Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes
Alex A. Alston, Jr., James L. Dickerson, . . Lawrence Hill, $26.95 (369pp) ISBN 978-1-55652-763-0
Mississippi State history mixes with the authors' personal memories in this vivid, often shocking look at the state's legacy of racism. Focusing on several of the most notorious racial incidents of the 1950s and '60s, including the violent opposition to the integration of the University of Mississippi; the murder of Mississippi's first NAACP field secretary, Medgar Evers; and the murders of civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, the book examines the complicity—and, just as often, outright support and collaboration—of the state's media, legal system and clergy in upholding a racial system that the authors persuasively refer to as “state-sponsored terror.” Alston Jr., a former president of the Mississippi Bar Association, and Dickerson (
Reviewed on: 04/27/2009
Genre: Nonfiction