Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America

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