Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New AmericaDevil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
What it's about
In 1949, in Lake County, Florida, a seventeen-year-old white woman said she had been raped by four young Black men. One was killed by a posse, and the others faced trial before an all-white jury, with the notorious Sheriff Willis McCall overseeing the case. Thurgood Marshall, then the NAACP's chief lawyer and only a few years from Brown v. Board of Education, took on their defense, at the risk of his own life. Gilbert King tells the story of the case.
Why it's worth reading
It won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. King drew on FBI files never released before, and the book reads as fast as a legal thriller while showing what Jim Crow justice was really like.
You'll love it if you liked
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI or The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Good to know
It includes racial violence and police brutality described in detail. The four men, known as the Groveland Four, were posthumously pardoned by Florida in 2019.
By the numbers
- Readers95 out of 100 · counts 40%+43
- Critics67 out of 100 · counts 32% (its stronger lane)+24
- Bestseller5 out of 100 · counts 14%+1
- Buzz1 out of 100 · counts 15%+0
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero.
Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2013). 4.41★ from 17K Goodreads ratings.
Where it ranks
- #33 of the 154 history books we rank
- #52 of the 666 modern books we rank
- #128 of the 1,405 books we rank
Won
- Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2013)
Reads as
True story, Gripping, Dark
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