john grisham
...s movement is in full swing. Because of tension here many civil rights activist have become the target of violence from hate groups such as the Klu Klux Klan. In the opening of the story, the Klan is planning to bomb a “Jewish” layers office, because he is a civil rights activist. The Klan member chosen for this job is Sam Cayhall. He was a perfect choice; Sam had a killed a black man in the past and got away with it when he claimed it was self defense. In Grisham’s next book that takes place in Mississippi racial tensions are still strong. The Last Juror is about a lone black Juror in the trial of a white man charged with murder in a small town in Mississippi. (Young 26) She is not like the typical black woman you expect to find in rural South where the “colored” are kept poor, uneducated and in their place by a less-than-benevolent white power structure. (Young 26) Even the local paper supported the racist attitudes of this era. Prior to 1967 Ford County had a small newspaper that only report news on the white folks in town; Blacks were only mentioned if it was in connection to a crime. Finally in 1967 obituaries for blacks were published this led to such an uproar in the white community that it almost bankrupt the paper. (Grisham 4 The Last Juror) Because of these feelings, Miss Callie’s life has many road blocks that she will come across through out this book. Miss Callie braves racial prejudice to educate her children, becomes the first black woman to vote in Ford County in the 50’s to and in time the county’s first black juror. (Young 26) While Miss Callie sit on a Juror Carl Lee Must face a jury in the book A Time to Kill. This story takes place in a town that not since reconstruction had a black sheriff been elected in a white county in Mississippi. (A Time to Kill 8) The Trial of Carl Lee Hailey chronicles the conflicting emotions of Mississippians—White and Black, poor and privileged, Klan member and civil rights activists. (Jet 34) Can a black man receive a fair trial from an all-white jury? Carl Lee is a vigilante which appeals to rednecks. Guns, violence, and the protection of women, the rednecks would eat it up. But Carl Lee is black, and a bunch of rednecks would fry him. Especially since he killed two of their own. (A Time to Kill 291) The Klan felt that they had to get involved with this case. To make sure that “abidin’ white folks of Mississippi are sick and tired of niggers stealn’, rapin’, killin’, and getting’ by with it. We demand justice, and we demand that this Hailey Nigger be convicted and his black ass sent to the gas chamber!” (A Time to Kill 321) The Klan would show up everyday at court in full dress parade. The Klan even tried to discourage Carl Lee’s lawyer by burning a cross on his front yard and then eventually burning down his house. In The Chamber Sam a Klan member was involved in a bomb at a lawyer’s office that killed two young children. In 1967 Sam went on trial for the bombing. After four days of trial, the jury retried to deliberate. The Kluckers smelled victory and increased the tempo on the front lawn. After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury reported to the judge that it was hopelessly deadlocked. A mistrial was declared, and Sam went home. (The Chamber 17) Six months later the trial resumed in another county. The jury again was all-white and certainly non-Jewish. (The Chamber 17) The second jury ended in a mistrial also. Aft...