On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first CenturyNearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. Over forty years later, Sherrilyn Ifill's On the Courthouse Lawn examines the numerous ways that this racial trauma still resounds across the United States. While the lynchings and their immediate aftermath were devastating, the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for black Americans, are equally pernicious. On the Courthouse Lawn investigates how the lynchings implicated average white citizens, some of whom actively participated in the violence while many others witnessed the lynchings but did nothing to stop them. Ifill observes that this history of complicity has become embedded in the social and cultural fabric of local communities, who either supported, condoned, or ignored the violence. She traces the lingering effects of two lynchings in Maryland to illustrate how ubiquitous this history is and issues a clarion call for American communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy today. Inspired by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as by techniques of restorative justice, Ifill provides concrete ideas to help communities heal, including placing gravestones on the unmarked burial sites of lynching victims, issuing public apologies, establishing mandatory school programs on the local history of lynching, financially compensating those whose family homes or businesses were destroyed in the aftermath of lynching, and creating commemorative public spaces. Because the contemporary effects of racial violence are experienced most intensely in local communities, Ifill argues that reconciliation and reparation efforts must also be locally based in order to bring both black and white Americans together in an efficacious dialogue. A landmark book, On the Courthouse Lawn is a much-needed and urgent road map for communities finally confronting lynching's long shadow by embracing pragmatic reconciliation and reparation efforts. |
What people are saying - Write a review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
LibraryThing Review
User Review - ReluctantTechie - LibraryThingThis book emphasizes the gruesome details about a few lynchings that took place on Maryland's Eastern Shore. I read it because a local Unitarian Universalist congregation will be discussing it this ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - pomo58 - LibraryThingOn the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century is a ten year anniversary reissue by Sherrilyn A Ifill. This powerful book uses the Maryland Eastern Shore lynchings in ... Read full review
Contents
Introduction | |
Lynching and the Courthouse Lawn | |
Mob Rule on the Shore 19311933 | |
Ordinary People and Complicity | |
The Law in All Its Majesty | |
Local Newspapers and Lynching | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
African Americans AfroAmerican andthe antilynching apartheid Armwood lynching atthe Baltimore City Baltimore County Baltimore Sun black community black lawyers bythe challenge civil rights committed Community conferencing community’s conversations conviction courthouse lawn crimes criminal crowd Davis’s decision Douglass Duer Eastern Shore ethnic violence Euel Lee Fountain fromthe gacaca genocide George Armwood George Davis Ibid.[back institutional hearings inthe intheir jail jury justice leaders Lee’s legal system lynch mob lynchers lynching of Matthew lynching victims Maryland Matthew Williams murder NAACP newspapers O’Dunne ofblack oflynching ofthe onthe Shore papers participants Paul Rusesabagina perpetrators police officers Princess Anne prosecution race racial violence reconciliation efforts reconciliation process reparation residents responsibility restorative justice Rusesabagina Rwanda Salisbury Salisbury State University Sheriff silence Somerset County South African State’s Attorney Stewart story Talbot County talk thatthe thelynching tothe town trial Truitt truthtelling twentyfirst century white supremacy Wicomico County Williams lynching Williams’s withthe witnesses
Bibliographic information
| Title | On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century |
| Author | Sherrilyn Ifill |
| Publisher | Beacon Press, 2007 |
| ISBN | 0807009903, 9780807009901 |
| Length | 224 pages |
| Subjects | › › › History / Social History Social Science / Discrimination Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |