Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching that Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism (by Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips) was recommended to me by one of my students. In fact, he brought his copy to class so that I could read it. (Thanks for sharing it, Justin!)
This text relates the story of a 1906 court case that began in Chatanooga and finally reached the United States Supreme Court. In January of that year, Ed Johnson—a poor black man—was arrested for the rape of Nevada Taylor, a young white woman. Despite the fact that the man who led police to Johnson was simply looking for any suspect who would enable him to collect the reward money, despite the fact that Taylor was unable to identify Johnson positively on the witness stand, despite the fact the Johnson’s attorneys were able to produce a dozen alibi witnesses, Johnson was convicted for the crime. (Of course, this was really no surprise, given that both Sheriff Shipp and District Attorney Whitaker were under intense pressure to secure a conviction in the months before their reelection bids, given that Judge McReynolds—the presiding judge in the case—refused to move the trial to a venue other than racially divided Chatanooga, given that the judge held private strategy sessions with the district attorney, and given that no black jurors sat for the case—in fact, that no black citizens were ever called to serve on juries in Chatanooga.)
When defense attorneys abandoned Johnson after his conviction (the sheriff, the district attorney, and the judge suggested to Johnson’s attorneys that a mob would lynch their client if they filed an appeal and “delayed justice”), Noah Parden—a prominent black attorney from Chatanooga—decided that he had to handle the appeal. Though the East Tennessee District Court was unsympathetic to Parden’s request for appeal, he ultimately won Johnson a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court (rallied by Justice John Marshall Harlan).
Outraged that the federal court would interfere in a state criminal case (or perhaps more outraged that the Court threatened to delay or deny the execution of a black man in the South), a lynch mob stormed the jail in Chatanooga, broke the doors separating the public from the prisoners, pulled Johnson from his cell, hanged and shot him. Suspiciously, only one deputy was stationed at the jail on that evening (even though multiple guards usually stayed at the jail throughout the night). Whitaker and McReynolds watched the entire episode from an office across the street but did nothing to intervene. Shipp eventually went to the jail, but he did nothing to stop the murder of Johnson.
In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court filed contempt charges again Shipp, some of his deputies, and several men accused of leading the mob; the justices were determined to assert the supremacy of the Court’s decisions and to impress upon the country that the United States could not tolerate mob justice. Ultimately, Shipp and several others were found guilty of contempt; they were fined and handed short sentences in federal prison.
Though this book is a meticulously researched account of events (every word in it is based on newspaper articles, court transcripts, letters, speeches, and interviews), it is just as engaging as a good piece of fiction. Even though the verdict of Johnson’s rape trial was practically predetermined, I was appalled when the jury delivered its decision. Even though the prologue of the book began with Noah Parden’s trip to the Supreme Court, I felt exultation when the Court granted Johnson the stay of execution. Even though I knew Johnson’s fate (the title of the book leaves no room for doubt), I was completely captivated and horrified during the chapter detailing the mob’s raid on the prison.
At the same time, I learned an incredible amount about the American South of the early twentieth century, about the tension between states’ rights and federal laws in the criminal justice system, and about the evolution of individual rights over the past 100 years. (An interesting example: a person accused of a crime and tried in state court had no right to an attorney, no right against self-incrimination, and no protection against search and seizure until the 1960s!)
If you’re an aspiring lawyer, this should be a required text. If you’re not, that’s still no reason to miss this book.
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