviews and archival documents, and the “Greenville notebook” kept by Rebecca West, the well-known British writer who covered the trial for the New Yorker magazine. Gravely meticulously recreates the case’s details, analyzing the flaws in the investigation and prosecution that led in part to the acquittals. Vivid portraits emerge of key figures in the story, including both Earle and Brown, Solicitor Robert T. Ashmore, Governor Strom Thurmond, and West, whose article “Opera in Greenville” is masterful journalism but marred by errors owing to her short stay in the area. Gravely also probes problems with memory that resulted in varying interpretations of Willie Earle’s character and conflicting narratives about the lynching itself.

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338

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Univ of South Carolina Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1611179386

ISBN 13

9781611179385

A Long Reconstruction

Racial Caste and Reconciliation in the Methodist Episcopal Church

By: Paul William Harris

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A Long Reconstruction

Racial Caste and Reconciliation in the Methodist Episcopal Church

By: Paul William Harris

After slavery was abolished, how far would white America go toward including African Americans as full participants in the country's institutions? Conventional historical timelines mark the end of Reconstruction in the year 1877, but the Methodist Episcopal Church continued to wrestle with issues of racial inclusion for decades after political support for racial reform had receded. An 1844 schism over slavery split Methodism into northern and southern branches, but Union victory in the Civil War provided the northern Methodists with the opportunity to send missionaries and teachers into the territory that had been occupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. To a remarkable degree, the M.E. Church succeeded in appealing to freed slaves and white Unionists and thereby built up a biracial membership far surpassing that of any other Protestant denomination. A Long Reconstruction details the denomination's journey with unification and justice. African Americans who joined did so in a spirit of hope that through religious fellowship and cooperation they could gain respect and acceptance and ultimately assume a position of equality and brotherhood with whites. However, as segregation gradually took hold in the South, many northern Methodists evinced the same skepticism as white southerners about the fitness of African Americans for positions of authority and responsibility in an interracial setting. The African American membership was never without strong white allies who helped to sustain the Church's official stance against racial caste but, like the nation as a whole, the M.E. Church placed a growing priority on putting their broken union back together.

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345

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0197571824

ISBN 13

9780197571828

Who Lynched Willie Earle?

Preaching to Confront Racism

By: Bishop William H. Willimon

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Who Lynched Willie Earle?

Preaching to Confront Racism

By: Bishop William H. Willimon

Pastors and leaders long to speak an effective biblical word into the contemporary social crisis of racial violence and black pain. They need a no-nonsense strategy rooted in actual ecclesial life, illuminated in this fine book by a trustworthy guide, Will Willimon, who uses the true story of pastor Hawley Lynn’s March of 1947 sermon, “Who Lynched Willie Earle?” as an opportunity to respond to the last lynching in Greenville, South Carolina and its implications for a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel today. By hearing black pain, naming white complicity, critiquing American exceptionalism/civil religion, inviting/challenging the church to respond, and attending to the voices of African American pastors and leaders, this book helps pastors of white, mainline Protestant churches preach effectively in situations of racial violence and dis-ease.

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113

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Abingdon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501832522

ISBN 13

9781501832529

Champion of Civil Rights

Judge John Minor Wisdom

By: Joel William Friedman

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Champion of Civil Rights

Judge John Minor Wisdom

By: Joel William Friedman

One of the least publicly recognized heroes of the civil rights movement in the United States, John Minor Wisdom served as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1957 until his death in 1999 and wrote many of the landmark decisions instrumental in desegregating the American South. In this revealing biography, law professor Joel William Friedman explores Judge Wisdom's substantial legal contributions and political work at a critical time in the history of the South. In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed Wisdom to the Fifth Circuit, which included some of the most deeply segregated southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. In the tumultuous two decades following its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court issued only a few civil rights decisions, preferring instead to affirm Fifth Circuit Court opinions or let them stand without hearing an appeal. Judge Wisdom, therefore, authored many of the decisions that transformed the South and broke down barriers of all kinds for African Americans, including the desegregation of public schools. In preparing this first full-length biography of Judge Wisdom, Friedman had unrestricted access to Wisdom's voluminous repository of personal and professional papers. In addition, he draws on personal interviews with law clerks who served under Judge Wisdom, resulting in a unique, behind-the-scenes account of some of the nation's most important legal decisions: the admission of the first black student to the University of Mississippi, the initiation of contempt proceedings against Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, and the destruction of obstacles that had previously kept black Americans from voting. Friedman also explores Wisdom's political life prior to joining the federal bench, including his pivotal role in resurrecting the Louisiana Republican Party and in securing the Republican presidential nomination for Eisenhower. A compelling account of how a child of privilege from one of America's most socially and racially stratified cities came to serve as the driving force behind the legal effort to end segregation, Champion of Civil Rights offers judicial biography at its best.

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511

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807149152

ISBN 13

9780807149157

Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life

Cases from Germany, India, and America

By: William Johnson Everett

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Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life

Cases from Germany, India, and America

By: William Johnson Everett

In the past decade, the struggle for new forms of federal order and public life has exploded in central Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. Religious traditions and organizations have played a crucial role in these revolutions, and have also been critical to the establishment of constitutional orders in post-colonial countries like India. Moreover, they continue to undergird and to challenge the understanding of public life in the United States, whether in church-state conflicts or Native American religious claims. William Everett examines the role of religious traditions in the development of modern federal republicanism, seeking answers to such questions as: How have patterns of religious organization shaped federal republican orders? How do different cultures weave together these political and religious threads into a living fabric that fits their own cultural heritage? How are Western religious traditions of covenant and conciliarism relevant for understanding religion and constitutional developments in non-Western cultures? The author argues that a better comparative grasp of these dynamics is essential to our understanding of the establishment, sustenance, and development of federal republican governance. He presents, as a first step toward this goal, a detailed and comparative study of these patterns in India, Germany, and the United States.

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221

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195355970

ISBN 13

9780195355970

They Stole Him Out of Jail

Willie Earle, South Carolina's Last Lynching Victim

By: William B. Gravely

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They Stole Him Out of Jail

Willie Earle, South Carolina's Last Lynching Victim

By: William B. Gravely

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

338

Publisher

Univ of South Carolina Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1611179386

ISBN 13

9781611179385

Book's by William B. Gravely

They Stole Him Out of Jail

They Stole Him Out of Jail

A Long Reconstruction

A Long Reconstruction

Who Lynched Willie Earle?

Who Lynched Willie Earle?

Champion of Civil Rights

Champion of Civil Rights

Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life

Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life

They Stole Him Out of Jail

They Stole Him Out of Jail

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