Grif Stockley – författare

In this book noted Arkansas historian Grif Stockley (""Blood in Their Eyes"", ""Daisy Bates"") presents a clear depiction of the struggles of race and class in Arkansas, using personal stories to give a deeper understanding of the price of racism in Arkansas. The last chapter explores the experiences of Hispanics in the state.

On the morning of March 5, 1959, Luvenia Long was listening to gospel music when a news bulletin interrupted her radio program. Fire had engulfed the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville, thirteen miles outside of Little Rock. Her son Lindsey had been confined there since January 14, after a judge for juveniles found him guilty of stealing from a neighborhood store owner. To her horror, Lindsey was not among the forty-eight boys who had clawed their way through the windows of the dormitory to safety. Instead, he was among the twenty-one boys between the ages of thirteen and seventeen who burned to death.Black Boys Burning presents a focused explanation of how systemic poverty perpetuated by white supremacy sealed the fate of those students. A careful telling of the history of the school and fire, the book provides readers a fresh understanding of the broad implications of white supremacy. Grif Stockley's research adds to an evolving understanding of the Jim Crow South, Arkansas's history, the lawyers who capitalized on this tragedy, and the African American victims.In hindsight, the disaster at Wrightsville could have been predicted. Immediately after the fire, an unsigned editorial in the Arkansas Democrat noted long-term deterioration, including the wiring, of the buildings. After the Central High School desegregation crisis in 1957, the boys' deaths eighteen months later were once again an embarrassment to Arkansas. The fire and its circumstances should have provoked southerners to investigate the realities of their ""separate but equal institutions."" However, white supremacy ruled the investigations, and the grand jury declared the event to be an anomaly.

From the author of Illegal Motion comes another thrilling and suspenseful story of Gideon Page as he returns home to defend a man accused of a contract killing, only to discover the killer had been hired by the man who once destroyed Gideon’s own family.Haunted by the past, Gideon Page, a former social worker turned lawyer, is offered a shot of redemption and revenge when he is hired onto a case of murder in his hometown of Bear Creek in the Arkansas Delta. When a Black man is accused of killing Willie Ting, his Chinese-American employer, it becomes apparent that the killing is assumed to be under the orders of a wealthy white man whose offer to buy Ting’s meat-packing plant was refused. Realizing too late that the man who contracted the killing is the same one responsible for his father’s suicide, Gideon finds himself caught between his professional instincts and his personal desires as he takes on a case that is more complicated and dangerous than he ever imagined.

In this thrilling courtroom drama from the author of Expert Testimony, reluctant hero Gideon Page returns to help Blackwell County’s most prominent lawyer in the murder trial of the daughter of a well-known fundamentalist minister.Appearing as if his luck has turned at last, Gideon Page is asked by Chet Bracken, Blackwell County’s foremost trial lawyer, to assist in a significant murder trial. Working on the defense of Leigh Wallace, the daughter of a prominent fundamentalist minister who is accused of killing her husband, Gideon finds himself at the forefront of Blackwell Country lawyers, hopefully bringing an end to his private practices struggle for clients. But as Gideon and Chet prepare for the trail, his hopes for a win begin to fade as the twisted threads of the crime are revealed with the realization that the majority of the town follows the ministry of the accused’s father. As time runs out, Gideon finds out he is the only one with the wits to operate in a trial that is tainted with emotions, jealously, lust, and family loyalty. From the first page to the climatic trial scene, Religious Conviction is a gripping thriller rich with humor, local color, vivid characterization, and intrigue.

In the first novel of the Gideon Page Mystery series, readers are introduced to public defender Gideon Page as he is pulled on the case to defend a psychiatric patient accused of murdering of a prominent state senator.Social worker turned public defender Gideon Page is looking loss in the eyes as he takes on the case of Perry Sarver, a mentally unstable man accused of killing one of the most prominent Arkansas state politicians, Hart Anderson. When it is revealed that Perry’s psychiatrist is none other than Anderson’s wife, Carolyn, it is up to Page to dig deep into the history of Perry’s life in order to uncover the motives that could have led to Hart’s killing. While Page seeks evidence defending him, Carolyn struggles to help Perry sort his personal life, including raising a daughter, as she struggles with the possibly that the loss of her husband could be on her patient’s hand. “In addition to a puzzling murder, Expert Testimony offers readers an inside view of how a legal case is developed in this day of public defenders and crowded courts.” – Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

The reluctant hero of Expert Testimony returns as Gideon Page takes on the case of a psychologist accused of manslaughter, suddenly finding himself immersed in a case that goes deeper than he could have imagined.When Gideon Page is fired from his law firm, he doesn’t know that the worst is yet to come. In an effort to move on from the pain of losing his job, Gideon makes the choice to defend Dr. Andrew Chapman, a psychologist accused of manslaughter. Suddenly, Gideon finds himself on a treacherous path leading to financial scandal, white supremacists, and, ultimately, the explosive racial tensions of Blackwell County, Arkansas. Forced to represent the clients that no one else will so he can make ends meet, Gideon spends his days jousting with judges, prosecutors, and clients as he faces the most complex case of his career in Probable Cause.

On September 30, 1919, local law enforcement in rural Phillips County, Arkansas, attacked black sharecroppers at a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The next day, hundreds of white men from the Delta, along with US Army troops, converged on the area “with blood in their eyes.” What happened next was one of the deadliest incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States, leaving a legacy of trauma and silence that has persisted for more than a century. In the wake of the massacre, the NAACP and Little Rock lawyer Scipio Jones spearheaded legal action that revolutionized due process in America. The first edition of Grif Stockley’s Blood in Their Eyes, published in 2001, brought renewed attention to the Elaine Massacre and sparked valuable new studies on racial violence and exploitation in Arkansas and beyond. With contributions from fellow historians Brian K. Mitchell and Guy Lancaster, this revised edition draws from recently uncovered source material and explores in greater detail the actions of the mob, the lives of those who survived the massacre, and the regime of fear and terror that prevailed under Jim Crow.

Daisy Bates (1914-1999) is renowned as the mentor of the Little Rock Nine, the first African Americans to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. For guiding the Nine through one of the most tumultuous civil rights crises of the 1950s, she was selected as Woman of the Year in Education by the Associated Press in 1957 and was the only woman invited to speak at the Lincoln Memorial ceremony in the March on Washington in 1963. But her importance as a historical figure has been overlooked by scholars of the civil rights movement.Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas chronicles her life and political advocacy before, during, and well after the Central High School crisis. An orphan from the Arkansas mill town of Huttig, she eventually rose to the zenith of civil rights action. In 1952, she was elected president of the NAACP in Arkansas and traveled the country speaking on political issues. During the 1960s, she worked as a field organizer for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to get out the black vote. Even after a series of strokes, she continued to orchestrate self-help and economic initiatives in Arkansas.Using interviews, archival records, contemporary news-paper accounts, and other materials, author Grif Stockley reconstructs Bates's life and career, revealing her to be a complex, contrary leader of the civil rights movement. Ultimately, Daisy Bates paints a vivid portrait of an ardent, overlooked advocate of social justice.