Freedom on trial :

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Freedom on trial :

Title :

Freedom on trial : the first post-Civil War battle over civil rights and voter suppression / Scott Farris.

Title:

Freedom on trial :

Author:

Farris, Scott

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

xx, 361 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

ISBN:

9781493046355

Production / Publication Information:

Guilford, Connecticut : The Lyons Press, [2020]

Summary:

Highlighting forgotten Black and white civil rights pioneers and weaving in the story of the author's own great-grandfather's crimes as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Freedom on Trial tells a gripping story of a moment pregnant with promise when race relations in the United States might have taken a dramatically different turn.

Bibliography note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-343) and index.

Language:

English

Corporate Subject:

Ku Klux Klan (1915- )

Genre:

History.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century.

United States -- Politics and government -- 1869-1877.

Subject Term:

African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 19th century.

African Americans -- Suffrage -- History -- 19th century.

Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)

HISTORY / United States / General.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	973.82 FAR	31481005552968	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library	973.82 FARRIS	31478003617827	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The Confederacy lost the Civil War but quickly began to win the peace when a mysterious organization arose called the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux, as it was then called, sought to restore white supremacy by terrorizing the formerly enslaved to prevent them from voting or owning firearms. To support Black resistance to the KKK's campaign of murder and mayhem, President Ulysses S. Grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus in large portions of South Carolina and sent the famed 7th Cavalry to make mass arrests.

Grant's new attorney general, the first former Confederate to serve in a presidential Cabinet and an ardent advocate for Black equality, Amos T. Akerman, aggressively prosecuted the Ku Klux in a series of sensational trials that shocked the nation and forced a reckoning regarding just how much the Civil War and the recently enacted Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution had changed America and its notions of citizenship.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Farris, a former political aide and bureau chief for United Press International, weaves his family history into the narrative of the first trials under the Ku Klux Klan Acts (also known as the Enforcement Acts). The book focuses on York County, South Carolina, where the author's great grandfather was a Klan member. This serves as a good primer to the first Klan's activities (Farris notes it was called the Ku Klux then) and the Klan Acts. The trials were brought about by a few men, primarily Attorney General Amos Akerman, though the effort later dwindled due to widespread opposition and certain political decisions. Farris's work is well researched, supported by over 20 page of notes and a helpful and fairly substantive bibliography, and incredibly relevant today as battles over voter suppression continue. It also reminds readers of the importance of action or inaction as the actions of only a few were vital in starting these prosecutions, while the inaction of others snuffed them out. Farris holds that the convictions lowered the level of Klan activity and suggests that continued, widespread prosecution might have greatly changed US history. A worthwhile read and purchase. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals. --Scott Allen Merriman, Troy University