Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America
Description:
It was among the most notorious criminal cases of its day. On August 11, 1921, in Birmingham, Alabama, a Methodist minister named Edwin Stephenson shot and killed a Catholic priest, James Coyle, in broad daylight and in front of numerous witnesses. The killer's motive? The priest had married Stephenson's eighteen-year-old daughter Ruth to Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican migrant and practicing Catholic.
Sharon Davies's Rising Road resurrects the murder of Father Coyle and the trial of his killer. As Davies reveals with novelistic richness, Stephenson's crime laid bare the most potent bigotries of the age: a hatred not only of blacks, but of Catholics and "foreigners" as well. In one of the case's most unexpected turns, the minister hired future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to lead his defense. Though regarded later in life as a civil rights champion, in 1921 Black was just months away from donning the robes of the Ku Klux Klan, the secret order that financed Stephenson's defense. Entering a plea of temporary insanity, Black defended the minister on claims that the Catholics had robbed Ruth away from her true Protestant faith, and that her Puerto Rican husband was actually black.
Placing the story in social and historical context, Davies brings this heinous crime and its aftermath back to life, in a brilliant and engrossing examination of the wages of prejudice and a trial that shook the nation at the height of Jim Crow.
"Davies takes us deep into the dark heart of the Jim Crow South, where she uncovers a searing story of love, faith, bigotry and violence. Rising Road is a history so powerful, so compelling it stays with you long after you've finished its final page."
--Kevin Boyle, author of the National Book Award-winning Arc of Justice
"This gripping history...has all the makings of a Hollywood movie. Drama aside, Rising Road also happens to be a fine work of history."
--History News Network
Best prices to buy, sell, or rent ISBN 9780199794454
Frequently Asked Questions about Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America
The price for the book starts from $10.62 on Amazon and is available from 16 sellers at the moment.
If you’re interested in selling back the Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America book, you can always look up BookScouter for the best deal. BookScouter checks 30+ buyback vendors with a single search and gives you actual information on buyback pricing instantly.
As for the Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America book, the best buyback offer comes from and is $ for the book in good condition.
The Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America book is in very low demand now as the rank for the book is 1,065,799 at the moment. A rank of 1,000,000 means the last copy sold approximately a month ago.
The highest price to sell back the Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America book within the last three months was on December 10 and it was $0.90.