Scan barcode
emilyholladay's review against another edition
4.0
On the Courthouse Lawn is an eye-opening book that exposes the ways local systems are set up to perpetuate racist behaviors. Sherrilyn Ifill does a great job of taking readers through the history of the lynchings on the eastern shore of Maryland, while also sharing what policies (both legal and institutional) allowed the lynchings to go unreported by the media and without convictions by the court. She also provides practical ideas for how communities can enhance these conversations on a local level.
The discouraging thing about this book is that it was originally published 13 years ago, and we still haven’t reached nearly the level of systemic change or localized conversations that might lead to such change.
The discouraging thing about this book is that it was originally published 13 years ago, and we still haven’t reached nearly the level of systemic change or localized conversations that might lead to such change.
simlish's review against another edition
DNF at page 105. I'll probably come back to this some day, and I'll rate it then. Right now, I'm having an awful lot of trouble with it.
Even only reading half the book, I feel I've learned an incredible amount about the generational impact of lynching. One of the more interesting things is that she chose case studies on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As I went to school on the southernmost tip of the western shore, and have spent a little time in the counties mentioned, it had a closer to home feeling than books about race that only talk about the deep South.
Obviously, every part of lynching is the worst part about lynching, but trying hard for the most upsetting fact is that no one was ever convicted for a lynching. She had one case study where four men were arrested and tried, but the prosecutor had no interest in actually prosecuting, and they all walked free to the cheers of thousands. That combined with her opening statement that in towns with a lynching past, when she was doing interviews in the 90s, the black communities could vividly recount details of lynchings that happened 60 years ago, and the white communities either barely knew that a lynching had occurred or claimed it was conducted by "out-of-towners" was all both deeply upsetting and spoke clearly about the maintenance effort that goes into white supremacy.
I hope to return to this book some day, as I'm learning a lot.
Even only reading half the book, I feel I've learned an incredible amount about the generational impact of lynching. One of the more interesting things is that she chose case studies on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As I went to school on the southernmost tip of the western shore, and have spent a little time in the counties mentioned, it had a closer to home feeling than books about race that only talk about the deep South.
Obviously, every part of lynching is the worst part about lynching, but trying hard for the most upsetting fact is that no one was ever convicted for a lynching. She had one case study where four men were arrested and tried, but the prosecutor had no interest in actually prosecuting, and they all walked free to the cheers of thousands. That combined with her opening statement that in towns with a lynching past, when she was doing interviews in the 90s, the black communities could vividly recount details of lynchings that happened 60 years ago, and the white communities either barely knew that a lynching had occurred or claimed it was conducted by "out-of-towners" was all both deeply upsetting and spoke clearly about the maintenance effort that goes into white supremacy.
I hope to return to this book some day, as I'm learning a lot.
More...