
Roadhouse Justice
Hattie Lee Barnes and the Killing of a White Man in 1950s Mississippi
- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In 1951, a young Black woman, working as an overnight caretaker at a county-line beer joint in southwestern Mississippi, shot and killed a white intruder who was likely intending to assault her. Hattie Lee Barnes's killing of Lamar Craft threw the courts into a whirlwind of conflicting stories and murder attempts, illuminating the capriciousness of Mississippi justice, in which race, personal connections, and community expectations mattered a great deal. In Roadhouse Justice, Trent Brown examines the long-forgotten circumstances surrounding this case, revealing not only the details of Craft's death and the lengthy court proceedings that followed, but also the precarious nature of Black lives under the 1950s southern justice system. Told here in full for the first time, the story of Barnes's tribulations and ultimate victory demonstrates her intense determination and refusal to buckle under the enormous pressures she faced.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 A Roadhouse Shooting and Its Context
- 2 The Case against Hattie Lee Barnes
- 3 Two Attempted Murders
- 4 The Trial of Walter Watson
- 5 The Trial of Hattie Lee Barnes
- 6 The Trial of Rob Lee
- 7 Double Indemnity: An Insurance Suit and Lamar Craft’s Reputation
- 8 Hattie Lee Barnes and the McComb Enterprise-Journal
- 9 When the Trials Were Over
- 10 The Reporter and the Lawyer
- 11 A Rape, a Stabbing, and a Morals Charge
- 12 Fame and Notoriety after the Barnes Case
- Epilogue: Challenges, Questions, and Some Conclusions
- Notes
- Index
- Photographs