The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth

Description

In the tradition of Slaves in the Family, the provocative true account of the
hanging of four black people by a white lynch mob in 1912—written by the
great-granddaughter of the sheriff charged with protecting them. Harris
County, Georgia, 1912. A white man, the beloved nephew of the county sheriff,
is shot dead on the porch of a black woman. Days later, the sheriff sanctions
the lynching of a black woman and three black men, all of them innocent. For
Karen Branan, the great-granddaughter of that sheriff, this isn’t just
history, this is family history. Branan spent nearly twenty years combing
through diaries and letters, hunting for clues in libraries and archives
throughout the United States, and interviewing community elders to piece
together the events and motives that led a group of people to murder four of
their fellow citizens in such a brutal public display. Her research revealed
surprising new insights into the day-to-day reality of race relations in the
Jim Crow–era South, but what she ultimately discovered was far more personal.
As she dug into the past, Branan was forced to confront her own deep-rooted
beliefs surrounding race and family, a process that came to a head when Branan
learned a shocking truth: she is related not only to the sheriff, but also to
one of the four who were murdered. Both identities—perpetrator and victim—are
her inheritance to bear. A gripping story of privilege and power, anger, and
atonement, The Family Tree transports readers to a small Southern town steeped
in racial tension and bound by powerful family ties. Branan takes us back in
time to the Civil War, demonstrating how plantation politics and the Lost
Cause movement set the stage for the fiery racial dynamics of the twentieth
century, delving into the prevalence of mob rule, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan
and the role of miscegenation in an unceasing cycle of bigotry. Through all of
this, what emerges is a searing examination of the violence that occurred on
that awful day in 1912—the echoes of which still resound today—and the
knowledge that it is only through facing our ugliest truths that we can move
forward to a place of understanding. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (January 5, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1476717184
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 80
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #595 in Historical Latin America Biographies #5,511 in African History (Books) #5,947 in Black & African American Biographies
• #595 in Historical Latin America Biographies
• #5,511 in African History (Books)