University of Texas Press
Flames after Midnight
About this book
What happened in Kirven, Texas, in May 1922, has been forgotten by the outside world. It was a coworker's whispered words, "Kirven is where they burned the [Negroes]," that set Monte Akers to work at discovering the true story behind a young white woman's brutal murder and the burning alive of three black men who were almost certainly innocent of it. This was followed by a month-long reign of terror as white men killed blacks while local authorities concealed the real identity of the white probable murderers and allowed them to go free.
Writing nonfiction with the skill of a novelist, Akers paints a vivid portrait of a community desolated by race hatred and its own refusal to face hard truths. He sets this tragedy within the story of a region prospering from an oil boom but plagued by lawlessness, and traces the lynching's repercussions down the decades to the present day. In the new epilogue, Akers adds details that have come to light as a result of the book's publication, including an eyewitness account of the burnings from an elderly man who claimed to have castrated two of the men before they were lynched.
Author / Editor information
Monte Akers lived in Freestone County, Texas, where the events in this book took place, for nine years. He is now a partner in the Akers & Boulware-Wells law firm in Austin. He is also an adjunct professor at Texas State University–San Marcos.
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix - PART ONE
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Prologue to Part One
1 -
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CHAPTER 1 Eula
9 -
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CHAPTER 2 Kirven, the County, the Country, and the Kings
15 -
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CHAPTER 3 The Instant when Music Shatters Glass
33 -
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CHAPTER 4 Sheriff Mayo
39 -
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CHAPTER 5 Manhunt
49 -
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CHAPTER 6 A "Good Job" in the Early Hours of the Morning
57 -
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CHAPTER 7 This Cold World of Care
69 -
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CHAPTER 8 Terror
76 - PART TWO
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Prologue to Part Two
87 -
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CHAPTER 9 A Visitor from Waco
102 -
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CHAPTER 10 Confirmation
114 -
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CHAPTER 11 Doll Rags
123 -
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CHAPTER 12 Greater Irony
134 -
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CHAPTER 13 A Place in Blackest History
149 -
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CHAPTER 14 Burning Questions
158 -
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CHAPTER 15 Epilogue: A Notoriety Deeply to be Regretted
169 -
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CHAPTER 16 Epilogue to the Revised Edition
178 -
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Notes
219 -
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Index
263 -
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Index to the Epilogue, Revised Edition
271
