Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King

3.26/5.00

Published: 2012

Genre: Non-Fiction

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When we hear about the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, the KKK, and explicit racism like lynching, it is often as a distant, aged time. A lot of people act as if it is removed from time, erased, even though some people living during that time are still breathing. It can come as a chilling shock that this happened little more than half a century ago. Norma Lee Padgett, a central character in this story, still lives in Florida.

I liked this book. It was a good book. However, it felt a bit like the typical historical, non-fiction book at times.

After the first few weeks of school, I tend to read quicker, lighter books that demand less attention. During this time, a book (and reviewing it) is my stress relief. If I chose to read this book during the summer, I would have enjoyed this book more and finished it earlier.

But is this the book’s fault? Not at all. It was a dramatic visit to the close past, one that some living lived through.

In 2013, Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.