A01=Scott D. Seligman
African American History
African American Studies
American History
Anne Arundel County
Author_Scott D. Seligman
Bayard Rustin
Bigotry
California
Category=N
Civil Rights
Civil Rights History
Civil Rights Leader
Death Penalty
Discrimination
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Gubernatorial Pardon
History
John Snowden
Justice
Justice Department
Kangaroo Court
LGBTQ
Lottie May Brandon
Lynching
Maryland
Mob Justice
Posthumous Justice
Posthumous Pardon
Racial Injustice
Racism
Product details
- ISBN 9781640124653
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2021
- Publisher: Potomac Books Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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2022 IPPY Silver Medal
2021 Foreword Indies Gold Winner for History
2021-22 Reader Views Literary Awards Silver Medal Winner
2021 Best Book Awards Finalist in US History sponsored by American Book Fest
A Second Reckoning tells the story of John Snowden, a Black man accused of the murder of a pregnant white woman in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1917. He refused to confess despite undergoing torture, was tried-through legal shenanigans-by an all-white jury, and was found guilty on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. Despite hair-raising, last-minute appeals to spare his life, Snowden was hanged for the crime. But decades after his death, thanks to tireless efforts by interested citizens and family members who believed him a victim of a “legal lynching,” Snowden was pardoned posthumously by the governor of Maryland in 2001.
A Second Reckoning uses Snowden’s case to bring posthumous pardons into the national conversation about amends for past racial injustices. Scott D. Seligman argues that the repeal of racist laws and policies must be augmented by reckoning with America’s judicial past, especially in cases in which prejudice may have tainted procedures or perverted verdicts, evidence of bias survives, and a constituency exists for a second look. Seligman illustrates the profound effects such acts of clemency have on the living and ends with a siren call for a reexamination of such cases on the national level by the Department of Justice, which officially refuses to consider them.
2021 Foreword Indies Gold Winner for History
2021-22 Reader Views Literary Awards Silver Medal Winner
2021 Best Book Awards Finalist in US History sponsored by American Book Fest
A Second Reckoning tells the story of John Snowden, a Black man accused of the murder of a pregnant white woman in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1917. He refused to confess despite undergoing torture, was tried-through legal shenanigans-by an all-white jury, and was found guilty on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. Despite hair-raising, last-minute appeals to spare his life, Snowden was hanged for the crime. But decades after his death, thanks to tireless efforts by interested citizens and family members who believed him a victim of a “legal lynching,” Snowden was pardoned posthumously by the governor of Maryland in 2001.
A Second Reckoning uses Snowden’s case to bring posthumous pardons into the national conversation about amends for past racial injustices. Scott D. Seligman argues that the repeal of racist laws and policies must be augmented by reckoning with America’s judicial past, especially in cases in which prejudice may have tainted procedures or perverted verdicts, evidence of bias survives, and a constituency exists for a second look. Seligman illustrates the profound effects such acts of clemency have on the living and ends with a siren call for a reexamination of such cases on the national level by the Department of Justice, which officially refuses to consider them.
Scott D. Seligman is a writer and historian. He is the author of numerous books, including The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City (Potomac Books, 2020), the award-winning The Third Degree: The Triple Murder That Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice (Potomac Books, 2018), and The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo.
