Pulitzer Prize General Non Fiction Winner
Devil in the Grove
by Gilbert King
Summary
An account of the Groveland Four, four young Black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949 Florida, and the young NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall's perilous fight to save them. King draws on FBI files and previously sealed legal records to reconstruct the violence, perjury, and political pressure that shaped the case. The book exposes a Jim Crow legal apparatus that was often as lawless as the lynch mobs it ostensibly replaced.
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Historical Context & Significance
King exposed the "Jim Crow" legal system of Florida, which was often more brutal and lawless than the more famous cases in Alabama or Mississippi.