Devil in the Grove
The Fear of a Nation and the Bravery Within: Devil in the Grove
It was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. There was a deep-seated irrational fear in Lake County, Florida in 1949 four black boys accused of raping a 17-year-old girl. White supremacists obsessed over controlling the black race, and protecting the “flower of southern womanhood”. While blacks feared for their lives. And with the influential but extremely courageous help of the NAACP, especially Thurgood Marshall, some fought back. Gilbert Kings Novel, The Devil in the Grove, tells the story of a rather suspenseful tragic time for our Nation that should never be forgotten or repeated. A time when irrational fears oppressed an entire population of people under the system, above the law, that was racism.
From the beginning of the book King goes in-depth into the heroic life of Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was fighting for the freedom of blacks everywhere even though his life was always on the line. Fear, if it lived in Marshalls mind, was never enough to stop him from fighting for what he believed in, against all oppressors and constant death threats. Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues are some of histories finest. Because of these great men and women our nation isn’t the disturbing place it used to be. Devil in the Grove does an amazing job giving a detailed account into the life of Marshall. This multidimensional man is nowhere near perfect; he struggled with health and his marriage, but he was nothing short of spectacular. Only Marshall would have the guts to walk into an all white bar, and the charm to get the bartender to ask him back because of his great stories and humor. Marshall laid the groundwork He was a brilliant lawyer who knew he had to choose his cases carefully in order to help the bigger picture. The death of Florida NAACP official Harry Tyson Moore further instills the real life horror that Marshall and the
It was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. There was a deep-seated irrational fear in Lake County, Florida in 1949 four black boys accused of raping a 17-year-old girl. White supremacists obsessed over controlling the black race, and protecting the “flower of southern womanhood”. While blacks feared for their lives. And with the influential but extremely courageous help of the NAACP, especially Thurgood Marshall, some fought back. Gilbert Kings Novel, The Devil in the Grove, tells the story of a rather suspenseful tragic time for our Nation that should never be forgotten or repeated. A time when irrational fears oppressed an entire population of people under the system, above the law, that was racism.
From the beginning of the book King goes in-depth into the heroic life of Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was fighting for the freedom of blacks everywhere even though his life was always on the line. Fear, if it lived in Marshalls mind, was never enough to stop him from fighting for what he believed in, against all oppressors and constant death threats. Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues are some of histories finest. Because of these great men and women our nation isn’t the disturbing place it used to be. Devil in the Grove does an amazing job giving a detailed account into the life of Marshall. This multidimensional man is nowhere near perfect; he struggled with health and his marriage, but he was nothing short of spectacular. Only Marshall would have the guts to walk into an all white bar, and the charm to get the bartender to ask him back because of his great stories and humor. Marshall laid the groundwork He was a brilliant lawyer who knew he had to choose his cases carefully in order to help the bigger picture. The death of Florida NAACP official Harry Tyson Moore further instills the real life horror that Marshall and the