Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
by Gilbert King
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About This Book
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-era 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, this gripping work of civil rights history shines new light on this remarkable crusader.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning history reveals a forgotten chapter of the fight for justice.
- Thurgood Marshall: Discover a portrait of the crusading lawyer in the years before his Supreme Court victory, facing down death threats to defend four innocent men.
- The Groveland Boys: Uncover the harrowing story of four young black men falsely accused in a case that exposed the brutal injustices of the era.
- Jim Crow South: Journey to 1949 Lake County, Florida, a town ruled by a violent sheriff and the Ku Klux Klan, where citrus fortunes were built on oppression.
- Meticulously Researched History: Based on newly unearthed FBI files and NAACP records, this account sheds new light on a pivotal, and nearly fatal, moment in the struggle for equality.