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Buried in the Bitter Waters
Jaspin exposes a shocking history of racial cleansing in the United States, and one that, alarmingly, continues to effect the geography of race in America to this day. The culmination of nearly a decade of research in regional archives and census bureaus, Buried in the Bitter Waters presents irrefutable evidence of brutal attacks on blacks by ordinary white Americans. The property-burnings, assaults, and killings occurred between the period of Reconstruction and the Great Depression, and no part of the U.S. was immune. The violence was largely successful in its aim of driving blacks out of areas. More troubling, Jaspin's research indicates those areas most effected remain largely white, making his findings not merely an interesting historical exposé but a troubling commentary on the ongoing state of race relations in the U.S.
8 pages, Audio CD
First published February 27, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
February 10, 2012
This is an exceptional exploration of the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the years between the Civil War and World War II. The tone can be occasionally indignant or self-righteous but in a completely appropriate way. He takes issue with a variety of people today who are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that mass exoduses of African Americans should be classified as racial cleansing. This includes: a school teacher who has been given firsthand accounts from her elders but who feigns ignorance about her town’s history when she teaches, the president of the NAACP whose organization has had a blind spot regarding racial cleansing, townspeople who blame outside agitators for the ‘troubles’ of the past in addition to journalistic attempts to bring such history to light, local historians who willfully ignore empirical data regarding land use and changing demographics, and most importantly, the media conglomerates who don’t want to offend anybody. The book goes in chronological order through several racial cleansings across the United States, describing the town, some of the main players, the inciting incident and the violent aftermath, and ending with a view of the town today and whether or not anything has changed (usually nothing has changed, in attitude at least). What we see is how an incident occurs, usually between a white person and a black person, that quickly becomes a phenomenon sweeping the county that affects the lives of everyone nearby and which leaves scars on a community that are still present a hundred years later, if anyone is willing to look. This book makes an excellent companion to “Slavery by Another Name” by Douglas Blackmon, which concerns itself with the issue of economics, industry, and the effect of disenfranchisement on black men. This book, on the other hand, concerns itself with more domestic matters such as families torn asunder, land confiscation, the terror experienced by both men and women, and the effect of memory and faulty narratives on communities in the present day.
February 11, 2017
That this ethnic cleansing of Black communities happened should not be a surprise considering the history of the US. That it was so widespread was for me the real eye opener. For these events to be virtually forgotten and little spoken of, even today reflects on how society, to a certain extent still has not come to terms with its past. The subject is well researched and presented by Elliot Jaspin.
January 14, 2011
Fascinating! Powerful! This was one book that was required for a class that I picked up and actually enjoyed and read the whole thing. Because it is told though a variety of stories instead of being a factual analysis, it adds more impact. I had never head of racial cleansings, and am appalled and yet not at all surprised this was a part of our nation's history. This is an issue people need to learn more about. I highly recommend assigning it in history classrooms.
June 30, 2021
This is Nonfiction and it covers a piece of American history that is often shoved under the rug, so-to-speak. It covers the violence and other atrocities of racial cleansing that went on in certain areas of the US. This was a sobering read. There is much to learn from this part of history. This learning can lead to lasting change and healing.
October 21, 2016
This was a 6 star, thoroughly researched, and shocking book.
Despite having read many books about inequality, this book was novel for me because its focus was not simply a book about the inequality present in todays society or a survey of the practices in slavery and Jim Crow that resulted in lasting patterns of inequality. Rather, Jaspin provided a narrow but enthralling history of how specific towns went about excising their black population and, in many cases, "politely" keeping any new black people from settling. The practices, started long ago, seem to be largely effective in keeping a town white, even in the current day. Prior to reading this book, I was aware of the laws constructed to arrest free blacks and force them back into slavery conditions. I was also aware of the lynchings that took place as a form of vigilante justice that served to entertain Whites. However, I was not aware of the specific tactics used so often to cleanse entire black populations from certain areas.
Jaspin followed the geography of race and uncovered the truth about what was done to whole groups of black people. Not only were they displaced, but their land was stolen from them, making it impossible to survive well as a free black person. Jaspin called bullshit on the stories spun by those who benefited who tried to say they had gotten black people's land fair and square. Jaspin made a compelling argument that leaves little doubt that the land was indeed stolen and no restitution was ever given these families.
Investigative journalism at its very best!
Despite having read many books about inequality, this book was novel for me because its focus was not simply a book about the inequality present in todays society or a survey of the practices in slavery and Jim Crow that resulted in lasting patterns of inequality. Rather, Jaspin provided a narrow but enthralling history of how specific towns went about excising their black population and, in many cases, "politely" keeping any new black people from settling. The practices, started long ago, seem to be largely effective in keeping a town white, even in the current day. Prior to reading this book, I was aware of the laws constructed to arrest free blacks and force them back into slavery conditions. I was also aware of the lynchings that took place as a form of vigilante justice that served to entertain Whites. However, I was not aware of the specific tactics used so often to cleanse entire black populations from certain areas.
Jaspin followed the geography of race and uncovered the truth about what was done to whole groups of black people. Not only were they displaced, but their land was stolen from them, making it impossible to survive well as a free black person. Jaspin called bullshit on the stories spun by those who benefited who tried to say they had gotten black people's land fair and square. Jaspin made a compelling argument that leaves little doubt that the land was indeed stolen and no restitution was ever given these families.
Investigative journalism at its very best!
January 29, 2009
"Buried in the Bitter Waters" is a book describing forced removal of blacks in a number of areas of the U.S. around the turn of the (20th) Century. It's a story I hadn't heard of in my exposure to U.S. History, although most of us have heard related stories of forced removal of Native Americans from Indian lands during the 19th Century. The author describes his research into the facts following his accidental discovery of an all-white County in Arkansas ten years ago. Detailed digging into census records, newspaper accounds from the past, property deeds, and personal accounts led to his discovery of many cases of "racial cleansing", and his conclusions appear well substantiated. The stories he tells, ranging from many areas of the Country including Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, and a number of other States and Counties, are both tragic and riveting. With continuing evidence of situations of ethnic cleansing on-going around the globe, such as what took place after the breakup of Yugoslavia, Shia vs. Sunni in Iraq, Janaween attacks in the Darfur region of Sudan, Hutu attacks on Tutsis in Rwanda, or earlier examples ranging from the Holocaust by the Nazi's to Khmer Rouge attacks in Cambodia, it shouldn't be surprising that there may have been examples in our own Country. Without being a point of the book, the history told also reminds us that "the right of return", a sticking point in Arab-Israeli Palestinian peace negotiations, can be applied to many areas around the world, including our own United States. With so many other similar examples evident around the world, it's a comfort to think that our Country appears to have advanced from near universal national racial bias at that time to being able to elect our first black President 100 years later. Hopefully, 100 years from now that lesson will be spread to other areas around the world as well.
January 23, 2016
Beyond belief...totally beyond belief...but within the realm of our nation's history. Only you have never heard about this in school because it's lost, intentionally, by newspapers and local historians and witnesses living and dead. I read this book as an audio in my car going to and from school. Daily, I would sit in my car and just shake by head in disgust and dismay. How could such horrible things go on in my country, in Missouri, my neighboring state. I'm not aware of any town in America where as a white person I have to be worried about going into. But if you're black it's a whole different story. Even in 2012, there are places in the South, including Arkansas, where the Klan makes sure that blacks are not welcome. I will use my new knowledge of this subject when I teach lessons with my 8th graders on the Civil Rights movement.
June 13, 2018
A great book about a horrible subject. The 2 things I liked most was it didn't focus on gore or lynching like some of these books do. It does mention a few murders but focuses mostly on the forced evictions and the circumstances surrounding them. Second, I didn't get that white hate vibe or passive aggressive racism towards whites that some of these books have. Even ones written by white authors. It was well researched, well written and non-bias. The 2nd to the final chapter was one of the most enraging for me. When the author attempted to release a series on the subject in the newspaper he worked for. Cox newspaper and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution should be ashamed. VERY ASHAMED. If I worked there in 2002(yes, 2002) I would have been disgusted to the core. They basically edited his articles to the point that they covered for the people that covered for the people that forced hundreds of innocent people from there homes and stole their land. Basically, Cox and Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered the event in Forsyth county Georgia no better than the newspapers did in 1912. They edited the most vital and damaging information. NOT proper journalism and in my opinion and a little bit on the racist side. In 2002 a major newspaper shouldn't have been doing these things. They obviously learned nothing from history. Nothin. But I did. And I recommend this book to anyone. Just please remember: NOT ALL WHITEYS ARE BAD!
November 22, 2019
Fantastic research book. Not the most pleasant reading, although compliments to the author for bringing so much storytelling and personalization into it. At some point I got tired of the stories and wanted to stop reading, but then I looked myself in the face and thought, "No. These stories demand to be heard, and you know it. Listen to the names. Picture the faces." I don't like hearing about torture and abuse, especially so many stories gathered in one place. But the blood cries out from the earth. It can never be made right, not wholly.
I already knew some of these happenings vaguely, so it was less surprising than a book like The Color of Law was for me (which outlined housing and governmental racism, particularly in the "oh so progressive and liberal Bay Area," where I am from). In that way it felt less like a discovery and more of a weighty consumption of negative stories from fairly predictable regions of America.
Seems clear to me that that stolen land, however cleverly hidden behind deed transfers and "voluntary expulsion" (oxy moron sarcasm), should be returned to black individuals whose ancestors were driven away from their homes. Inheritance is a major method of staying afloat and receiving support and climbing to the top of the financial ladder.
Many thanks to the author for gathering and uncovering so much good data.
I already knew some of these happenings vaguely, so it was less surprising than a book like The Color of Law was for me (which outlined housing and governmental racism, particularly in the "oh so progressive and liberal Bay Area," where I am from). In that way it felt less like a discovery and more of a weighty consumption of negative stories from fairly predictable regions of America.
Seems clear to me that that stolen land, however cleverly hidden behind deed transfers and "voluntary expulsion" (oxy moron sarcasm), should be returned to black individuals whose ancestors were driven away from their homes. Inheritance is a major method of staying afloat and receiving support and climbing to the top of the financial ladder.
Many thanks to the author for gathering and uncovering so much good data.
January 21, 2022
This book revealed to me a part of America’s past that I did not know. To me, it spoke volumes about the historical foundation of hate and how it still impacts so many of our communities.
April 23, 2012
Read this book, read this book, read this book. And learn.
End of sermon.
A well-written and fascinating account of a piece of American history that has often gone unreported and misunderstood. Even the footnotes tell a story.
SW
End of sermon.
A well-written and fascinating account of a piece of American history that has often gone unreported and misunderstood. Even the footnotes tell a story.
SW
February 6, 2012
This book really opened my eyes to the history of racial cleansing throughout the history of the US. I never knew what blacks had to go through! What a horrible bit of history!
May 6, 2012
Excellent audio book. Important history.
August 15, 2014
This book was an amazing eye opener into American History. This is the bases for my future dissertation. Be on the look out for Hesley R. Keenan Jr.'s first published work on this topic. :-)
November 21, 2019
Good research with a faulty premise. By this I do not mean that racial cleansing did not occur, but that author Jaspin's lack of historical grounding before embarking on his demographic analysis undercut his project. The _essential_ reason these border state areas had (and have) low black populations is that slavery was not very profitable in these zones; hence, relatively few slave-owners and slaves. Research into settlement patterns from antebellum times would have demonstrated this quite plainly. The author approached the present day visual population demographics from the wrong end of the telescope. Also, the "race changing" he encountered for Appalachian Magoffin County, Kentucky, is due to the ambiguous status of a mixed-race local community called "Melungeons." Their categorization seemed to depend on the attitude of the Census takers, which apparently grew more "liberal" over the years by accepting them as white (enough).
That said, the pattern of racial cleansing was real, and especially so in the areas he describes, precisely because blacks were always small in number and thus more vulnerable to violence. One area he does not mention is north Texas, where a small black population dating from the antebellum era on Red River was systematically driven out as white farm tenants grew in number. The last act in this process was the riot and burn-out of the black community in Sherman in 1930.
The book is rich in anecdotal description of particular places and incidents, and worth reading as a peek into a dark, cobwebbed corner of American social life. I can also identify with the hypocrisies of the American publishing industry in "the freest press in the world": it's as squeamish and censorial and cowardly over "controversial subject matter" as the press of any "peoples' democracy" ever was. But the conclusions Jaspin draws here are only partially supported by his stated thesis.
One addendum: when he writes in the epilogue of two sides - the descendant of a lynchee meeting and befriending the descendant of a lyncher - it seems to be a redemptive, mountaintop moment right out of Martin Luther King. Yet let me play Devil's advocate: can't hatred also serve a moral end? Justice and innocence violated must necessarily provoke strong repudiation, or morality has no meaning. The trick is to focus it upon the just target.
That said, the pattern of racial cleansing was real, and especially so in the areas he describes, precisely because blacks were always small in number and thus more vulnerable to violence. One area he does not mention is north Texas, where a small black population dating from the antebellum era on Red River was systematically driven out as white farm tenants grew in number. The last act in this process was the riot and burn-out of the black community in Sherman in 1930.
The book is rich in anecdotal description of particular places and incidents, and worth reading as a peek into a dark, cobwebbed corner of American social life. I can also identify with the hypocrisies of the American publishing industry in "the freest press in the world": it's as squeamish and censorial and cowardly over "controversial subject matter" as the press of any "peoples' democracy" ever was. But the conclusions Jaspin draws here are only partially supported by his stated thesis.
One addendum: when he writes in the epilogue of two sides - the descendant of a lynchee meeting and befriending the descendant of a lyncher - it seems to be a redemptive, mountaintop moment right out of Martin Luther King. Yet let me play Devil's advocate: can't hatred also serve a moral end? Justice and innocence violated must necessarily provoke strong repudiation, or morality has no meaning. The trick is to focus it upon the just target.
February 8, 2025
"In most racial cleansings there is some sudden and violent event in the county's major town or city that is followed by an ultimatum: Leave or die." These are the words written in Buried in the Bitter Waters by Elliot Jaspin. This is truly a disturbing book and shows a part of American history that is rarely mentioned. Slavery, lynchings, and segregation are mentioned and covered, but the heinous actions of ethnic cleansings of African Americans in the post-Civil War era are hardly discussed. I did not learn about any of these barbaric acts in school. I just learned about lynchings, Jim Crow, and the Black Codes. I never learned about violent actions to drive an entire group of people out of a county.
Jaspin covers racial cleansings that occurred in Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and other states. Violence was committed to drive the black population out of the county because the white population wanted them gone. Sometimes there were warnings, but the message was the same: Blacks were not welcome here. At the end of the book there is an index that shows you the population of the counties covered in this book, and you can see a sharp decline of African Americans there. Jaspin even writes at one part of the book "If it weren't for these graves, one could almost believe blacks never existed in the county. In the local histories, blacks are barely mentioned."
This book was challenging to read because of the atrocities committed are just absolutely unsettling. I had to take a break from reading this book some evenings because it was heavy and disturbing. This is one of the few books that made me feel this way. However, I had to finish this book because the history of this chapter is too important. We have to recognize all aspects of history in this country whether it is good or bad and remember the victims of these racial cleansings.
Jaspin did his research, wrote an engaging narrative to draw the reader in despite the subject being about the lives of innocent people being destroyed. A must read.
Jaspin covers racial cleansings that occurred in Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and other states. Violence was committed to drive the black population out of the county because the white population wanted them gone. Sometimes there were warnings, but the message was the same: Blacks were not welcome here. At the end of the book there is an index that shows you the population of the counties covered in this book, and you can see a sharp decline of African Americans there. Jaspin even writes at one part of the book "If it weren't for these graves, one could almost believe blacks never existed in the county. In the local histories, blacks are barely mentioned."
This book was challenging to read because of the atrocities committed are just absolutely unsettling. I had to take a break from reading this book some evenings because it was heavy and disturbing. This is one of the few books that made me feel this way. However, I had to finish this book because the history of this chapter is too important. We have to recognize all aspects of history in this country whether it is good or bad and remember the victims of these racial cleansings.
Jaspin did his research, wrote an engaging narrative to draw the reader in despite the subject being about the lives of innocent people being destroyed. A must read.
March 10, 2018
The hidden history of racial cleansing in America is a compelling read focusing on the untold stories of how land, once owned by Blacks, "mysteriously" during the next year's census poll, had suddenly become owned by Whites. These land grabs were notorious in not just the south but all over the United States. We've become cognizant of the race riots in Tulsa but that was just one of many as the author scoured across America uncovering what has hidden in plain sight.
Between the eras of Reconstruction and the Depression, Whites saw how prosperous it had become to just stronghold a 'well to do' Black person's land - killing two birds with one stone giving comeuppance to uppity negroes and profiting without spending a dime.
It's shameful, this period of history, as the perpetrators often times imposed death upon these Black land owners and were never prosecuted but worse, this land, unlawfully obtained, is still under the ownership of the thieve's descendants to this very day.
And excellent historical read.
Between the eras of Reconstruction and the Depression, Whites saw how prosperous it had become to just stronghold a 'well to do' Black person's land - killing two birds with one stone giving comeuppance to uppity negroes and profiting without spending a dime.
It's shameful, this period of history, as the perpetrators often times imposed death upon these Black land owners and were never prosecuted but worse, this land, unlawfully obtained, is still under the ownership of the thieve's descendants to this very day.
And excellent historical read.
September 19, 2019
This is the second book I have read in recent memory concerning the cleansing of African-Americans from certain areas (mostly by county) of the country; and while not restricted to Georgia, the author's work certainly focuses there. For me, this has been some revelatory as we lived in Gwinnett County for a time in the late '80s/early '90s and we were gone before the impact(or lack) of the 1987 marches for racial healing took place in Forsythe County. Makes me painfully aware that one can live a good long time somewhere without be accepted.
While it is not a huge part of Jaspin's work, it did give me a new appreciation for the difficulties that surround the issue of reparations. Even close up in those Georgia counties one would be hard pressed, with the best of evidence, at making a determination as to what constitutes "fair" in making legal arguments for and against claims that go back three and four generations.
While it is not a huge part of Jaspin's work, it did give me a new appreciation for the difficulties that surround the issue of reparations. Even close up in those Georgia counties one would be hard pressed, with the best of evidence, at making a determination as to what constitutes "fair" in making legal arguments for and against claims that go back three and four generations.
May 27, 2018
We all know about slavery, and about Jim Crow laws and the attempts at “separate but equal” but the racial cleansing of many rural towns is something that wasn’t covered in the history books. However, that is just as important to understand, especially in the current climate. Many black people were run out of their homes and their jobs and their lives because of (in my opinion) fragile white people who felt threatened by their mere existence. This has left a lasting impact on society even today.
I liked the way that Elliot Jaspin presented the information in the book. It wasn’t written to be sensational, just stating the facts (when possible) and presenting theories (making it clear that they were theories).
I liked the way that Elliot Jaspin presented the information in the book. It wasn’t written to be sensational, just stating the facts (when possible) and presenting theories (making it clear that they were theories).
February 1, 2019
There's always something more to learn about the breadth and depth of racial oppression in America: the middle passage, slavery, the internal slave trade, sharecropping, lynching, segregation, voter suppression, redlining, vagrancy laws, convict leasing, mass incarceration, bombings, discrimination, kangaroo courts... and it turns out we barely knew the history of anti-black pogroms, some of which the author has recovered. African Americans in many places have taught their children to steer clear of towns and counties denuded of black people: here are stories of why.
May 24, 2021
I read this book for a school assignment, I actually enjoyed reading and learning. This book really opened my eyes to America's past. You can tell that the author has put so much time into this book researching and making sure he is telling us true facts. It was very interesting to read because one of those cleansings happened in a neighboring county and I have never heard about it until I read this book. In fact my home town even gets mentioned in this book. It was sad to read about how blacks were treated. Schools now do not teach you about these racial cleansings.
September 25, 2023
This book explains so many things about this country I didn't really understand. Why there was a mass migration of African Americans from the South to the cities and industrialized areas, the current political distribution in this country between urban and rural areas, and the ongoing racial conflict. There are many more questions that a history cannot answer, like why do people do such awful things.
August 23, 2018
I didn't read all of it, but it was very eye-opening. I found it tempting to dismiss or try to get around the author's claims of racial cleansing, but the reality is that people were forced to leave their homes because of the threat of violence. We are so quick to judge other countries, and yet this has happened right here as well.
July 11, 2021
Good general audience book, and would pair very well with James Loewen's Sundown Towns. Feels a little bit dated, but that mostly affects the analysis of present day conditions rather than the history
November 21, 2021
Should be required reading. For everyone. The writing is unremarkable, and the research can only go so far in unearthing events that were shameful and covered up. But this history is both largely unknown and, sadly, foundational to today's America.
December 10, 2018
An important contribution to an understudied topic. Highly recommend.
June 23, 2020
This is an excellent book that should be required reading.
June 21, 2021
Another piece of the painful but life-giving process of remembering grievous national sins that my ancestors would have preferred never come to light.
May 20, 2025
4.5 / 5 Stars | 90 / 100
Thoughts to come.
Thoughts to come.
December 7, 2013
“Buried in the Bitter Waters” recounts the systematic expulsion of blacks in certain towns along a crescent shaped swath of the country stretching from North Carolina to Missouri that occurred from the post-Civil War era to the 1920’s. The book is an interesting companion to Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” and, in particular Douglas, Blackmon’s “Slavery by Another Name”, both of which recount a largely forgotten era of American history as it relates to white societal oppression of blacks in the period. Everyone knows that the Great Migration happened; these books make comprehensible why so many blacks were happy to leave the South.
There are pockets throughout the modern South of communities containing almost no blacks. Working with census data over a period of decades, Jaspin identified an alarming number of communities where the black citizens simply disappeared from the census rolls from one decade to the next. Working from contemporary newspaper reports, tax rolls, government documents, oral histories and the stories of decedents, Jaspin pieces together the story of what caused these strange demographic anomalies. He identifies several cases where, over a shockingly short period of time (like, days) all of the blacks in a community were expelled from the communities where they had lived, sometimes for generations. The pattern that Jaspin surfaces is one where a single black accused of a heinous murder or rape of a white person serves as the provocation for community whites to order all blacks in the region leave…..now. Interestingly, the communities where this happens are typically small and typically ones were blacks are either not critical to the local economy, or worse, represent a competitive labor threat to local whites.
As with “Slavery by Another Name”, it is difficult from the book to assess the scope of the oppression. While in the grand scheme of the country as a whole these expulsions, which Jaspin calls a “racial cleansing” is likely relatively small, the point is that much like a lynching, the threat represented an omnipresent specter of terror under which all blacks in the region lived.
In addition to recounting several examples of these expulsions and the general pattern surrounding their occurrence, Jaspin also explores the means by which these episodes have been expunged from local and national memory. The last chapter is devoted to his experience trying, as a reporter working for the Cox group, to get a series published on the “racial cleansing” phenomenon he’d uncovered. He recounts attitudes of personal and institutional resistance that ultimately delayed publication of highly watered down versions his pieces by several months. In the Cox chain’s Atlanta affiliate, the series was not published at all. While his point is valid and insightful, after a while one begins to sense a certain level of personal bitterness with Cox over the emasculation of his work. Sadly, the introduction of this sense of personal disappointment and frustration diminishes the impact of his very valid theme – that these horrible historical events are forgotten by people (even conscientious people of good will) because they want to forget them. The section of his book covering this story would have been twice as good had it been half as long.
Overall, a good book and well worth the read for anyone interested in learning about America’s racial history.
There are pockets throughout the modern South of communities containing almost no blacks. Working with census data over a period of decades, Jaspin identified an alarming number of communities where the black citizens simply disappeared from the census rolls from one decade to the next. Working from contemporary newspaper reports, tax rolls, government documents, oral histories and the stories of decedents, Jaspin pieces together the story of what caused these strange demographic anomalies. He identifies several cases where, over a shockingly short period of time (like, days) all of the blacks in a community were expelled from the communities where they had lived, sometimes for generations. The pattern that Jaspin surfaces is one where a single black accused of a heinous murder or rape of a white person serves as the provocation for community whites to order all blacks in the region leave…..now. Interestingly, the communities where this happens are typically small and typically ones were blacks are either not critical to the local economy, or worse, represent a competitive labor threat to local whites.
As with “Slavery by Another Name”, it is difficult from the book to assess the scope of the oppression. While in the grand scheme of the country as a whole these expulsions, which Jaspin calls a “racial cleansing” is likely relatively small, the point is that much like a lynching, the threat represented an omnipresent specter of terror under which all blacks in the region lived.
In addition to recounting several examples of these expulsions and the general pattern surrounding their occurrence, Jaspin also explores the means by which these episodes have been expunged from local and national memory. The last chapter is devoted to his experience trying, as a reporter working for the Cox group, to get a series published on the “racial cleansing” phenomenon he’d uncovered. He recounts attitudes of personal and institutional resistance that ultimately delayed publication of highly watered down versions his pieces by several months. In the Cox chain’s Atlanta affiliate, the series was not published at all. While his point is valid and insightful, after a while one begins to sense a certain level of personal bitterness with Cox over the emasculation of his work. Sadly, the introduction of this sense of personal disappointment and frustration diminishes the impact of his very valid theme – that these horrible historical events are forgotten by people (even conscientious people of good will) because they want to forget them. The section of his book covering this story would have been twice as good had it been half as long.
Overall, a good book and well worth the read for anyone interested in learning about America’s racial history.
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