One Night of Madness

On the cusp of the civil rights movement, tragedy and injustice in rural Southern towns was not uncommon, but the wickedness as retold by author Stokes McMillan in One Night of Madness is shocking and utterly desperate. The year was 1950. Mary Ella Harris, a mother of five, works hard sharecropping alongside her husband, a man with a penchant for gambling, drinking, and associating with unsavory white people. When she is cornered in her home by Leon Turner, a white man who refuses to take no for an answer, Mary Ella narrowly avoids an attempted rape. After his arrest, Leon escapes jail and enacts a bloody revenge with two accomplices. The sheriff, a former bookkeeper, leads the biggest manhunt in Mississippi history, which ends in a blazing shootout. With the eyes of the nation watching, the state itself is on trial. The jury's controversial decision is rebuffed by many, including William Faulkner, and a battle line is drawn that ultimately serves as a catalyst for change.