Kirjahaku

Winner, Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas History, Texas State Historical Association, 2010 Carr P. Collins Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 2011On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school's academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university's decision in court, and the resulting case, Sweatt v. Painter, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt's favor. The Sweatt case paved the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka rulings that finally opened the doors to higher education for all African Americans and desegregated public education in the United States.In this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt's struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the "separate but equal" doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

In October of 1989, the State of Texas set Kenneth Allen McDuff, the Broomstick Murderer, free. It was not a trial error, or a ruling by some judge. McDuff was paroled.All of a sudden fear returned. Calls came in from housewives afraid to leave their kids by themselves during broad daylight. Schools took precautions, and bus drivers were warned to be on the alert for the Bad Boy from Rosebud. Thirty years after he had dropped out of school, Kenneth McDuff was still scaring school children and giving principals trouble.By choosing to murder again while on parole, McDuff became the architect of an extraordinarily intolerant atmosphere in Texas. He brought about the restructuring of the third largest criminal justice system in the United States. The spasm of prison construction and parole reforms collectively called the “McDuff Rules,” resulted from an enormous display of anger vented towards the system that allowed McDuff to kill, and kill again.Bad Boy from Rosebud is a chilling account of the life of one of the most heartless and brutal serial killers in American history. Drawing from dozens of interviews, a careful review of primary documents, and recounting his personal involvement with law enforcement officers in efforts to recover victims, Gary M. Lavergne goes beyond horror into an analysis of the unbelievable subculture in which McDuff lived. Equally compelling are the lives of remarkable law enforcement officers determined to bring McDuff to justice, and their seven-year search for his victims.