Fire in Canebrake by Laura Wexler

Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America, Laura Wexler paints a disturbing and convincing portrait of race in America. Her detached point-of-view allows the reader to become personally involved in the story, and creates a powerful feeling of suspense. Further, Wexler's thorough analysis of the search for the killers is equally involving. Ultimately, Fire in a Canebrake reveals a great deal about the pervasiveness of racial tension and inequalities in America.

Fire in a Canebrake tells the story of the lynching deaths of two black couples in Walton County, Georgia, in 1946. The events that led up to this event, notes Wexler, are tinged with sex, jealously, racism, and violence. The events were sparked by a fight between black bootlegger Roger Malcom and Dorothy Dorsey, his common law wife that began in the middle of a road. Malcom accused Dorsey of having sexual relations with Barnette Hester, their elderly white landlord, and chased Dorsey onto Hester's home.

There, Malcom stabs Hester in the chest, and later barely survives and attempted lynching. Malcolm is thrown in jail, where he is certain that he will ultimately find himself in the hands of another angry white mob. Writes Wexler ominously, "on this evening, Roger Malcom wasn't headed to Standpipe, because he'd stabbed his white landlord. He didn't know if Barnette Hester was still alive, but he knew he himself wouldn't live much longer. Tonight or the next night, he would be taken out of jail and lynched.

The thick cement walls wouldn't protect him from a mob of white men." Ultimately, Malcom's premonition comes true. Hester survives the knife wound, and Malcom is released to the community to await trial on bond, where he soon falls into the hands of those who want to se him pay for the attack on Hester. Hester, Dorothy Dorsey, her brother George Dorsey and Mae Murray Dorsey (the common law wife of Dorsey), all die at the hands of a white mob by a bridge in Walton County on July 25, 1946.

The title, Fire in a canebrake, comes from the similarity between the sound of a hollow river cane being ignited, and the sound of the more than 60 shots that were fired during the lynching. Throughout her descriptions of the events that lead to the lynching, Wexler's style creates a great deal of dramatic tension and suspense. Her writing style is detached and journalistic nature, and the book reads almost as a newspaper account.

In not allowing her own opinions and thoughts into the narrative, Wexler brings the reader into the story, and allows the reader to form their own opinions of the events. The end result is the creation of an interesting and captivating story that draws the reader into the events. Wexler's accounts of the events that follow the lynching are no less interesting than her initial overview of the dramatic events that lead to the violent deaths.

She painstakingly recreates the aftermath of the lynchings in Walton County, and their impact on greater America. State and federal authorities were quickly brought into investigate the murders, notes Wexler, and eventually public pressure resulted in President Truman bringing in the FBI in the hopes of cracking the case. Wexler dwells on the difficulties that authorities faced in getting to the truth. In the face of questioning, many of the county's black citizens were afraid of repercussions from the white community.

After all, four black people had died a violent death, presumably with the support of a large portion of the white community, and the fears of the local black community were probably understandable and rooted in good cause. Wexler notes that investigators faced a similar wall of silence from the white community. Many in the white community denied any knowledge of the lynchings or events that led up to the deaths of the four black individuals.

In addition, Wexler notes that information that was revealed by the white community was often confusing and contradictory, and that many witnesses had biases and specific ulterior motives for their stories. Despite the intense investigation, Wexler notes that the 1946 Walton County lynchings remain unsolved to this day. She reveals the existence of a previously unknown eye-witness to the events, but even this witness fails to solve the case. Several of the original suspects remain alive, and Wexler notes that the statute of limitations remains in effect.

Overall, Wexler's book is a suspenseful, effective read that combines the suspense and tension of a good detective story, with a compelling and insightful portrait of the impact of race in the United States. Racial tension underlies most of the book, bringing with it violence, death, and lies. Wexler's book is a powerful reminder of the realities of racism and inequality.