Description
Book SynopsisIn 1926, Walter White, assistant secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, broke the story of a horrific lynching in Aiken, South Carolina, in which three African Americans were murdered while more than one thousand spectators watched. Because of his light complexion, blonde hair, and blue eyes, White, an African American, was able to investigate first-hand more than forty lynchings and eight race riots.
Following the lynchings in Aiken, White took a leave of absence from the NAACP and, with help from a Guggenheim grant, spent a year in France writing Rope and Faggot. Ironically subtitled A Biography of Judge Lynch, Rope and Faggot is a compelling example of partisan scholarship and is based on White''s first-hand investigations. It was first published in 1929.
Rope and Faggot debunked the big lie that lynching punished black men for raping white women and it provided White with an opportunity to deliver a pen