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spacebee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
all_things_olivia's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Murder, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
anovelobsession's review against another edition
5.0
I had heard about Forsyth County and it’s racial segregation from the famous Oprah episode in the 1980s. This book explains how that county got to the point where there were no African Americans living in the entire county. The author grew up in Forsyth County and has done extensive research about the history of the county. When I read books like this I am always shocked by how horrible some people are. Nothing excuses the hate and ignorance that was pervasive in the county. Equally unforgivable were the residents that just looked the other way. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke.
I highly recommend this book for ALL readers.
I highly recommend this book for ALL readers.
elizasut's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written, horrifying story of the racial cleansing of Forsyth County, GA. Patrick's parents are friends, and in fact his father was recently recognized by our local NAACP as Man of the Year because of his contributions to the black community.
amystran's review against another edition
5.0
What an important recounting of Forsyth Georgia’s racist history. We need to read these stories and be aware of the atrocities black people have faced in this country if we have any hope of growing.
caleb_tankersley's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a disturbing portrait of one town and county's deep history of hatred and violence. It's difficult to put this into words. More than anything else, the book makes me conscious of the history--or lack thereof--in my own small town. While filled with darkness, the book does show the power of bringing truth into the light. And it's one of the best, most compelling arguments for reparations. This is the kind of book that lingers in your brain and seeps into your life, changes the way you think and behave.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
This book took me weeks to read. It's not an overly long book, the author writes well, and the story is a fascinating one, but Forsyth county is just a hundred miles from my home and a quick two hour drive away. It could just as easily have happened here.
Forsyth county lies just outside of Atlanta, Georgia and Patrick Phillips moved there with his family in the 1980s, when the county still didn't allow non-white people to live, or even pass through there. In 1987, his family went to march with Civil Rights campaigners seeking to integrate the county, but when the busloads of peaceful marchers were turned back by crowds of Forsyth county residents, Phillips and his family had to have the police escort them home. Then Phillips left for university and his hometown became just a colorful topic of conversation.
Years later, he has written a book about how in 1912, after one woman is discovered in bed with a black man and another is discovered murdered in the woods, angry mobs drove all African Americans from the county. And they and their descendants kept Forsyth county free of anyone not seen as white until the 1990s. Phillips is rigorous in his research and the story he tells is shocking and difficult to read about, but is tremendously important -- it's essential reading given how recently the county was integrated and how the attitudes still exist today.
Forsyth county lies just outside of Atlanta, Georgia and Patrick Phillips moved there with his family in the 1980s, when the county still didn't allow non-white people to live, or even pass through there. In 1987, his family went to march with Civil Rights campaigners seeking to integrate the county, but when the busloads of peaceful marchers were turned back by crowds of Forsyth county residents, Phillips and his family had to have the police escort them home. Then Phillips left for university and his hometown became just a colorful topic of conversation.
Years later, he has written a book about how in 1912, after one woman is discovered in bed with a black man and another is discovered murdered in the woods, angry mobs drove all African Americans from the county. And they and their descendants kept Forsyth county free of anyone not seen as white until the 1990s. Phillips is rigorous in his research and the story he tells is shocking and difficult to read about, but is tremendously important -- it's essential reading given how recently the county was integrated and how the attitudes still exist today.
larryerick's review against another edition
5.0
I wish I was in a more capable state of mind to provide a review equal to the quality of this book. First is the quality of this author's writing. While this is a non-fiction limited history report, it is provided by a poet. No, a real one. I've read several excellent novels and short story collections from poets, but this will be my first historical book from one, at least to my knowledge. In any event, the skill set reveals itself in many fine ways, including concise flowing narrative. Secondly -- and I guess this may be a poetry thing, too -- the author takes a rather stark, in your face topic and finds layers of insight, not only for the times in which these events occurred but also, very much so, to the current American political and societal conditions. There is a particular time about a century ago in American history upon which this book derives its core, but the author finds depth through supporting events that take place decades apart and right up to the time when the author's own family is involved and bears direct witness. Regardless, I will make this final point. Toward the very end of this book, the author sort of throws out a here's-where-we-are now-years-later assessment, and it is so much apart from what happened before that the reader may then ask, "So, why should we care about what no longer exists?" I challenge other readers: What made those changes occur and how do we go about recreating them, especially in light of today's American conflicts that are so clearly mirrored in the past?
audaciaray's review against another edition
5.0
This is what a white person reckoning with his local history looks like. Wow. Phillips writes about Forsyth, the Georgia county he grew up in, and the racial cleansing (lynchings, forcing 1000+ blacks out of their homes, theft of black property) that white people did in 1912 and led to the county being maintained as all white for almost the next century. The research is impressive, as is his analysis of the erasure and denial of the violence that the community participated in during the latter half of the 20th century. This book didn’t exactly give me hope for white people as a whole confronting our history of violence, but it gave me hope for the possibilities of individual writings that do that work.