Redemption

"Written on a dramatic human scale... an arresting piece of popular history." -- Sean Wilentz, New York Times A century after Appomattox, the Civil Rights Movement wonfull citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away. Redemption opens with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This was the start of an insurgency that changed the course of American history. The remorseless strategy of well-financed "White Line"organizations was to create chaos and keep blacks from voting, out of fear for their lives and livelihoods. Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875. Redemption makes clear that this is what led to the death of Reconstruction and of the rights encoded in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We are still living with the consequences. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia University, is the author of The Big Test and the prizewinning The Promised Land. He has written widely for such publications as The New York Times and American Heritage, and lectured at many universities. Named one of the top ten Golden Voices by Smart Money magazine, Michael Prichard has recorded over 430 audiobooks. He has narrated the complete Travis McGee adventures by Rex Stout and the Dirk Pitt adventures by Clive Cussler.