Sale!

Death in the Delta: Uncovering a Mississippi Family Secret (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)

Amazon.com Price:  $21.94 (as of 06/05/2019 17:24 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

Growing up, Molly Walling could not fathom the source of the dark and intense discomfort in her family home. Then in 2006 she discovered her father’s complicity in the murder of two black men on December 12, 1946, in Anguilla, deep in the Mississippi Delta. Death in the Delta tells the story of one woman’s search for the truth at the back of a closely held, sixty-year old family secret. Though the creator’s mother and father made up our minds that they would protect their three children from that past, its effect used to be profound. When the story of a fatal shoot-out surfaced, apprehension turned into a devouring wish to know.

Each of Walling’s trips from North Carolina to the Delta brought unsettling and unexpected clues. After a hearing before an all-white grand jury, her father’s case used to be not prosecuted. Indeed, it appeared as if the incident never occurred, and he resumed his life as a small-town newspaper editor. Yet members of the family of one of the most sufferers tell her their stories. A ninety-three-year-old black historian and witness gives context and advice. A county attorney suggests her family’s history of commingling with black women used to be at the heart of the deadly confrontation. Firsthand the creator recognizes how privilege, entitlement, and racial bias in a wealthy, landed southern family resulted in a deadly abuse of power followed by a stifling, decades-long cover up.

Death in the Delta is a deeply personal account of a quest to confront a terrible legacy. Against the advice and warnings of family, Walling exposes her father’s guilty agency in the deaths of Simon Toombs and David Jones. She also exposes his gift as a author and creative thinker. The creator, grappling with wrenching issues of family and honor, used to be long conflicted about making this story public. But her mission became one of hope that confronting the truth might someway move others toward healing and reconciliation.

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » United States » State and Local » Death in the Delta: Uncovering a Mississippi Family Secret (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)

Recent Products