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Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland

Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
By Gilbert King

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RATINGS:  4/5 (69 ratings)

LENGTH:  711 pages  11 hours
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins
RELEASED: Mar 6, 2012
ISBN: 9780062097712
FORMAT: Book
 Also available as audiobook

Editor's Note
Riveting & lauded…

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2/24/22, 10:27 AM Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King - Ebook | Scribd

Thurgood Marshall risks his life to defend four black men falsely accused of rape in King’s
riveting & lauded history of a pivotal time for both the future Supreme Court justice and for
civil rights in America.

Description

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” — Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall
was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S.
Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course
of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of
cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with
murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old girl cried rape, McCall pursued four
bl k h d d i i f t f th l b d th Th K
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United States African American Ethnic Studies All categories

About the author

Gilbert King

Gilbert King has written about U.S. Supreme Court history for the New York Times and the
Washington Post, and is a featured contributor to Smithsonian magazine's history blog,
Past Imperfect. He is the author of The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the…

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2/24/22, 10:27 AM Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King - Ebook | Scribd

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Reviews

What people think about Devil in the Grove

4.2

69 ratings / 25 reviews

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Critic reviews

This riveting Pulitzer Prize winner brings to light a little-known court case. Young civil
rights attorney (and future Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall risks his life to
defend four black men falsely accused of rape at a pivotal time in America history.
Scribd Editors

Reader reviews

carlathelibrarian
 (5/5)

This book was heartrending. Considering it was after WWII when there were many Black servicemen,
you would not think things happened the way they did. The book depicts many cases that involved the
NAACP with Thurgood Marshall as the lead attorney. The main case in the book, The Groveland Boys,
revolves around 4 black young men accused of raping a young white woman. Evidence showed it was a

https://www.scribd.com/book/163646054/Devil-in-the-Grove-Thurgood-Marshall-the-Groveland-Boys-and-the-Dawn-of-a-New-America 4/7
2/24/22, 10:27 AM Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King - Ebook | Scribd

false accusation but the climate in the south allowed and encouraged the jury to ignore the evidence. I
never realized that Florida has such a bad civil rights record The coverups by government officials and
Is this review helpful?  

breic-1
 (3/5)

This story is truly horrifying. What a farce is Florida justice. King, though, misses the forest for the trees.
We get blow-by-blow details of the trials and lots of essentially meaningless details. But I don't think
King ever gives a bigger picture of racism in Lake County and Florida. Thurgood Marshall is a very
compelling character, but the scope of the book is so narrow that we only get tangents on his life. I
wanted more.
Is this review helpful?  

sjmccreary
 (5/5)

This is an in-depth look at a 1949 case in Groveland, Fla where 4 black men were accused of raping a
white woman. Of course, no rape occurred. At least not by these 4 men. But that didn't stop the local
sheriff, prosecutor, and judge and jury from beating confessions out of them, charging them, trying and
convicting them, and sentencing them to death. The NCAAP provided a legal defense for the men,
appealing the verdict all the way to the US Supreme Court - twice. Only one of the 4 men are still living.
Two didn't survive the trials. The fourth didn't survive a trip back to town for a funeral shortly after his
Is this review helpful?  

queencersei
 (4/5)

Devil in the Grove is a riveting account of a real life crime committed in central Florida in 1949. Four
young black men were accused of raping a young white women during the era of Jim Crow and
segregation. A highly biased and racist community demanded immediate 'justice' in the form of
lynching. However, what began as an open and shut case against the Groveland Four ended up in two
trials, several Supreme Court challenges, multiple national new articles, several terrorists acts and two
of the four men being murdered. Thurgood Marshall, a star defense lawyer for the NAACP spearheaded
Is this review helpful?  

the_hibernator
 (5/5)

In this 2013 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Devil in the Grove is about Thurgood
Marshall's ("Mr Civil Rights" and arguably one of the best lawyers of the 20th century) work to save

https://www.scribd.com/book/163646054/Devil-in-the-Grove-Thurgood-Marshall-the-Groveland-Boys-and-the-Dawn-of-a-New-America 5/7
2/24/22, 10:27 AM Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King - Ebook | Scribd

three black men accused of gang raping a 17 year old girl.Gilbert King did an amazing amount of
research for this book including reading the FBI's Groveland case files and the NAACP's legal defense
files - and this research really shone through. His prose was acerbic at times, and it flowed smoothly
k i i h h l h h il i h l fb k di f i
Is this review helpful?  

larryerick
 (4/5)

This is a very worthy book, but an unusual one to categorize. On one hand, it very title suggests being
offered as a crime story, much like Hampton Sides', Hellhound on His Trail, and, indeed, it starts off that
way. On the other hand, there is much coverage of the NAACP and its internal politics, plus that
organization's interactions with other civil rights organizations. To that extent, the book shifts more to
being a classic history text. The transitions during the first part of the book are not always as smooth as
they could be. Yet, ultimately, once all the ground work has been laid out for the reader -- what were
Is this review helpful?  

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2/24/22, 10:27 AM Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King - Ebook | Scribd

Language: English

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