"In the late 1950s, as the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was at last gaining ground, 16 soldiers sat confined in basement cells on death row in the army's Fort Leavenworth maximum security prison in Kansas. Exactly eight were white and eight were black. All of the white soldiers were commuted. Not only were their lives spared, but they all were eventually released and returned to their families. They benefited from powerful Washington powerbrokers, including the Eisenhower administration and Congress, high-priced, ...
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"In the late 1950s, as the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was at last gaining ground, 16 soldiers sat confined in basement cells on death row in the army's Fort Leavenworth maximum security prison in Kansas. Exactly eight were white and eight were black. All of the white soldiers were commuted. Not only were their lives spared, but they all were eventually released and returned to their families. They benefited from powerful Washington powerbrokers, including the Eisenhower administration and Congress, high-priced, specialized lawyers and a groundswell of public support. Only black soldiers were hung. They were summoned at midnight to a wooden gallows and dropped to their deaths. They enjoyed no Washington support, could not afford expensive lawyers and had little public backing. Their casefiles are meager - often containing a desperate, misspelled letter from a mother pleading for her son's life. Then in early 1961 a final case reached the Oval Office in Washington. President John Kennedy, a Democrat, a liberal, and a Catholic, a leader strong on Civil Rights, was still in his First Hundred Days when confronted with whether to spare army Private John A. Bennett. Unlike all the other condemned men, white and black, Bennett was not a murderer. He had killed no one. Instead he was sentenced to die for raping a white girl. But like the other men soldiers who were hung, Bennett was black. Were he to die, he would become the last soldier executed by the army, the last in nearly 60 years"--
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Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $8.50, very good condition, Sold by Bookmonger.Ltd rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillside, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Beacon Press.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $8.91, new condition, Sold by Pumpkin Wholesale Ltd rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Abingdon, Oxon, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2020 by Beacon Press.
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New. Uncovers the hidden world of the military legal system and the intimate history of racism that pervaded the armed forces long after integration. Richard A. Serrano reveals how racial discrimination in the US military criminal justice system determined whose lives mattered and deserved a second chance and whose did not. Between 1955 and 1961, a group of white and black condemned soldiers lived together on death row at Fort Leavenworth military prison. Although convicted of equally heinous crimes, all the white soldiers were eventually paroled and returned to their families, spared by high-ranking army officers, the military courts, sympathetic doctors, highly trained attorneys, the White House staff, or President Eisenhower himself. During the same 6-year period, only black soldiers were hanged. Some were cognitively challenged, others addicted to substances or mentally unbalanced-the same mitigating circumstances that had won white soldiers their death row reprieves. These men lacked the benefits of political connections, expert lawyers, or public support; only their mothers begged fruitlessly for their lives to be spared. By 1960, John Bennett was the youngest black inmate at Fort Leavenworth. His lost battle for clemency was fought between 2 vastly different presidential administrations-Eisenhower's and Kennedy's-as the civil rights movement was gaining steam. Drawing on interviews, trial transcripts, and rarely published archival material, Serrano brings to life the characters in this lost history: from desperate mothers and disheartened appeals lawyers, to the prison doctors, psychiatrists, and chaplains. He shines a light on the scandalous legal maneuvering that reached the doors of the White House and the disparity in capital punishment that was cut so strictly along racial lines.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $10.58, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Beacon Press.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $10.61, fair condition, Sold by spellbound rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from McKeesport, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Beacon Press.
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Fair. Size: 6x0x9; DAMAGED-Acceptable Condition and Unread! Text is clean and unmarked! Piece torn from dust jacket. Has a small black line or red dot on bottom/exterior edge of pages.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $11.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Beacon Press.
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Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $11.76, very good condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Beacon Press.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $12.19, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Beacon Press.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race and the Last to cart. $12.97, like new condition, Sold by Big River Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Powder Springs, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Beacon Press.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race & the Last to cart. $14.00, like new condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Beacon Press.
Add this copy of Summoned at Midnight: a Story of Race & the Last to cart. $14.00, very good condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Beacon Press.
