SOUTH WIND BLOWS

An angry, often raw expose of racial bias and brutality, in a first novel which tells the story of the lynching of Negro Ab Lacey for the shooting of white Will Blake. The pattern of a witch hunt, 20th century style, cross-sectioning a town in the Deep South, and the participants, some of whom protested passively, others who shared actively in the lynching. All degrees and variations of racism come out through the people who took part, from Charlie Porter, Memphis reporter who watched but did not speak up; to Doc Windham, Indiana born -- and a liberal; the Reverend Wright, whose childhood had been scarred by a similar instance, but who compromised on this one; Banker Sims, who thought it ""bad for business""; Bud O'Neill, who had played with Lacey in childhood, but hunted him down as a man; Amos Carter, moonshiner, who ended his suffering; Blaylock, the mailman who hated ""niggers""; Will Blake's widow, glad to be rid of him; and Dessie Lacey, who had loved her husband, but was too terrified to refuse the attentions of a white man.... A story rooted in the South of which it reveals so much, this is a challenge to human rights, but a difficult book to reach its market.