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Blood at the Root

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This page is about Blood at the Root. For other uses, see Blood at the Root (play) and Blood at the Root (novel).

Blood at the Root

Author	Patrick Phillips
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction, race and ethnicity in the United States, History
Published	2016
Publisher	W. W. Norton & Company
Pages	302
ISBN	978-0-393-29301-2

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America is a 2016 non-fiction book written by Patrick Phillips investigating the 1912 Racial Conflict of Forsyth County, Georgia.

Overview

In Forsyth County, Georgia, September 1912, three young black laborers were accused of murdering and raping a white girl. What followed was bands of white "night riders" that drove all 1,098 black citizens out of the county via arson and terror. The title Blood at the Root comes from the song Strange Fruit about the lynchings of African Americans in the South.

Introduction - Law of the Land

On September 10th, 1912 in Forsyth County, Georgia three young black people and were suspected because of a white girl named Mae Crow had been left in the woods along the Chattahoochee River, in the Appalachian foothills north of Atlanta and been left beaten and was left there to die. They were to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. The author Patrick Phillips goes on to talk about how all of Forsyth believed in racial purity being their birthright.

Chapter 1 - The Scream

On September 5th, 1912 Ellen Grice had let out a scream at night, it is not know why Grice would let out a scream, but then newspapers started talking about how a black rapist went through Grice's window. News gets to Bill Reid a sheriff in Forsyth, and Deputy Gay Lummus on September 6th. The next day he went down to Big Creek he arrested a teenager named Tony Howell with other four accomplices who were: Isaiah Pirkle, Joe Rogers, Fate Chester, and Johnny Bates. Toney Howell had been the main person accused of rape. Later on in the Atlanta Georgian they would later admit to that the evidence used against Howell, "assault" and "rape" was used to describe anything that involved a black man and white women, which showed how deep rooted racism was in Forsyth.

Chapter 2 -Riot, Rout, Tumult

There was talk of a group of black people who were near Sawnee Mountain to riot, but it was actually two black people who had been hunting squirrels. The fear that the rumors of the riot brought, "fully 500 white men who came into Cummings from surrounding areas and many arms and munitions were [being] sold to citizens preparing to protect their homes."This led to the town of Cummings to become off-limits for black people.

Chapter 3 - The Missing Girl

Ruth Jordan a close friend of Mae Crows on September 9th, 1912 and talks about when she arrived to school her teacher had been the only one at the school, so they left to instead search for Mae. When she arrived to the forest that was outside Oscarville she saw that it had turned into an entire crime scene. She says that everyone's attention had turned to a group of little black boys who were watching entertainingly who were just laying on the grass of Pleasant Grove Church. A man had walked up to them asking about a mirror that was laying next to Mae Crow's body if it had belong to one of them, and a boy named Ernest Knox says that he had purchased it. The man then took Knox to "get some water" and told him he knew he had done it and if he didn't say who his accomplices were he were to be hung. Ruth Jordan recorded Knox's confession, and what it means too many people is that Knox was desperate in that moment because he knew he was going to die so he confessed to a crime that he did not commit.

Chapter 4 - And The Mob Came On

After Bill Reid and Gay Lummus placed "Big Rob" also known as Edwards under arrest because he was one of the suspects there was a huge mob waiting for them in Cumming Square. Two-thousand men were waiting for them outside threatening to lynch Edwards and the other suspects. Many of the men in the mob were there to fulfill a tradition and prove their "manhood" just like their fathers had done before. Reid had left Lummus in charge of the jail. The mob had ended up breaking through in the jail and headed for the jail cells where in one of them Big Rob Edwards was in and took them only in a few minutes and they murdered him.

Chapter 5 - A Straw in the Whirlwind

In the Jim Crow South rumors of their being a "race war" and a black insurrection after Will Buice's storehouse was caught in fire led to their being a panic. The reality of things is that black people were scared of more bloodshed to occur and all they wanted to do was protect their families. Jane Daniel who had suffered too much grief after the murder of her cousin Ernest and her husband Rob knew that the only thing she could do to continue to live, was to be silent.

Chapter 6 - The Devil's Own Horses

There were many refugees who had escaped to neighboring counties because of the violence that was in Forsyth and many of these counties blamed Forsyth because there were outsiders coming into their county. The truth about Forsyth's origin story is that it used to be Cherokee Territory until they had been pushed out by white settlers.

Chapter 7 - The Majesty of the Law

On Thursday, October 3rd Atlanta had received the news of Mae Crow's murder and had been added to Ernest Knox's "true bill." Oscar Daniel also went on trial of rape and murderer, of Jane Daniel as being an accomplice, and Tony Howell for the rape of Ellen Grice. Later on the Supreme Court would rule these trials as unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth amendment equal protection clause.

Chapter 8 - Fastening the Noose

The day of the trial Bill Reid was desperate to continue to be the center of attention and it shows when he told one reporter that, "1,000 rounds of ammunition are en-route to Cumming...[though] he declined to give the source of his information." He says to this that he doesn't believe this information to be true and says that he would intercept this shipment.

Chapter 9 - We Condemn this Conduct

Byrd Oliver and Delia Oliver lived not far from Ernest Knox, Rob Edwards, and Oscar Daniel. The weeks after the trials he knew that his days were numbered and that the black community was getting smaller. Byrd Oliver daughter Dorthy Rucker Oliver recounted the stories of what her dad had seen back in 1912. She talks about how her father saw black churches and homes burn down, that families would have to leave behind any goods they had like syrup. He had gone in a group of 75 people to try and find refuge in another place because Forsyth was not safe for black people during the time of 1912.

Chapter 10 - Crush the thing in its Infancy

Forsyth was not the only place that race hysteria existed, it had spread to places like Hall County during the fall of 1912. The result of what happened in Forsyth was the same one they attacked black workers and homes. Race hysteria had spread to Hall County because there were hundreds of families who were camping along the roads.

Chapter 11 - The Scaffold

Judge Morris had given plans of the hanging to Bill Reid and on Thursday, October 24th the first legal execution in 50 years, Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel were to be hung. When Major Catron had arrived he saw that no guards were stationed anywhere and when he asked Bill Reid about the fence, he said that he would take care of it. Catron said he sensed that Reid wanted to make this into a public spectacle, and Catron said he sensed that Reid was the problem of Forsyth.

Chapter 12 - When they were Slaves

Joseph Kellogg one of the largest black property owner had been freed once word of the emancipation reached Georgia. On July 21st, 1868 it was learned that the Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified by Georgia. It, "granted the theory of "equal protection of the laws" regardless of color or "previous conditions of slavery or involuntary servitude." Then in 1870 black men had the right to vote, that was put into the Fifteenth Amendment.

Chapter 13 - Driven to the Cook Stoves

After the hanging of Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel many people were congratulating and criticizing Bill Reid for what he had done. No matter how Bill Reid had handled the people watching the hangings it had still been done. News of another person being murdered named Dabner Elliot had been left in the woods of Oscarville the same place Mae Crow was found.

Chapter 14 - Exile, 1915-1920

On September 1915 the Times-Enterprise of Thomasville, south of Georgia ran a story of a physician named Hudson Moore who was from Atlanta who traveled to the Forsyth County Courthouse who had business there. He had taken a black nurse and chauffeur and had left them to wait in the car to go inside the courthouse, and he had heard commotion outside and saw a crowd threatening them. He had to quickly rush them both out because they had been committing a "hanging offense."

Chapter 15 - Erasure, 1920-1970

Elliot Japsin journalist showed that the small minority of Forsyth's black property owners got out of there property. They would either get out for an almost fair market value, or would sell their land for less, or just walk away from their own property because they knew it would eventually be taken away from them.

Chapter 16 - The Attempted Murder of Miguel Marcelli

On July 26th, 1980 Miguel Marcelli and his girlfriend, Shirley Webb had gone to a company picnic Lake Lanier, and when they arrived there were people staring at them while they played volleyball. When Melvin Crowe and heard the rumors of them being at this picnic and had started plotting with his friend Bob Davis of what they would do to them. When Marcelli and Webb started driving back to Atlanta and Crowe ended up shooting Marcelli and Webb ran for help and a man named Keaton helped by calling the police, but had left her on the road telling her that there was nothing else he could do for her.

Chapter 17 - The Brotherhood March, 1987

In December of 1986 four black men had been beaten up by a mob of white people in Howard Beach, in Queens New York City. One of the Brotherhood marches ended into, "loading pistols, tying lengths of ropes into nooses and planning a "White Power Rally" for the day of the march." Instead of their being news conferences the march was met with this.

Chapter 18 - Silence is Consent

The Second Brotherhood March in Forsyth was one of the most popular one's and that is because there was two hundred buses, and about 20,000 peace marchers. Among the people who had shown up was, "John Lewis, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Joseph Lowery, and Coretta Scott King, who called the protest "a great coming together of the family, the movement, and the followers of Martin Luther King."

Epilogue - A Pack of Wild Dogs

The author states that what Forsyth looks like now is that there are a few people of color working and being able to shop in Forsyth County. It no longer looks or feels like 1912 because no one seems to know that Forsyth had been "whites only" before and is now not after decades later.

Reviews

Miller, Randall M. (2016). Phillips, Patrick. Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America [Review of Phillips, Patrick. Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America]. Library Journal, 141(12), 95. Library Journals, LLC.
Delmont, M. (2016, Oct 02). Racial cleansing. Boston Globe
Senior, J. (2016, September 14). Review: 'Blood at the Root," a Tale of Racial Cleansing Close to Home. The New York Times.

External links

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W. W. Norton & Company

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America. Barnes and Noble.

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This article is about Blood at the Root. For other uses, see Blood at the Root (play) and Blood at the Root (novel).