Flames after Midnight: Murder, Vengeance, and the Desolation of a Texas Community, Revised Edition / Edition 2

by Monte Akers

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292726338
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	05/01/2011
Series:	Revised
Pages:	286
Sales rank:	714,239
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Part One
  • Prologue to Part One
  • Chapter 1. Eula
  • Chapter 2. Kirven, the County, the Country, and the Kings
  • Chapter 3. The Instant when Music Shatters Glass
  • Chapter 4. Sheriff Mayo
  • Chapter 5. Manhunt
  • Chapter 6. A "Good Job" in the Early Hours of the Morning
  • Chapter 7. This Cold World of Care
  • Chapter 8. Terror
• Part Two
  • Prologue to Part Two
  • Chapter 9. A Visitor from Waco
  • Chapter 10. Confirmation
  • Chapter 11. Doll Rags
  • Chapter 12. Greater Irony
  • Chapter 13. A Place in Blackest History
  • Chapter 14. Burning Questions
  • Chapter 15. Epilogue: A Notoriety Deeply to be Regretted
  • Chapter 16. Epilogue to the Revised Edition
• Notes
• Index

Editorial Reviews

Flames after Midnight vividly captures [a] culture in all its repugnance, exploring the tenor of the times and delving into the character of the story’s central figures. While it cannot by its nature be pleasant to read, it is a well-written and compelling history that in its scope extends beyond Kirven [Texas]. Akers holds up a mirror so that we see ourselves, in historical retrospect, at our worst.

USA Today

Flames after Midnight vividly captures [a] culture in all its repugnance, exploring the tenor of the times and delving into the character of the story's central figures. While it cannot by its nature be pleasant to read, it is a well-written and compelling history that in its scope extends beyond Kirven [Texas]. Akers holds up a mirror so that we see ourselves, in historical retrospect, at our worst.

USA Today

Flames after Midnight vividly captures [a] culture in all its repugnance, exploring the tenor of the times and delving into the character of the story's central figures. While it cannot by its nature be pleasant to read, it is a well-written and compelling history that in its scope extends beyond Kirven [Texas]. Akers holds up a mirror so that we see ourselves, in historical retrospect, at our worst.

USA Today