A fascinating, heart wrenching depiction of violence that sheds light on the true nature of a community and shucks off the traditional boundaries of white-led true crime. More people should know this story.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

One August night in 1931, on a secluded mountain ridge overlooking Birmingham, Alabama, three young white women were brutally attacked. The sole survivor, Nell Williams, age eighteen, said a black man had held the women captive for four hours before shooting them and disappearing into the woods. That same night, a reign of terror was unleashed on Birmingham's black community: black businesses were set ablaze, posses of armed white men roamed the streets, and dozens of black men were arrested in the largest manhunt in Jefferson County history. Weeks later, Nell identified Willie Peterson as the attacker who killed her sister Augusta and their friend Jenny Wood. With the exception of being black, Peterson bore little resemblance to the description Nell gave the police. An all-white jury convicted Peterson of murder and sentenced him to death.
In Murder on Shades Mountain Melanie S. Morrison tells the gripping and tragic story of the attack and its aftermath—events that shook Birmingham to its core. Having first heard the story from her father—who dated Nell's youngest sister when he was a teenager—Morrison scoured the historical archives and documented the black-led campaigns that sought to overturn Peterson's unjust conviction, spearheaded by the NAACP and the Communist Party. The travesty of justice suffered by Peterson reveals how the judicial system could function as a lynch mob in the Jim Crow South. Murder on Shades Mountain also sheds new light on the struggle for justice in Depression-era Birmingham. This riveting narrative is a testament to the courageous predecessors of present-day movements that demand an end to racial profiling, police brutality, and the criminalization of black men.

*4.5 stars*

I went into this book a little bit blind - you see, I am a white man from Australia, with very little knowledge of the Jim Crow laws or the horrific treatment of African American people at that time.

This book certainly changed all of that.

I would like to think I am a better person for it.

I won't go into the details - they are there in blurb. I can't add to that description.

I will say it dropped half a star because there are times when the author "invents" thoughts or feelings of the characters without any sort of proof. However, I don't think it detracts from the telling of the story - just loses a little of the "non-fiction" tag if the author is fictionalising some of the work.

I do recommend this book. I recommend it a lot. But be prepared - it isn't an easy read, especially if you are not from that community. It is heartbreaking, but at the same time, offers hope that there are some good and decent people trying to enact change. Let's hope that happens, sooner rather than later.


Paul
ARH

It is a really hard book to get through, especially if you have compassion for those that suffer under the hand of injustice. You read through the destruction of inheritance as Black businesses are destroyed, men arrested and then the accusation of Willie Peterson, who was automatically found "guilty until proven guilty". I hate that the truth never came out. Just white rage setting fire to every bit of truth and justice that could have cleared up everything.

I would not recommend this book, due to the anger that it drags out of the reader. However, if there is a scholarly discussion about the Jim Crow Era, I will gladly present this story. Most people know about the Scottsboro Boys, well now they know about Willie Peterson.

The formatting of this ARC is so dreadful I abandoned it in the first paragraph.

Most students of southern history are familiar with the Scottsboro Boys, but few are familiar with Willie Peterson, the murder of Shades mountain, and the trials. The involvement of the Communist party in Jim Crow South was very involved. I was not aware of this until reading this book. This book on the history of the murders on Shades mountain is eye-opening and engaging. It is both enjoying and disturbing to read. I read this book every time I had a moment. I knew the ending but was still hopeful for Peterson.