Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

Written by:
Gilbert King
Narrated by:
Peter Francis James

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
30
Narrator
8
Release Date
May 2013
Duration
17 hours 54 minutes
Summary
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” — Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four young black men who dared envision a future for themselves beyond the groves. The Ku Klux Klan joined the hunt, hell-bent on lynching the men who came to be known as 'the Groveland Boys.'

Associates thought it was suicidal for Marshall to wade into the 'Florida Terror,' but the young lawyer would not shrink from the fight despite continuous death threats against him.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI's unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund files, Gilbert King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader.
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Thomas J

Important history, especially considering certain current events. A very well written account of the persistence and self-sacrifice of Thurgood Marshall and others in the civil rights movement in the '40's and '50's. At times these true accounts are difficullt to listen to, but, for all that, they are important to acknowledge. Excellent narrator.

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