Book ✓ Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism Å 432 pages

> Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism

Epub Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism

Book ✓ Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism Å 432 pages î In this profound and fascinating book the authors revisit an overlooked Supreme Court decision that changed forever how justice is carrieIn this profound and fascinating book the authors revisit an overlooked Supreme Court decision that changed forever how justice is carried out in the United StatesIn 1906 Ed Johnson was the innocnet black man found guilty of the brutal rape of Nevada Taylor a white woman and sentenced This was an eye opening look at justice system history which is probably good for someone like me who couldn't even have defined what contempt of court is off the top of my head before reading this as well as racial relations in the United StatesIt's hard to picture how different the relationship between the federal and state courts were in these times but this story of two black lawyers who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene in a case of their client is at once depressing and hopeful Depressing because it involves a lynching and there is plenty of focus on the racial attitudes of the times I certainly found it both shameful and anger inducing but also important to read It was also a good introduction to Styles and Hutchins the two courageous black lawyers who made history but not without enduring threats rage and shunning in their own community Overall this was an informative and interesting and sad look at the sham that justice usually was for black people in this time and certain parallels to today can also be seen It's also a must read for anyone who's interested in legal history in the United States

Epub ñ Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism ó Mark Curriden

Whirlwind of groundbreaking legal action whose import Thurgood Marshall would claim has never been fully explained Provocative thorough and gripping Contempt of Court is a long overdue look at events that clearly depict the peculiar and tenuous relationship between justice and the law Every lawyer should read this book if not every person on the planet Contempt of Court takes us back in time to 1906 when juries were composed solely of white men lynchings were carried out with the complicit approval of law enforcement and when the accused had few due process protections And it tells the story of black heroes which history has forgotten view spoilerEd Johnson a black man was accused of raping a white woman Although dozens of alibi witnesses testify to his actual innocence Johnson's guilt was already established by the color of his skin The same day Johnson was arrested the newspapers rallied the angry white men into a frenzy and a lynching was attempted that very night Since that moment the Sheriff Judge and Prosecutor conspired to hang Johnson before the lynch mob could do it They were nearly successful until two black members of the bar initiated Johnson's appeal hide spoiler

Mark Curriden ó Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism Text

Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of FederalismTo die in Chattanooga Tennessee Two black lawyers not even part of the original defense appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution and the stay incredibly was granted Frenzied with rage at the deision locals responded by lynching Johnson and what ensued was a breathtaking The book revisits the genesis of 20th century federal court oversight of state court criminal trials particularly in the context of the epidemic of racially motivated lynchings in the southern US between 1870 and 1906 The text clearly lays out the details of the injustice visited upon one Ed Johnson an innocent African American man from Chattanooga TN who was falsely accused of raping a white woman The authors describe his railroading through the Tennessee state court system the all white jury system in that state during the early 1900s the racial bias of newspapers prosecutors the trial judge and law enforcement officials and Johnson's ultimate murder by a white mob aided and abetted by local law enforcement officials shortly after the US Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal from a lower federal court's denial of his habeas corpus petition Amazingly after than 30 years of diluting or ignoring rights guaranteed against states pursuant to the post civil war Fourteenth Amendment the US Supreme Court in a novel contempt proceeding against a county sheriff exercised its authority to enforce its own mandates against state and local officialsI hesitate to give the book than 3 stars however in light of several factual errors I came across in the book eg Theodore Roosevelt did not graduate from or even attend Harvard Law School and it would thus have been impossible for him to have appointed attorney Edward Terry Sanford to the federal bench because they were classmates there Roosevelt graduated from Harvard College and later attended Columbia Law School for a short time but dropped out of law school to run for the New York State Assembly; Miranda v Arizona which articulated the Constitutional rights afforded to those accused of crimes while in police custody was decided in 1966 not 1963 and the freuent melodramatic and over exaggerated conclusions reached by the authorsNonetheless the book revisits an important and all too freuently forgotten era in US racial and judicial history