Flames after Midnight: Murder, Vengeance, and the Desolation of a Texas Community

by Monte Akers

Overview

The “well-written and compelling history” of a 1922 racist reign of terror in a small Texas town—now updated with a shocking deathbed confession (USA Today).

What happened in Kirven, Texas, in May 1922, has been forgotten by the outside world. But in Flames After Midnight, historian Monte Akers uncovers the true story behind a young white woman's brutal murder and the burning alive of three black men who were almost certainly innocent of it. This was followed by a month-long reign of terror as white men killed blacks while local authorities concealed the identity of the white murder suspects and allowed them to go free.

Akers paints a vivid portrait of a community desolated by race hatred and its own refusal to face hard truths. He sets this tragedy within the story of a region prospering from an oil boom but plagued by lawlessness, and traces the lynching's repercussions down the decades to the present day. In an epilogue, Akers reveals new information that came to light as a result of this book's publication, including an eyewitness account of the burnings from an elderly man who claimed to have castrated two of the men before they were lynched.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292773417
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	02/24/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	287
Sales rank:	288,091
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Monte Akers is the previous author of several books, including The Accidental Historian: Tales of Trash and Treasure (2010); Flames After Midnight: Murder, Vengeance and the Desolation of a Texas Community (1999); and Tales for the Tellings: Six Short Stories of the American Civil War. An attorney as well as historian, a collector of Civil War artifacts, song lyricist (since age nine), and an admirer of Jeb Stuart, he currently lives near Austin, Texas.      

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsPart OnePrologue to Part OneChapter 1. EulaChapter 2. Kirven, the County, the Country, and the KingsChapter 3. The Instant when Music Shatters GlassChapter 4. Sheriff MayoChapter 5. ManhuntChapter 6. A “Good Job” in the Early Hours of the MorningChapter 7. This Cold World of CareChapter 8. TerrorPart TwoPrologue to Part TwoChapter 9. A Visitor from WacoChapter 10. ConfirmationChapter 11. Doll RagsChapter 12. Greater IronyChapter 13. A Place in Blackest HistoryChapter 14. Burning QuestionsChapter 15. Epilogue: A Notoriety Deeply to be RegrettedChapter 16. Epilogue to the Revised EditionNotesIndex

Editorial Reviews

Flames after Midnight vividly captures that culture in all its repugnance, exploring the tenor of the times and delving into the character of the story's central figures. While it cannot by its nature be pleasant to read, it is a well-written and compelling history that in its scope extends beyond Kirven. Akers holds up a mirror so that we see ourselves, in historical retrospect, at our worst.
— USA Today

Don Ross