book: On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-FirstCentury

books:

	• On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-FirstCentury Sherrilyn A. Ifill Beacon Press, 2008 - 224 pages view larger image
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Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960, and as Sherrilyn Ifill argues, the effects of this racial trauma continue to resound. Ifill issues a clarion call for the many American communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy. On the Courthouse Lawn?a landmark book?is a much-needed road map to help communities finally confront lynching's long shadow by embracing pragmatic reconciliation and reparation efforts.

"Inspired by South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, civil-rights attorney Ifill offers a new approach to addressing the history of lynching in America. One legacy of [racial violence] is the difficulty blacks and whites have even of discussing it, since few really want to remember what, for most on both sides of the divide, were traumatizing events. Yet remembering is essential. An intriguing, immodest proposal that itself warrants discussion?and action." ?Kirkus Review, starred review

"A sobering and eye-opening book on one of America's darkest secrets. A must read for anyone willing to examine our history carefully and learn from it."
?Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

"A thoroughly researched, unflinching account of the ugly history of the Eastern Shore's early-twentieth-century lynchings."
?Petula Caesar, Baltimore City Paper

"Elegantly written and persuasively argued . . . Ifill explores the possibilities and offers concrete advice on how truth and reconciliation could be widely employed in the United States."
?Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history, University of Pennsylvania

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