When Death Comes Stealing by Valerie Wilson Wesley

and the activities of the civil rights workers in Alabama are noted in the work. Klan terror and the events leading to the church bombing takes up a large part of the narrative, but the diligent struggle carried on by civil rights participants is not lost in the story. Edgar Hoover closed the Sixteenth Street Church bombing case because he concluded that a “conviction could not be obtained at that time in the South.” Those in power who could have stopped the atrocities did nothing. undercover agent Gary Thomas Rowe not only participated in violent acts, but in some cases instigated them, and did not give “substantive information about the bombing case,” is evidence of the depth of institutional racism. Klan members would ride in squad cars with police and they had carte blanche to go after Blacks. Smith notes that the infamous Eugene “Bull” Connor attended Klan rallies. The close collaboration the Klan had with law enforcement officers and public officials was by far the most important reason the racist terrorists were able to bomb and kill with impunity. But they closed ranks by remaining silent and even provided him with alibis. Family members were aware of Chambliss and others who were responsible for the murder of the four children - Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson. Hence, the private and public worlds of the Klan were intertwined.

Smith makes it clear that the reason the Klan was able to exist was because of the support it received from those ordinary whites who were willing to turn over their homes to the organization for meetings, to create’ Klan wear (sheets with holes) and to filter their message of hate to children. But the author correctly contends that because many of these women supported racist Klan activity, they should not only be seen as victims but partners in the goal of maintaining white supremacy. We learn that in the violent world of the Klan, men beat their wives with impunity in order to sustain white male supremacy.

Although young Elizabeth Cobbs did well in high school, her parents denied her the opportunity to attend college, arguing that the household was the proper arena for women. By the 1950s, Birmingham Klan members moved from assaulting and killing individuals to attacking Black institutions and organizations, as well as Jewish temples, holding to the same political objective - the subjugation of African Americans and their “allies.”Īn important aspect of the author’s story is the subservient role of women.

We not only learn of the intense hatred that Klan members had for African Americans, but the author reveals the acts of terror carried out by these defenders of Anglo-Saxon purity, which intensified when the civil rights movement emerged in Birmingham. Elizabeth Cobbs became aware at an early age of her family’s intense fear of Black people, especially Black men.

When Death Comes Stealing by Valerie Wilson Wesley