In December of 1957, Blanche Knowles, the wife of a Florida citrus grower, was raped. Police interviews immediately following the incident recorded that a "husky negro" was the suspect, but in a new racist turn in Florida history, police soon turned their sights on Jesse Daniels, a mentally-impaired white man. The best that can be said about these tragedies is that the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove, Gilbert King, has brought this case back to light.
King's previous book shed new light on the rape that never was in the infamous Groveland Boys case. Undoubtedly, that research led him to the plight of Daniels, because he, too, suffered at the hand of Willis McCall, the same sheriff who shot and killed Samuel Shepherd, the black man who had just been exonerated in said rape case by the U.S. Supreme Court.
If there's one takeaway from this book, it is the power of a single person to galvanize forces. First it was the racist McCall, who got everyone from judges to the state's attorney general to promulgate his tyranny. In the Daniels case, this came about because the victim was determined to be of a standing in the community that would be damaged if linked to rape by a black man, facts be damned. Then it was Mabel Reese, the journalist who wouldn't let this case go even after bombings at her home, losing her paper, and finally getting run out of town.
Daniels was an easy target for McCall, who may even have believed he was doing his parents a favor by getting him placed in an institution. As a severely mentally challenged and impoverished 19-year-old, Daniels was in no position to put up a fight. Not that it would've been doable under more favorable circumstances. King notes that other, more fortunate inmates held at the Chattahoochee State Prison for the criminally insane were likewise unable to leave despite wrongful confinement. By all accounts, Chattahoochee was a hellhole. As early as 1891, the book The American Siberia chronicled its unrelenting atrocities.
Case history aside, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the rise in violence by white supremacists in 2017. This is not a trend that began with the Trump administration, but attacks have certainly spiked. The book blows the lid off the tactics of violent mobs. It's thoroughly researched, and largely written like a page-turning of a thriller. My sole critique is that the names can be hard to track. The reading experience would benefit from a list of key figures.
Perhaps most importantly, in today's climate, Beneath a Ruthless Sun shows how the tide can turn again, and that one person also can alter the course of history for the better.
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.