Black and White Justice in Little Dixie: Three Historical Essays by Doug Hunt
In a collection of his best three essays, Doug Hunt invites us to consider the evolving interplay between race and justice–not only in the Midwestern city where they are set, but in America at large.
In 2004, Doug Hunt published "A Course in Applied Lynching," an essay that drew national attention to the 1923 murder of James T. Scott in front of several hundred witnesses, few of whom would testify honestly when the prominent citizen who led the lynch mob went to trial. In 2010 he republished the essay as a short book, Summary Justice, that supported a community-wide effort to understand the Scott lynching and its legacy. The volume presented here includes an expanded version of the 2004 essay, along with two companion essays about racism and justice in Columbia, Missouri–a heartland city that in many ways typifies all of America. "Names" takes us back to the 1830s to tell the remarkable story of one black couple's fight to free its children from bondage. "Watching the Watchers" takes us forward to 2010 and puts us in the jury box at the trial of a young black man who has been tasered and beaten during a routine traffic stop, and who now faces a charge of refusing to obey a police order.
About the Author
Doug Hunt is the 2010 recipient of the Richard J. Margolis Award, given annually to a "journalist or essayist whose work combines warmth, humor, wisdom and concern with social justice." This book combines three of his best stories.
Product Specification
Independently Published, paperback, 2011. 166 pages.
