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Wallace, Sandra Neil , Wallace, Rich

Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men

144 pp. | Boyds Mills & Kane/Calkins | January, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-62979-816-5 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-63592-373-5 $11.99
(2) YA In October 1919, the village of Hoop Spur, Arkansas, saw one of the deadliest mass lynchings of Black Americans in history. But because five white men also died at the time, local officials vowed to put down the "Negro plot to rise against the white residents," leading to the bogus murder convictions of twelve Black men. Enter the indefatigable Scipio Jones, a self-taught lawyer whose ingenious work beat the odds--and the white supremacist Arkansas judicial system--to gain the innocent men their freedom. This propulsive narrative spotlights the overlooked genius of Jones, a Black man fearing for his own life while working tirelessly to save the lives of others, spending most of his savings in the process. The authors don't shy away from the ugliness of the white supremacist systems at work ("What happened...was not a race riot...It was a massacre conducted by angry mobs of white Americans"), though the text does get a bit bogged down at times with myriad judiciary goings-on. But perhaps that's the point: the number of bureaucratic curveballs thrown at Jones is truly dizzying. A clean design with plentiful white space, abundant black-and-white photos, and short chapters make this a quick read. An authors' note, a bibliography, source notes, and an index are appended.
Reviewer: Sam Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

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