''Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America'' is a 2016 non-fiction book written by

Patrick Phillips Patrick Phillips is an American poet, writer, and professor. He teaches writing and literature at Stanford University, and is a Carnegie Foundation Fellow and a fellow of the Cullman Center for Writers at the New York Public Library. He has be ...

investigating the 1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County, Georgia, the ensuing racial cleansing of the county, and later developments including the 1987 Forsyth County protests.

Overview

In September 1912 in

Forsyth County, Georgia Forsyth County ( or ) is a county in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. Suburban and exurban in character, Forsyth County lies within the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. The county's only incorporated city and county seat is ...

, a young white girl was assaulted, raped, and later died. Following the coerced confession of a young black man, an alleged accomplice was

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

. What then followed was bands of white "night riders" that drove the black citizens out of the county, via arson and terror. The title ''Blood at the Root'' comes from the song '' Strange Fruit'' about the lynchings of African Americans in the South.

Summary

Reviews

Carol Anderson Carol Anderson (born June 17, 1959) is an American academic. She is the Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Her research focuses on public policy with regard to race, justice, and equality. Educatio ...

, reviewing the book for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', said it "meticulously and elegantly reveals the power of

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

in its many guises." Anderson commented that some of the book was "weighed down by supposition and tangents", noting that the author "is hampered by the scarce records, biased contemporary newspaper reporting, traumatized family memories and oral histories that are few and far between."

Notes

References

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