Customer Reviews

On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation

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The very title of the book suggests that a great deal of help was needed in overcoming one of the most shameful events in the annals of America's very dark racial history. The events in question have to do with Robert Whitaker's award winning story about what happened to a group of black sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, in Elaine, Arkansas, just up the street from Helena, about a 4 hours drive from my own hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

What happened on the night of September 30, 1919 has been seared into the collective memory of all blacks affiliated with the Helena area. On that night, a group of Black sharecroppers, who had gotten tired of years of being cheated out of their fair share of their cotton crops, decided to take matters into their own hands by forming a union with the intention of petitioning and eventually suing their landowners to redress this long-running economic inequity and injustice.

This injustice, incidentally was common practice used against black farmers, whether sharecroppers or not, and existed all over not just Arkansas, but all over the South. As a small boy, I can distinctly remember my grandfather, Silas Brown, who was not a sharecropper, but happened to own his own proverbial "forty acres and two mules (Blue and Cake)," bitterly complaining about how he too was being cheated out of his cotton crop by the unscrupulous "buyers and ginners of cotton."

In any case, the group didn't get very far along in their plans to form a union, as a car pulled up to the wooden church where the meeting was taking place and with a posse of "federalized concerned white citizens" began a four day massacre that ended up killing more than 100 black men, women and children, and was also coincidentally responsible for the death of a solitary white man.

This "white instigated vigilante action," as is customary in the U.S., was of course referred to as a "race riot." Meaning of course that the blacks inside the church, and not the white terrorists outside, were responsible for the occurrence of the incident. In the "mop up operation," following this clear white vigilante action, massacring more than 100 blacks, more than 300 black farmers were also arrested and charged with a variety of crimes ranging from illegal assembly, rioting, resisting arrest, carrying concealed weapons, to the murder of the lone white man.

In the "kangaroo court" that followed, the court-appointed defense attorneys refused to call any witnesses; prosecution witnesses were whipped if they didn't lie; and a mob held sway outside the courthouse, threatening to burn it down if there were no convictions. Some of the defendants were sentenced to die in the electric chair in less than two minutes; the rest in no more than a few hours. The all-white jury consisting of the normal cast of characters, of local leaders and "distinguished concerned white citizens" sentenced the "so-called union ring leaders" to death in the electric chair.

In 1919, this was American justice in its fullest racial glory.

The book however, is not about the "so-called race riot" per se, but is about the heroic legal efforts of a black Little Rock attorney named Scipio Africanus Jones, an about how he succeeded in taking the case (Moore vv. Dempsey) all the way to the Supreme Court and getting six of the death sentences overturned. And while the author readily admits that many of those involved in the legal victory were white, for obvious reasons his focus was on the bravery, courage and skill of this lone black lawyer, who risked his life in taking up the cause of the defense.

Since the context and circumstances of the story constituted a virtual leitmotif of small town southern racial injustice, it is puzzling how some Arkansas white historians (especially the author of Blood in Their Eyes, which is "a decidedly white account" of the same set of events) can call the incident controversial? It is also difficult to see why they chafe over the fact that Scipio Jones was made into a black legal hero. It is a black hero story, told about black people. Do whites have to always steal all black narratives, when American history is written? Why not just leave it alone?

As a footnote, there was once a black High School in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in the same AA Conference as my own Merrill High, name Scipio Jones High School. Until reading this book, I had never known who Scipio Jone was.

Worthy of a movie for sure! Five stars

On the Laps of Gods by Robert Whitaker: This is a MUST READ book by a jornalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal. It focuses on an attempt by tenant farmers in Southeastern Arkansas to organize and collectively confront the land owners with theft of profits due the tem. Land owners learned of the cooperative meeting and ambushed them in their local church, beginning a trail of killing that eventually took the lives of 100 black tenant farmers and their families. They were assisted by Federal Troops from a local barracks who used machine guns on the tenant farmers. Whitaker pictures this confrontation in the larger picture of consistent and planned disenfrantisement of the black in all of the the states of the Confederate south by agreement with the local law officers and the local court systems as they passed law after law diminishing the rights of blacks. The Supreme Court USA of the time looked the other way arguing states rights dispite abuse of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Whitaker paints a lesson for us all. In a day when the US government easily condemns lack of freedom for citizens of other countries, we must look back on our own recent past. It is an agonizing moral dilemma and should tax our own moral code. The hero here is Scipio Africanus Jones, born a slave who rose to practice law and free the 87 Arkansas prisoners falsely accused of murder by collusion of the courts and the law and who faced either long prison sentences or execution. WHAT A STORY.

It's great to see that this incident has finally merited its own book. I had heard it in a number of different books, but those only whetted my appetite for more.

It's quite an interesting story. First, imagine some illiterate, dirt-poor, African-American sharecroppers in the heart of the Delta in the early part of the 20th century trying to organize a union. This then becomes a pretext for - there's no getting around - an out-and-out massacre. This massacre includes bands of Whites from over an extended area hunting African-Americans down like deer. Next, pull in the state militia and have them machine gun the hiding places where the African-Americans have fled. Finally, round up over 100 African-Americans and try them for murder. While you're at it, though, make sure you torture them with beatings, electric shocks, and drugs so they will be sure to perjure themselves.

Yup, it all actually happened, right here in these United States. Depressing as this all sounds, the book is actually quite uplifting. The hero of the story is a local lawyer, born a slave, who takes on the case and never gives up - taking it all the way to the Supreme Court, where it's actually reversed and becomes a milestone in combating states rights and making the 14th Amendment actually work.

Never heard of it? That's not too surprising. African-American history, especially what happened between the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, is hidden history.

I've actually read a ton of these books. This one seems particularly good to me. First, it's the only one I know that treats this particular (very important and very interesting) incident. Just as important, though, it is very well written. Unlike some of the other books, I had no problem following the who, what, where, and when. The author has a very lucid style that just flows and flows. At the same time, the author is also able to relay the emotional punch of the events.

My only caveats are the emphasis on legal stuff (though he does a much better job than others). I also wasn't sure if there was enough context for the average reader. A lot of the other books go much more into the national picture - WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington, Ida Wells, the NAACP, lynching legislation, etc. Nonetheless, he does keep it in the context of 1919, probably the worst year for race relations ever. Note, though, that the book is not about 1919 in general (as the sub-title implies), but very much about the Arkansas incident.

I don't give out 5 stars very often. This book definitely deserved it.

This book is heartrending but also uplifting. It brings into focus a national hero, Scipio Jones, who was born a slave but rose to prominence. Now forgotten, he brought about--through his deft legal work--changes in our national law that we would do well to remember now in these days when habeous corpus seems to have gone by the wayside. Truly this book can be seen as examining the changes in our law that made it possible for the civil rights movement to emerge. It really is a great book and a great read. It can be hard to get through some of the gripping--but painful--accounts of the killings in the beginning of the book--but the end is worth it.

This book well-deserves the nine great reviews above (the one-star being a product complaint, whose author is forced to admit "it's a great book.")

That said, Mr. Whitaker has done a superb job recreating a time and place that has been conveniently forgotten by modern Americans, and for this reason is in danger of being foisted upon us again by those who don't know how and why the constitutional safeguards we enjoy came to be. Or, more cynically, those who would "roll back" the "liberal handcuffs" of due process, Federal interpretation of habeas corpus, and national enforcement of the Bill of Rights know exactly what they're about and *want* to return American society to Elaine, Arkansas, in 1919.

And for all the racism displayed in these events, the treatment meted out to unionizing sharecroppers who dared challenge their status quo was not much worse than that dished out to others of the period: striking coal miners in West Virginia, who fought pitched battles with state militia; steel strikers in the Northeast; Sacco and Vanzetti, of course. The violence of this period is simply stunning - the events in Elaine were not some mere aberration of Southern culture or history but in the middle of the American mainstream.

Highly recommended (despite the obscure title), not only for what it says about America's past but - if certain forces in the US have their way - its future.

This is the story of a community of blacks ("Negroes" at the time) in the delta land of Arkansas during 1919, and the racial violence and injustice meted out. The hero/heroes not only include the wantonly killed and innocent blacks plus those tried and convicted for murder, but also, and in the main, the black lawyer, Scipio Jones, who essentially single-handedly won an interpretation from the U.S. Supreme Court that the Bill of Rights applied to everyone in the U.S., and that individual states could not deny the people those rights through their own laws or procedures.

The work is an impressive scholarly work, meticulously researched and thorough. Its only negative is a certain novel-like style where the reader is treated to a sense of impending doom in the first chapter -- I guess in order to pique the reader's interest -- followed by digressions and background that seems out of place for so important a narrative and historical study. Even so, the style of presentation is small potatoes compared to the importance and depth of the story and its analysis.

The story is sobering, but in the end something good results. The history of the U.S. contains many dark chapters, but the strength and ability of the U.S. to correct its mistakes, even though individuals must necessarily give their lives in so doing, is on display in no uncertain terms. Compared to this espisode, the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s seems like a walk in the park, and it may not have happened at all except for events and heroic actions by individuals like those contained in this book. One must wonder if the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day shouldn't be changed to Scipio Africanus Jones Day -- certainly the case could be made that Jones has the better claim. Unfortunately, the baby-boomer generation needed a hero from their own time to glorify themselves and heighten their own self-importance -- they should have looked further back to those who sacrificed so much more for civil rights.

Other reviewers have already presented the book's story, so I need not repeat it here. But what is important to add is that this is true and factual history of an extremely important event in the march towards full civil rights for all American citizens, and as such should be required reading in history classes instead of the vapid sanitized writings glorifying 1960s politicians and civil rights leaders to the exclusion of all those who had gone before. Life was riskier before the 60s, and fighting injustice could be fatal. Even worse, merely standing up for oneself could be fatal as in this book.

If the reader learns nothing else from this book, he should understand that any group fighting for its right to govern itself, adhere to its own chosen religion, speak its own language, or be respected and treated as equal citizens in a larger political entity must prove itself through individual sacrifices of life before their goals can be met. This is true even in the U.S., where at least the attainment of those goals is possible. For comparison, one should consider the plight of the Copts in Egypt who have been struggling for those same rights for 1,200 years and been unable to make any progress. Or Egyptian women, for that matter. Some states enjoying homogenous populations with respect to race, ethnicity, religion, language and culture, of course do not have such problems. The U.S., however, is not homogenous in any respect, but so far it had shown a unique ability to adapt to stresses between the various elements of its population. It remains to be seen if it can survive much longer. That why this work must be read in the context of 1919, and then in 2009, and its value as a lesson for the future thoughtfully considered. There is much to learn here.

This is an extremely valuable book, and a must read for all those interested in American history and contemporary politics.

This is an excellent readable history. The author does a great job of discussing the background of constitutional law that permits the jim crow system in the South. This story of sharecroppers trying to organize, being massacred and then prosecuted for the violence is tragic, of course. How these men face their imprisonment is just astonishingly inspiring. The legal battle to the US Supreme Court is well told. I loved this book.

THIS BOOK IS DESTINED TO BE AN AMERICAN CLASSIC.

Robert Whitaker is a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist and author whose previous book MAD IN AMERICA is also a must read. I featured him extensively in my new documentary called GENERATION RX, and his impeccable integrity and grasp of the facts were critical to the success of my film.

In this amazing new book, Whitaker proves how diverse his talents really are. ON THE LAPS OF GODS is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the link between American history and HUMAN history. It is disturbing, but inspiring. . .and Whitaker pulls it all off with unbelievable ease.

By the time he writes "The struggle for America's soul -- and its future -- was under way," you've already been hooked by this gripping story. The mere fact that he unearthed this story from 90 years ago -- and made it relevant to today -- speaks volumes about his immense talent.

Whitaker is among an elite group of journalists in a world of lazy and sensational reporters. Buy this book and share it with friends. They will honor you for doing so.

Where to begin praising this book? I bought it after reading two other books by the same author, both of them fierce and rigorous critiques of the psychiatric establishment. Based on those, I figured any book by Robert Whitaker ought to be good. But "On the Laps of Gods" is so astonishing it's hard to catch my breath and explain why. The sheer improbability, major historic impact and comparative obscurity of these events make for a strange combination. Prior to this, I'd never heard of Scipio Africanus Jones, nor this case and its resulting Supreme Court decision -- even after taking several excellent college courses in African American history. You've got to read it for yourself, I'm speechless. (And how nutty and pointless those one star reviews are!)

I am sick to death of extremely misleading subtitles such as "The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation." This book is only about the Elaine pogrom. It's no more than a retread of Grif Stockley's Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919 (which, by the way, is very well worth reading).

So how dare the author say that his work is about the Red Summer of 1919? That term refers to all of the many, many antiblack massacres which took place all over the United States that year--not only the one in Elaine.

Infuriating.