PDF Ebook The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South, by Alex Heard
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The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South, by Alex Heard
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In this gripping saga of race and retribution, Alex Heard (editorial director of Outside magazine) tells a moving and unforgettable story of the deep South that says as much about Mississippi today as it does about the mysteries of the past. In doing so, he evokes the bitter conflicts between black and white, north and south in America.
- Sales Rank: #1206101 in Books
- Published on: 2011-05-10
- Released on: 2011-05-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .97" w x 5.31" l, .73 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
From Publishers Weekly
An iconic criminal case—a black man sentenced to death for raping a white woman in Mississippi in 1945—exposes the roiling tensions of the early civil rights era in this provocative study. McGee's prosecution garnered international protests—he was championed by the Communist Party and defended by a young lawyer named Bella Abzug (later a New York City congresswoman and cofounder of the National Women's Political Caucus), while luminaries from William Faulkner to Albert Einstein spoke out for him—but journalist Heard (Apocalypse Pretty Soon) finds the saga rife with enigmas. The case against McGee, hinging on a possibly coerced confession, was weak and the legal proceedings marred by racial bias and intimidation. (During one of his trials, his lawyers fled for their lives without delivering summations.) But Heard contends that McGee's story—that he and the victim, Willette Hawkins, were having an affair—is equally shaky. The author's extensive research delves into the documentation of the case, the public debate surrounding it, and the recollections of McGee and Hawkins's family members. Heard finds no easy answers, but his nuanced, evocative portrait of the passions enveloping McGee's case is plenty revealing. Photos. (May)
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From Booklist
On May 8, 1951, a black man was electrocuted in Laurel, Mississippi, convicted of raping a white woman. At the time, Mississippi's death penalty for rape was applied only to black men, never to whites. McGee's conviction in 1945 raised a firestorm of protest (supporters included Bella Abzug, William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, and Norman Mailer), making McGee's case a cause célèbre. Journalist Heard, whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the New Republic, reopens the case, reprising the court battles and the “Free Willie McGee” campaign. His research, consisting of interviews with family members and exhaustive probes into court transcripts, newspapers reports, and FBI records (to name a few sources), brings to light not just the shocking details surrounding this case but also the deep, lived inequities of the Jim Crow South. Comparable to Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic (1998). --Connie Fletcher
Review
“The Eyes of Willie McGee should be must reading for serious students of 20th century U.S. history. . . . A vivid, and essential, story of a rape trial and conviction, lynch mobs and complex personal relationships.” (The Chicago Tribune)
“The case of Willie McGee is an enduring mystery, but there’s no doubt he was the victim of a primitive and unfair judicial system. Alex Heard’s excellent account of his life and death is tragic, sad, and very compelling.” (John Grisham, author of The Innocent Man)
“In this gripping story of a world at once remote yet painfully familiar, Alex Heard has crafted a memorable narrative of a civil rights case that deserves a larger place in American memory.” (Jon Meacham, author of American Lion)
“In this riveting personal journey, Alex Heard explores the political and social forces at play and then reveals the fascinating human drama underneath it all. It’s like a real-life To Kill a Mockingbird, but with even more subtlety and complexity.” (Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein)
“The Eyes of Willie McGee re-creates a drama of race, class, crime, and politics that helped set the stage for both the McCarthy Era and the civil rights revolution. Heard’s story reads like “Radical Chic” in 1940s Mississippi. It’s a gripping, disturbing treat.” (Jacob Weisberg, author of The Bush Tragedy)
“A stout argument can now be made that the execution of Willie McGee in 1951 launched the civil rights movement. A stunning narrative achievement based on a bevy of new documentary evidence. Essential reading for all Americans.” (Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge)
“The story of Willie McGee was one of the most haunting cases to come out of the forcibly segregated, violence-ridden South in its time. Alex Heard uses McGee’s story to shed light on an America we’d like to forget—a time when mob rule and lynching prevailed. A magisterial book.” (Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will)
“Alex Heard has peeled back the tarp on the American South ten long years before Rosa Parks boarded the bus. Willie McGee is the epicenter of an addictive mystery that draws you in even as it repels you. This is an extraordinary book.” (Mary Roach, author of Stiff)
“Heard succeeds impressively. . . . Through gritty, precise reporting, he reveals the human cost of mob violence and ‘legal lynchings’ in Mississippi. . . . Heard tells of those who fought against lynchings and of those who died in their midst. . . . A rich narrative.” (The New York Times Book Review)
Most helpful customer reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
The Eyes of Willie McGee
By Chapati
Here's a real-life version of the trial in To Kill a Mockingbird, though it's far murkier and complicated. Willie McGee was an African-American man who, in 1945, was sentenced to death for raping a white housewife, Willette Hawkins. His trial was unfair- he was tried by an all-white jury who debated for only about two minutes before convicting him in a hostile courthouse where he couldn't even put together two words coherently, he was so terrified of being lynched by the mob outside.
Willie McGee caught the interest of many civil rights organizations in America and even more people around the world. William Faulkner spoke out about him. Norman Mailer. Letters poured in from China, Germany, the UK and countless other places, pleading his innocence. But did those supporters really have the facts straight? As Alex Heard investigates the case, he finds multiple, serious discrepancies about the "facts" presented. Did Willie and Willette have a forbidden affair? Who was Willie's wife at the time, and did she really take care of his children? Was Willie innocent? Was Willette as horrible and manipulative as some people believe?
This book is fascinating. Heard touches on race relations, the political climate, William Faulkner and so much else. He uses the trial as a central point from which to explore all sorts of historical events and personalities of the period. He touches on newspaper titans, white supremacist senators, Harry Truman, Jessica Mitford, and the way people can bend the facts so that a case can serve as a rallying cry for an organization.
But that's the sad (and fascinating) thing. What *were* the facts in this ase? Whites who remember Willette Hawkins strongly believe that she was raped. Blacks who remember Willie McGee believe he was innocent and was the victim of a corrupt justice system. Both sides are so strong in their beliefs that they are unwilling to budge, looking at the same trial transcripts, the same information- and are unable to meet in the middle.
I don't read much non-fiction, but I found this book absolutely riveting. It was a disturbing portrait of America after World War II, but it was also a very successful attempt to view the country through the lens of one case and the way it affected an entire nation. It was amazing to see how far news of Willie McGee spread- we like to think that we live in a global environment now, but even in the 1950s, people as far away as the USSR and China knew and had strong opinions about one African-American man sentenced to death. It was so interesting to read about someone who so captured the public imagination and who helped, in some small part, in starting a full-scale Civil Rights movement. Highly recommended!
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
An important book about a gripping slice of forgotten history
By R Candlewood
I heard about this book on NPR in a piece that made something that on the surface seemed unbearably familiar - yet another injustice of the pre-Civil Rights South - sound like a genuinely original, fascinating, and weird look at a piece of history easy to ignore. Having read the book, I can say: it is.
Why weird? In this situation, neither side was honest - one of the prosecutors even admits to it. But McGee, widely considered a victim of circumstance (he may have been having an affair with the woman he was accused of raping, and the accepted theory is that her husband found out and so she had to pretend it was rape), also made up at least several key details, not least of which is that a woman was brought in to portray his wife, Rosalee, throughout years of appeals! Heard proves conclusively that Rosalee was not the mother of McGee's children and was basically playing a role under the direction of the Communist Party.
That's right, the Communist Party. I never realized what a significant role they played in the Civil Rights movement - probably because no one wanted to say anything positive about a Communist, especially in the 1950s. They don't come off particularly well; you get the sense of McGee being a pawn in a PR game fought behind the scenes, with the NAACP staying away from McGee because of the Communists. But they brought in Bella Abzug (again, I thought, what is SHE doing here?), and lots of pages are given to the efforts of outsiders like her in an insular community like Laurel, Mississippi.
There's plenty more - a visit with Faulkner by Jessica Mitford, last-minute stays of execution, international attention (the case was famous enough to inspire everything from TO Kill A Mockingbird to a moment of silence in France for McGee), a state-fair-like atmosphere the night of the execution with a recording even being made of it. Heard does a great job pulling it all together, reminding us of the human element by talking with McGee's children and the children of the victim, all of whom remain scarred decades later. It was a little TOO exhaustive at times, and I could have done without a couple digressions, but in the end what emerges is a really amazing picture of a place and time I haven't seen before. The Eyes of Willie McGee could have been same old, same old, but in Heard's hands, the story reminds us that the past isn't even past: history can still surprise us.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A gripping, surprising account of an important, if sometimes bizarre, trial
By Grace Banks
Having grown up in the South, I thought I knew the history of race relations there fairly well and didn't expect The Eyes of Willie McGee to bring much new to the table. False assumption! The trial of Willie McGee, a black man in 1940s Mississippi accused and eventually executed for raping a white woman, became the center of an international controversy and, in the process, brought in a cast of characters you might not expect to find in a case like this one. Take, for example, the Communist Party, which makes its debut in the first ten pages of the book and plays an important role throughout, especially in shaping the stance the NAACP took towards the case. Who knew? (Thanks to Alex Heard, I do now!)
There are no easy answers in the Willie McGee case. Heard's research is thorough and nuanced, brilliantly teasing out the questionable and sometimes downright dishonest actions taken by both the prosecution and the defense. What makes this book impressive and engaging to read, however, is the way in which the trial brings together so many potent issues from the time, often in surprising ways. It's like reading an all too familiar story of injustice through fresh eyes. This book is riveting and gives you everything you could ask for in nonfiction: a fascinating and entertaining set of actors, an informative case study of the trial and the broader questions of race and justice it embodied, and a deep and often unsettling meditation on a piece of forgotten history that Heard gives a voice once again.
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