A Preface to Trial
My suspicion is that what happened in Mississippi was too personal and painful for Corbett to turn into a book. But I have come to believe that there has never been a better time for this story to...
Chapter 3
"I'll let you in on our destination before we commence— the Kingdom of Truth. Few who set out on the journey toward the Kingdom of Truth ever reach their destination. But today, gentlemen, I can...
Chapter 6
"I had the bone-handle carving knife in my hand. Not for her—I don't know, just in case of something. When she run at me, I turned. She run straight up on that knife, sir. I swear I never meant t...
Chapter 7
As a boy I'd walked past those churches a thousand times. I'd heard the clapping and the fervent amens. Now that had all gotten blended in with a fast-march tempo and the syncopated melody of the o...
Chapter 9
"Just remember one thing, Ben. That was a black boy who helped us. He was the only one who helped." (9.20)
Chapter 11
"I'm not a selfish woman. I admire the cases you take, really I do. I want the poor people and the colored people to be helped. But I also want something for my girls and me. Is that so wrong?" (11...
Chapter 13
"These are papers I've been collecting on the situation: reports of the most horrible occurrences, some police records. Things it's hard for a Christian man to credit. Especially since the perpetra...
Chapter 14
"What in hell is the truth— the absolute truth? And what can a president do to stop these awful things from happening?" (14.12)
Chapter 16
We kept far enough back so as not to be seen. I had not been a very religious boy up till then, but I found myself praying for George Pearson to get away. Please, God, I thought, make George run fa...
Chapter 20
"The white man doesn't hate the colored man," he said. "The white man is just afraid of the colored man." (20.16)
Chapter 23
"The news does travel down to Mississippi eventually. And everybody I know says you're the most progressive young lawyer in Washington." I had never heard that word pronounced with a more audible s...
Chapter 26
When interviewed, Chief of Police Phineas Eversman said that he was unaware of any lynching that previous evening in Eudora. A visitor in Chief Eversman's office, the respected Eudora Justice Evere...
Chapter 31
Theodore Roosevelt hadn't sent me to Eudora to take a rickety bicycle ride down memory lane. I had a job to do, and it might even help change history. (31.5)
Chapter 34
"You never seen a nail made out of human bone?" said Abraham. I shuddered, reaching up to haul the plank down. (34.12)
Chapter 36
The War between the States had been officially over for forty-three years but had never actually ended in the South. The Confederate battle flag still flew higher than Old Glory, at least at our co...
Chapter 38
"See, when you're colored, you always about this close—" he held up his fingers, indicating a tiny space—" to sayin' the wrong word. Or lookin' the wrong way. And that means you this far from g...
Chapter 39
THIS IS THE WAY WE COOK COONS DOWN HERE. THIS IS THE WAY WE WILL COOK YOU. WE KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE. GO HOME, N*****-LOVER. (39.19)
Chapter 43
"Ain't no Jesus," she said. "There ain't no Jesus for me." She wept so terribly I could not hold myself back. I knelt by her in the clearing. (43.11)
Part 3, Chapter 44
I know that my decision may strike you as a terrible mistake on my part. Yet I believe it is the only correct solution to our dilemma. We must be honest with each other and ourselves. I think it be...
Chapter 48
"We're not asking for public displays any more than you are," said Wells-Barnett, warming to the discussion. "As you recall, sir, when you invited Booker Washington to dine at the White House, it c...
Chapter 56
Besides being funny, every word he spoke was the absolute truth. The bigger the lies he pretended to tell, the more truthful the stories became. (56.9)
Chapter 58
I was still waiting for an answer from the White House. Maybe my telegram had been too concise? Too curt or disrespectful to send to the president? Maybe Roosevelt had forgotten about me? (58.1)
Chapter 63
"The white man killed Hiram!" he hollered again. "But my friends, we are not like the white man! We cannot allow ourselves to be like that. The Bible tells us what to do. Jesus tells us what to do....
Chapter 67
The rope was cutting under my jaw, but it had not gone tight. I got my hand up, somehow worked my fingers between the rope and my neck. I dangled and kicked as if I could kick my way out of the noo...
Chapter 71
But inside, I felt another, more disturbing pain. I had been beaten and left for dead. I had disappeared from the world, and hardly anyone had come looking for me. I mattered to virtually no one. M...
Chapter 72
"You mean, because we haven't heard from Roosevelt?" I asked. "I don't understand that at all. I almost got hanged for him." (72.17)
Chapter 74
"Look, I ain't gonna stand here and argue with the likes of you," she said. "I don't know how I could make it any clearer. We got no rooms available for you. So if you don't mind, I will thank you...
Chapter 77
"Maybe you'll see that we ain't all monsters," he said. "We're just family men. We got to look out for our women and protect what's rightfully ours." (77.15)
Chapter 79
"What are you doing?" I said. "You can't hang him, he might be telling the truth!" I felt my whole body shaking. "Why don't you look into what he says?" (79.4)
Chapter 80
If Jacob hadn't been a friend my whole life, I would have punched him right then. "Listen to yourself, Jacob. You just killed a man. Do you hear me? You killed him." (80.11)
Chapter 87
I could plainly see that it had taken a sizable chunk of flesh out of his cheek; blood oozed down his chin. That side of his face was black with gunpowder. (87.32)
Chapter 88
"It's time to put an end to it— the violence, all the hatred against coloreds in this town. These Ku Kluxer gangs are tearing Eudora apart, limb from limb. People are living in fear, black and wh...
Part 5, Chapter 89
"White men charged for killing black men, right down there in the heart of Dixie. Now let Du Bois and that Wells-Barnett woman try to tell me I have ignored the Negro problem!" (89.9)
Chapter 92
Judge Corbett and men of his class had gradually enshrined that inequality in law, and the highest court in the land had upheld its finding that "separate but equal" was good enough for everybody....
Chapter 97
Dominating the wall above the judge's bench was an enormous Fattorini & Sons regulator clock nearly as long as a grandfather clock, with a carved dark-wood case, elegant Roman numerals, and a p...
Chapter 103
"This case is not about race. It is not about the black versus the white. This case is much easier than that. It's a simple matter of justice." (103.22)
Chapter 104
"That is right, gentlemen of the jury. A bedtime story. We have two versions being told here. Mr. Curtis has told you a fairy story, and I have told you the truth. As God above knows it to be!" (10...
Chapter 111
"Elizabeth," I said. "You already are a help to me. Just knowing that I have your support and trust means everything to me." (111.11)
Chapter 112
In that steamy courtroom, ripe with the smell of sweat and Rose of Sharon eau de toilette, the good people of the Eudora Quarters took the stand and swore to tell the truth and nothing but the trut...
Chapter 114
Sweet Jesus in heaven! Jonah and I had never discussed this with her. We had certainly never planned for her to say such a thing. But say it she had: "…and showed me their search warrant." With t...
Chapter 117
The words stabbed me in the heart. I felt my throat closing and thought I might be sick. (117.11)
Chapter 121
He did the honest, moral, upright thing—and that's not always easy to do. He arrested these men and charged them, and he saw that they were brought to trial. He may have changed his mind since th...
Chapter 122
"Be aware. There are forces at work here that would like nothing better than to take away your freedoms, your right to live life the way you have always lived it here. I warn you to do what you mus...
Chapter 123
"And what you decide in that jury room will influence…for a very long time…the way we live our lives in this town." (123.7)
Chapter 124
I know that this might anger you, but I must tell the truth. I am convinced beyond any doubt that I am doing the right thing when I try to use my skills as a lawyer to help those who can't find jus...
Chapter 127
"But bad as it was," Abraham went on, "that's when things begun to change. A big change at the first, then they took it back. But what happened in that courtroom…that'll change it. You just wait....
Chapter 128
"Papaw keeps saying it takes a long time for things to change. Well, that's fine for him—he's almost run out of time. I don't want to be old and dying before anything ever starts to get better."...
Chapter 132
Every blow they struck was violent payback for a lynching, a hanging, a beating, a murder. I heard the thud of club against flesh, the crack of rock striking bone. Terrible cries erupted as the col...
Chapter 133
I felt blood running down where the whip was cutting into flesh and then Eversman was on me, hitting with both fists at once. But I was stronger, and angrier too. I managed to roll over and fling h...
Chapter 134
"Why, Ben?" he croaked. "Why'd you have to come back and ruin our nice little town?" (134.8)
Chapter 136
Four white men lay trussed up in the dirt in front of Abraham's house. I remembered Abraham talking about the earth running red with blood—and I saw blood, tiny rivers of it, here on his home gro...
Chapter 139
"The more progressive citizens see you as a kind of abolitionist, a figure of progress in the march of civilization toward full equality. And the coloreds in the South see you as some kind of prote...