Curtis Wilkie

This book centers around a Ku Klux Klan murder of a Black voting rights activist trying to register voters in rural Mississippi. We really get to see the inner workings of the Klan there in the 1960's and 1970's. Vernon Dahmer died as a result of a house fire set by two carloads of Klan members. We get an inside look at the planning, commission and aftermath (as well as other Klan sponsered violence) of this event. Much of the data comes from a Klan member secretly working with the FBI giving them reports. A fascinating look into a terrible time when brutality and hate were the norm for many.… (meer)

This book was not what I was expecting it to be. The first 180 pages lay the groundwork (ad nauseum) for all the different characters that play a part in the actual scheme that is supposed to be the central point of the story but which in actuality only occupies perhaps 60 or so pages of the entire book. Each and every person is described in such detail (from where they went to elementary school, to the knick-knacks in their offices) that I almost gave up on this book several times through. This book is less about Dick Scruggs and the incidents that led to his dramatic downfall than it is about the intricacies of the Mississippi backroom political system that was operating at the time of Scruggs' reign as the nation's top trial lawyer. The cover blurb promises that this book reads like a Grisham novel. It does not- believe me. It is jam packed with irrelevant information that I am going to guess only people who live in Mississippi would care about. Glad I finished it but it was work.… (meer)

Curtis Wilkie is a lucky man. He has a gift for writing and has been able to use it in his work, reporting. He has reported from the corruption of the American South to the neverending wars of the Middle East. He has traveled with political campaigns, and been able to circle back and report on what became of whom. This book contains fifty such pieces, all done in the immediate present of newspaper and magazine articles.

The focus, of necessity, is on the South, where he was born, raised, and which he clearly loves, despite its unlimited failings, which he portrays factually. From Robert Kennedy’s visit to Jimmy Carter’s travails, from racial hatred to garden variety corruption, Wilkie reports the goings on. He was there and was part of it, rather than just reconstructing the scene from research. Perhaps I’ve been reading too much history of late, because this is much more engaging.

The book is divided into sections keeping topics together, instead of a linear chronology. So rather than see Wilkie’s growth as a reporter and writer, we see the web of life in the South.

It is unintentionally hard-hitting, as the best journalism ought to be. Reporting the facts themselves should be enough, and that’s how Wilkie does it. Judgments are for others, though he hints at some from the safety and perspective of today, in the brief intros he has added to each story.

I wanted to say I liked the section on miscellaneous characters the best, but going over the table of contents, that’s just not true. It’s all illuminating.… (meer)