Race Against Time

November 1, 2020
An African American lawyer takes on the difficult task of defending a group of Black men sentenced to death. When Black soldiers returned from World War I, many attempted to improve their lives, including a group of sharecroppers in Arkansas determined to unionize. A gathering at a church was fired upon, and one White law officer was killed. The violence escalated when local officials encouraged White men from other states to come and take up arms against Blacks. All this occurred during the nation's "Red Summer" of 1919. The number of Black people killed in this area of Arkansas was thought to be in the hundreds, but it was the deaths of five Whites that resulted in speedy trials, convictions, and death row sentences. The attorney who stepped up to seek justice for the group known as the Elaine Twelve was Scipio Africanus Jones, from Little Rock. For the next five years, Jones used his knowledge, energy, and money to keep 12 innocent men from being executed and ultimately prevailed while the Black press covered his efforts. This gripping story shines a light on another hidden hero of the struggle for rights for African Americans. An important, well-researched narrative, rich in historical context, is enhanced by archival photographs and glimpses into the lives of working men and women who sought economic fairness and the protections of the United States Constitution. A powerful story of tireless determination for justice in the face of overwhelming odds. (author's note, bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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November 1, 2020
Grades 7-10 *Starred Review* This is a compelling account of how Scipio Jones, a formerly enslaved man and self-educated lawyer, dedicated five years of his life and his personal fortune to trying to save innocent Black sharecroppers from imprisonment and death in 1919 Arkansas, during the height of the Jim Crow era. These men had dared unionizing, and retribution was swift: the largest mass lynching in American history, homes and churches burnt, innocent people condemned to the electric chair. Jones literally risked his life to defend the men, wrangling their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The judgement, Moore v. Dempsey, evoked the Fourteenth Amendment and was the first time African Americans won a Supreme Court decision, resulting in the release of 75 prisoners and 12 men on death row. The action takes place at breakneck speed, accompanied by ample background information, period photographs, and appearances by the nascent NAACP, journalist Ida Tarbell, and a young Thurgood Marshall. An epilogue, informative author's note, copious bibliography, and detailed chapter notes help round out this testimonial of an often-overlooked landmark event in the early history of civil rights.

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