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Title details for Elegy for Mary Turner by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams - Available

Elegy for Mary Turner

An Illustrated Account of a Lynching

by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams
Mariame Kaba
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A lyrical and haunting depiction of American racial violence and lynching, evoked through stunning full-color artwork
In late May 1918 in Valdosta, Georgia, ten Black men and one Black woman—Mary Turner, eight months pregnant at the time—were lynched and tortured by mobs of white citizens.
Through hauntingly detailed full-color artwork and collage, Elegy for Mary Turner names those who were killed, identifies the killers, and evokes a landscape in which the NAACP investigated the crimes when the state would not and a time when white citizens baked pies and flocked to see Black corpses while Black people fought to make their lives—and their mourning—matter.
Included are contributions from C. Tyrone Forehand, great-grandnephew of Mary and Hayes Turner, whose family has long campaigned for the deaths to be remembered; abolitionist activist and educator Mariame Kaba, reflecting on the violence visited on Black women’s bodies; and historian Julie Buckner Armstrong, who opens a window onto the broader scale of lynching’s terror in American history.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 17, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781788739078

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781788739078
      • File size: 11133 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 3, 2021

      Williams (Run Home If You Don't Want To Be Killed) uses woodcuts, watercolor, clippings, photos, vintage postcards, and blotchy hand-inked script for the wrenching story of pregnant Mary Turner, tortured and lynched with her baby in 1918 Georgia simply for protesting the lynching of her husband the day before. All told some dozen people were lynched in that spree of mob violence, allegedly intended to avenge the killing of a white plantation owner. Hundreds of other Black people fled the area in terror, but no punishment ever came to the lynch mobs. Moreover, a full account appeared in the press due only to NAACP investigator Walter White. Supplemental essays (by a relative of the Turners, a historian, and an activist-educator) broaden the story. Excellent inspiration for creators seeking unique ways to tell difficult stories. VERDICT This well-done art-text collage about an unimaginably horrific crime resonates eerily with 2020's racist murders and antiracist activism--especially since a 2009 commemorative marker for Turner's lynching has had to be replaced with a simple steel cross due to vandalism.

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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