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One August night in 1931, on a secluded mountain ridge overlooking Birmingham, Alabama, three young white women were brutally attacked. The sole survivor, Nell Williams, age eighteen, said a black man had held the women captive for four hours before shooting them and disappearing into the woods. That same night, a reign of terror was unleashed on Birmingham's black community: black businesses were set ablaze, posses of armed white men roamed the streets, and dozens of black men were arrested in the largest manhunt in Jefferson County history. Weeks later, Nell identified Willie Peterson as the attacker who killed her sister Augusta and their friend Jennie Wood. With the exception of being black, Peterson bore little resemblance to the description Nell gave the police. An all-white jury convicted Peterson of murder and sentenced him to death.
In Murder on Shades Mountain Melanie S. Morrison tells the gripping and tragic story of the attack and its aftermath-events that shook Birmingham to its core. Having first heard the story from her father-who dated Nell's youngest sister when he was a teenager-Morrison scoured the historical archives and documented the black-led campaigns that sought to overturn Peterson's unjust conviction, spearheaded by the NAACP and the Communist Party. The travesty of justice suffered by Peterson reveals how the judicial system could function as a lynch mob in the Jim Crow South. Murder on Shades Mountain also sheds new light on the struggle for justice in Depression-era Birmingham. This riveting narrative is a testament to the courageous predecessors of present-day movements that demand an end to racial profiling, police brutality, and the criminalization of black men.
Contents
Introduction 1
Part I. Danger in the Magic City
1. August 4, 1931 15
2. A City Beset by Fear 25
3. Reign of Terror in the Black Community 34
4. Fear, Loathing,and Oblivion in the White Community 45
Part II. Trials and Tribulations
5. The Arrest: September 23, 1931 55
6. Attempted Murder 67
7. Grand Jury Testimonies 76
8. The NAACP Comes to Life 85
9. Mounting the Defense 94
10. House of Pain 113
11. "A Temporarily Dethroned Mind" 116
12. "An Outrageous Spectacle of Injustice" 119
13. A Tumultuous Year 122
Part IV. Never Turning Back
14. Staying on the Firing Line 131
15. Charles Hamilton Houston 134
16. A Lynching in Tuscaloosa 142
17. Moving the Case Forward 150
18. No Negroes Allowed 162
19. A Flood of Letters 168
20. A Multitude of Regrets 172
21. Grave Doubts as to His Guilt 178
22. Jim Crow Justice 185
Epilogue. The Community That Kept Faith 193
Afterword. Letter to My Father 197
Acknowledgments 203
Notes 209
Bibliography 233
Index 241
