I was in history heaven while reading this book. This is a very well written and engagingly told true story. It focuses on a specific case: the United States v. Theron Lynd, the early 60s, Mississippi, but it tells so much about that time and place and the experiences of African-American vs. white citizens and their attempts to register as voters.

The author inserts just enough of himself to give the account a personal flavor and not one iota more. He was a young attorney involved in the case. He makes the brilliant move of using the interviews with the witnesses (black and white) for them to tell their own stories. I’m so glad all their stories were brought to light in this book. I admit I knew nothing about any of them before I read it. Their stories and the way they are presented make for an informative and emotionally moving reading experience.

It’s fascinating, amazing, and humbling to learn the number of people it took, their persistence, dedication, and bravery, to make changes happen, for them do all they could to become registered voters and to vote, and their efforts certainly eventually benefited us all. A huge number of people and much legislation contributed to the civil rights movement and the fruition of voting rights, and some of those people and what they went through are described in these pages; it brought home to me how true it is when people say we are beholden to many who have come before us.

The book covers many people in some depth, from before and during the case, and then the author went back to do interviews with them years after the original events. So the reader gets to know witnesses, lawyers, county officials, etc. people who were directly or tangentially involved, including many personal details of their backgrounds and families. It’s an effective way to approach a big topic: make it personable and relatable. There are so many memorable people involved with this case, heroes and villains both. While it’s primarily about the single case, it’s also about other cases, the civil rights and voting rights movements (and the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act), the entrenched behaviors and values of many in the populace at that time, the pervasive racism, and the systematic refusal to let certain African-American citizens exercise their right to vote. It read like a fiction book at times (I kept thinking of Atticus, with whom I’ve always been enamored, because in this book I also found lawyers, real lawyers!, I could admire and find honorable.) At times reading this was jarring; language no longer in vogue is used, including one word that’s hateful, but it worked here because it brought me right to that time and place, and while I was never there this account did an exceptional job of making me feel as though I was right in the middle of what went on.

Reading this book was fun for me because I was alive in the late 50s and the 1960s, but I was a child when the primary events described were happening. But I knew about Earl Warren, LBJ, JFK, and I definitely learned quite a few details about the formation and development of the KKK. (There are lots of dates in the book and my birthday came up more than once, so I’d think about how old I was (young!) and think about what my life was like then, and what was going on in the wider world at the same time, events about which I was then unaware.)

There are ample notes, a rather extensive bibliography, and an index in the back of the book. I appreciated the photos that are in the middle of the book; they gave faces to some of the names.

In addition to learning about this case and the people involved with it and some more information about injustices in Forrest County, Mississippi, I learned one more piece of information about FDR that isn’t so complimentary. My father idolized FDR because of what he did for job growth during the Great Depression. Years ago when I found out he didn’t step up to help European Jews during the Holocaust, I was disillusioned. Now, in this book, I got to find out that he also did not support a particular piece of anti-lynching legislation. So disappointing, yet I found it very interesting to learn this.

I’m hoping that there will (soon) be a large print edition of this book. I know a ninety-seven-year-old legally blind man who would love it! For now, I’ll just have to tell him about it, and alert him if I learn that the author (or any of those involved) will be on the radio, television, or will be speaking locally.

My mother did have to pass a difficult citizenship test when she became a naturalized citizen. When I turned 18 (a white, Jewish women in the North in the early 70s) it was an easy, painless process to register, and then vote either in person or by absentee ballot. No poll taxes, no interpreting parts of the constitution, nobody deliberately barring me from exercising my right to vote. I really admire everybody who worked to (hopefully) make the process like that for all who are eligible to vote.

And, my treasured copy of this book has an autographed by the author bookplate. He has a wonderfully wry and wicked sense of humor!