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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Short Review: This isn't a perfect book, but what book really is. This is however a well documented book about a period of racial history that most do not know anything about and that is yet one more example of how African Americans have had to pay for the sins of white supremecy.
Forsyth County, a county near where I currently live, drove out all of the African American in 1912. From that time until the late 1980s, there were almost no African Americans that even set foot in the county. It was complete racial segregation.
In the 1980s there was a shooting of a Black man on a work picnic at Lake Lanier and several demonstrations around civil rights. But even so it took about 20 years after that until the county, primarily because of demographic pressures of becoming a bedroom community of Atlanta more than anything else, did the African American population start to grow. Today around 3 percent of the 220,000 people in Forsyth County are African American (the state as a whole is about 30%.). But there still hasn't really been a reckoning of the harm.
Oprah, within six months of the start of her show went to Forsyth County to interview residents. One of them said that they thought it was their right to choose who to live around. And while they didn't have anything in particular against Black people, they didn't want to live near them. That sentiment is really what is at heart the problem of standard white racism. In Forsyth, a local and state government that were supportive of segregation allowed this reign of terror to keep African Americans out of Forsyth until other pressures and the delusion of historic population of the county dropped with a very quick population increase from other parts of the country.
But this is a good local example of why there are a variety of examples of why it is not simply good enough to say, African Americans should be doing better. Historic reasons, like being pushed off of their land and being terrorized contribute to the lack of equity today. This is about a very particular local story. But it is an example where the details change, but the result is similar. White racism robs African Americans and other minorities of the fruits of their labor while giving ignorant whites the cover of not understanding the history.
My full, nearly 1000 word description and review of Blood at the Root is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/blood-at-the-root/
Forsyth County, a county near where I currently live, drove out all of the African American in 1912. From that time until the late 1980s, there were almost no African Americans that even set foot in the county. It was complete racial segregation.
In the 1980s there was a shooting of a Black man on a work picnic at Lake Lanier and several demonstrations around civil rights. But even so it took about 20 years after that until the county, primarily because of demographic pressures of becoming a bedroom community of Atlanta more than anything else, did the African American population start to grow. Today around 3 percent of the 220,000 people in Forsyth County are African American (the state as a whole is about 30%.). But there still hasn't really been a reckoning of the harm.
Oprah, within six months of the start of her show went to Forsyth County to interview residents. One of them said that they thought it was their right to choose who to live around. And while they didn't have anything in particular against Black people, they didn't want to live near them. That sentiment is really what is at heart the problem of standard white racism. In Forsyth, a local and state government that were supportive of segregation allowed this reign of terror to keep African Americans out of Forsyth until other pressures and the delusion of historic population of the county dropped with a very quick population increase from other parts of the country.
But this is a good local example of why there are a variety of examples of why it is not simply good enough to say, African Americans should be doing better. Historic reasons, like being pushed off of their land and being terrorized contribute to the lack of equity today. This is about a very particular local story. But it is an example where the details change, but the result is similar. White racism robs African Americans and other minorities of the fruits of their labor while giving ignorant whites the cover of not understanding the history.
My full, nearly 1000 word description and review of Blood at the Root is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/blood-at-the-root/
“This book would not exist without a kind but determined push from Natasha Trethewey, who challenged me, more than a decade ago to tell this story. Having grappled with America’s racial history so often in her work, Natasha turned to me during a cab ride in New York City and asked why it was that she, a southern woman of color wrote about ‘blackness,’ yet I, a white man from one of the most racist places in the country, never said a word about ‘whiteness.’”
It is so easy, at least for me, to find excuses for why I don’t deal with issues that make me uncomfortable. For example, when I moved to my community in the 1980’s there were residents who still didn’t have indoor plumbing. That seemed appalling to me, but I didn’t try to figure out why or if there was a solution. I didn’t want to deal with the idea that some people had less access to services that I saw as common in the United States.
This is a poor example, but I wanted to state that I understand why Phillips may have found it hard to speak and write about “whiteness.” What does it take to write about your home in such a way as Phillips does? I suspect there are many in Forsyth County, GA who never want to see him again. This history does not do many people credit – it shows clearly that racism can easily take over a community.
Fortunately for our country and hopefully for Forsyte County, Phillips eventually researched and wrote this amazing work. This is a part of our history and it needs to be told. It probably needs to be written about other places, but at least the light has been shown on Forsyth County.
I think anyone who regularly reads or studies American history should be picking up this book. This is not easy reading, but it is necessary.
It is so easy, at least for me, to find excuses for why I don’t deal with issues that make me uncomfortable. For example, when I moved to my community in the 1980’s there were residents who still didn’t have indoor plumbing. That seemed appalling to me, but I didn’t try to figure out why or if there was a solution. I didn’t want to deal with the idea that some people had less access to services that I saw as common in the United States.
This is a poor example, but I wanted to state that I understand why Phillips may have found it hard to speak and write about “whiteness.” What does it take to write about your home in such a way as Phillips does? I suspect there are many in Forsyth County, GA who never want to see him again. This history does not do many people credit – it shows clearly that racism can easily take over a community.
Fortunately for our country and hopefully for Forsyte County, Phillips eventually researched and wrote this amazing work. This is a part of our history and it needs to be told. It probably needs to be written about other places, but at least the light has been shown on Forsyth County.
I think anyone who regularly reads or studies American history should be picking up this book. This is not easy reading, but it is necessary.