-Thurgood Marshall
Wow! I don't know if I have ever read a book that made me SO angry!
The book's title was mentioned in a column of the Orlando Sentinel, called "Florida Flashback" by Joy Dickinson. Since I enjoy learning about Florida history, I ordered it from the library. When I flipped through the pages, I doubted if I really wanted to read it---small print, close to 400 pages, looked a little dry. I couldn't have been more wrong! I could hardly put it down, even though it was so emotionally intense. One could call it a real-life horror story.
I attended high school in Alabama in the 1960's so I was no stranger to racism and the civil rights movement. Having lived in Florida for over 40 years though, I had no idea what a hot-bed of bigotry our state was in the 40's and 50's. One person in the book called Florida "south of the South" and meant it more than geographically. Apparently many acts of racist violence in Florida were unpublicized because Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and others got the attention.
I visited the Harry T. Moore home in Mims, Florida this past year and learned of Moore's martyrdom for the cause of civil rights. In a Bible study that same year, we learned of his fight for justice for blacks. I had a small part in a community theater production several years ago which portrayed the leadership of sit-ins in Orlando at near the same time. So perhaps I should have known what to expect from the story of the Groveland Boys.
Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall was probably one of the worst villains I have come across! Though the case against the 4 black men accused of the rape of a young white woman was extremely weak, white law officers such as McCall and deputies, lawyers, judges, jury members and journalists turned a blind eye and convicted them, which at that time was a capital offense. Over and over appeals were turned down and from the time of the alleged crime, July of 1949, until 1969 Sheriff McCall was responsible for the deaths of 3 of the four innocent men, and none of them were legally executed! (That is MY opinion after reading this very well-researched book.)
I didn't know much about Thurgood Marshall except that he was the first African-American Supreme Court Judge, but it turns out he was a giant in the cause of civil rights. There were several other heroes, NAACP workers, lawyers and journalists, some white, that sacrificed so much to fight for justice for the Groveland Boys. In Lake County at that time, they were taking a huge risk to life and limb.
This was a fascinating though very disturbing story. It does show how far our state and our society has come in the cause of equality in 60 plus years. And of course, we have a ways to go.
My rating is a 5.
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Page Turners read this book in March, 2019, and had a lively discussion involving some of the same ideas I wrote about in my original post. Some members lived in the north during this time and had very different experiences with race relations pre-Civil Rights Era. Even folks who lived in the South did not realize what was happening in Florida. The group felt Devil in the Grove was an important book in that it drew public attention to a long-buried injustice to the "Groveland Boys." In January of this year, they were pardoned by the Florida clemency board and Governor Ron DeSantis and the group felt the book had a significant bearing on that outcome. DeSantis said, "Justice was miscarried for the Groveland Four beginning with events set in motion in 1949. Though these men now lie in graves, their stories linger in search of justice." The ultimate justice would be exoneration, in my opinion. Maybe some day...
We agreed that this book was difficult to read but, thankfully, exposed true heroes like Marshall, Harry T. Moore and others who took the risk of standing up for justice in a dangerous time and place. Our group's average rating was 4.2.
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