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A review by emilyholladay
On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century by Sherrilyn Ifill
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.