49 pages • 1 hour read
Patrick PhillipsBlood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Patrick Phillips
The author of Blood at the Root, Patrick Phillips was a white child in Forsyth County in the 1970s; as a teenager, he participated in both Brotherhood Marches of 1987. Yet it wasn’t until his adulthood that Phillips felt challenged to reckon with the history of Forsyth. How was it that the entire county was all-white, and why did no one talk about it?
Blood at the Root is Phillips’ attempt to trace the history and repercussions of the events in Forsyth in 1912, as well as to support others to face the white supremacist violence leading to over a century of violence, ignorance, and hatred. The book is based on his exhaustive research and interviews of numerous descendants of the people who lived and were exiled from Forsyth County in 1912.
At times, Phillips delves into his own feelings and impressions regarding the events in Forsyth, articulating how difficult it was, as a younger person, to understand the social landscape of Forsyth in the 1970s and 80s. In the Introduction and Author’s Note, Phillips offers more of his perspective on the importance of facing the history of Forsyth and using that to understand white people’s relationship to white supremacy, violence, and racism in the United States.
Sheriff William “Bill” Reid
A white man who was able to improve his family’s fortune after becoming sheriff, William “Bill” Reid was a prominent member of the Forsyth community. More importantly, Reid was in favor of white supremacy and eventually became part of the Knights of the Sawnee Klavern of the Ku Klux Klan.
Throughout the events of 1912 and after, Reid consistently tried to shift the narrative about what was happening in Forsyth, as well as making it more difficult for black people to get justice or safety. Reid undermined efforts to keep black prisoners safe from the mob and frequently lied to the press about what happened. Reid was also responsible for creating the circumstances for the double hanging to be viewable by a huge audience, fueling the white community’s racist excitement about the event.
Mayor Charlie Harris
Mayor Charlie Harris was one of the more moderate of the wealthy white community in the Forsyth of 1912. He had connections with other wealthy, more powerful men based in Atlanta, and dedicated most of his career to trying to put Forsyth “on the transportation map of the South” (10). Eventually, when Harris’ plans clearly failed, he moved out of Forsyth to seek better luck elsewhere.
Judge Newton Morris
The judge of the two trials of 1912, Newt Morris, tried his best to keep the peace in Forsyth as the proceedings began. He invoked martial law and spent a significant amount of time praising the positive behavior of the soldiers. Morris was also responsible for the appointment of the all-white legal team, assigning novice lawyers to represent the two young black men on trial.
Ellen Grice
The initial impetus for what would become rapidly spreading racialized violence, Ellen Grice was a white woman whose husband thought a black man raped her. Later evidence would suggest that Grice was possibly having a consensual relationship; she never testified against the accused. Grice was an example of the perceived threat to white womanhood if black residents were allowed to stay in Forsyth County.
Mae Crow
A teenager in 1912, Mae Crow was a young white girl brutally attacked in the woods of Forsyth County; she died two weeks later. Despite evidence that surfaced after the trials that there was in fact, a murderer in the woods, several young black men were accused of her rape and murder; two of these men were hanged for this crime. Crow’s headstone is the only remaining physical monument from 1912 Forsyth.
Ernest Knox
Ernest Knox was a young black man accused of the rape and murder of Mae Crow. The only evidence against Knox was a mock lynching, in which a wealthy white man threatened to hang him if he did not confess to the crime. Through this procedure, Knox eventually confessed and was sentenced to die.
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacist organization that originated in the 19th century south. In Forsyth County, the Sawnee Klavern Ku Klux Klan came into being some years after the events of 1912, but many of the people who played a role in the racial violence of 1912 also became KKK members. The KKK was often blamed in Forsyth for racialized unrest and white violence; while it had a large role in the events of the 1970s and 1980s, Phillips is clear that this is a “deflect[ion]” (71) from the consistent violence of the white citizens themselves.
