Goldstone has written an unflinching look at race and justice in post-Civil War America. On Easter Sunday in 1873, a group of white supremacists surrounded a church in the central Louisiana town of Colfax and set it on fire with over a hundred formerly enslaved men inside. And when the men came out and threw down their weapons in surrender, they were slaughtered where they stood. Goldman clearly outlines the political, social, and racial tensions that led to the massacre and the significance of the Supreme Court decision that allowed the men responsible for the massacre to go without punishment or penalty. The end of Radical Reconstruction in the South and the oppressive Jim Crow era of discrimination and violence that followed are depicted by the author in depth while he relates the Colfax massacre to the national chaos left in its wake. The end matter includes a glossary, bibliography, source notes, index, and illustration and photograph credits. ( )

RGG: Except for a confusing, too quick ending, a lovely, engrossing piece of historical fiction imbued with magical realism, romance, and fantastic characterization and descriptions. The love interest is bi-racial of color. Invokes issues of racism, socio-economic inequality, freedom of speech and press, democracy. Definitely for anyone interested in this time period in French history. Reading Interest: 13-YA

RGG: Fascinating political history. Framed around the Massacre at Colfax, but really more a legislative history of Reconstruction. Important information. Reading Interest: 14-YA.

Unpunished Murder: Massacre at Colfax and the Quest for Justice is the history of shamefully forgotten crime against humanity that led to an equally shameful Supreme Court decision that should be as vilified as Dred Scott and Plessy vs. Ferguson. On Easter Sunday in 1873 over a hundred unarmed African-Americans were slaughtered by white supremacists determined to end Reconstruction and seize political power. Shamefully, to this day, Colfax, Mississipi has a memorial honoring the murderers.

In the book, Lawrence Goldstone sets the stage from the end of the Civil War, the disgraceful Andrew Johnson presidency, and the Republicans’ rapid retreat from civil rights. There was rampant corruption and flagrant election cheating. President Grant made poor judicial appointments, seeking nonentities with few public positions in an effort to avoid conflict. White supremacists used violence and intimidation to regain power in the South. In Colfax, a black community with black elected leadership, whites came from all over to march into town and seize power. Outnumbered and out-armed, the black citizens surrendered and then were slaughtered. 3 whites were killed, at least two by friendly fire and to this day monuments stand to honor them, misnaming this massacre a riot.

Seeking justice was difficult and let to an egregious Supreme Court decision that gave the stamp of approval to vigilantism, the Klan, and racist intimidation and lynchings for years to come and eviscerating the civil rights protections in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Amendments. Incidentally, this is the same court that declared corporations were people, too, my friends.

I think Unpunished Murder tells an important story. It tackles the false narrative of Reconstruction as a corrupt failure and shows the true story that Reconstruction was abandoned to pander to white supremacy. It reveals the vicious racism and corruption that led to our government’s abject failure to meet its obligation to African Americans, it’s desertion in the face of white supremacy abandoning blacks to murder and oppression.

I also think it suffers from a failing all too common with history books for young people. For some reason, there’s this idea that shorter is better, so writers pack too many facts into too little narrative. Narrative matters and is an important part of making a story interesting and gives the story flow. History should be about the story, and here the story part is sacrificed to need to pack as many facts per page as possible. This is an interesting and important story and it’s not that I think most of the facts should have been left out. I just think they needed more connective tissue. Let the book be longer, it will be more interesting.

I can’t blame the author, though. Goldstone is writing to the expectations of teachers and publishers, the more facts per inch kind of writing that makes students think history is dull rather than exciting. In reality, history is full of stories of love, betrayal, good, evil, battles won and lost, and is every bit as exciting as anything on Game of Thrones, but these stories need the flesh of narrative to hold the bones of fact together.

Unpunished Murder will be released on August 28th. I received an ARC from the publisher through a Shelf Awareness drawing.

Unpunished Murder at Scholastic Books
Lawrence Goldstone author site

★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/9781338239454/ ( )

Please my review on Amazon.com under C.Wong. Thank you. ( )