Very good story. Many heart breaking insights for the black equality movement.

Calamity of Souls, David Baldacci, author; Macleod Andrews, Sisi Aisha Johnson, Kiiri Sandy and Cary Hite, narrators.
Raw racism is alive and well in Freeman County, Virginia. Although great advances have been made for civil rights, this is a time of political and racial turbulence, a time of overlooked and widespread lawlessness by whites against blacks. John F. Kennedy was assassinated along with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, three young men who were civil rights activists were murdered in cold-blood, the Vietnam war and its repercussions were raging, George Wallace, a racist, was running for President, and the echoes of the KKK were louder than a whisper. Although blacks were entitled to equal protection under the law, for them the law was quite a different story than for anyone else. Easily framed and often convicted unfairly, often illiterate and easily charged and punished without justice or comprehension of their situation, this book actually shines a light on the history of the travesties of the justice system quite authentically.
Unfortunately, the reader is often distracted by the very preachy nature of the narrative. Sometimes it felt like a well-needed history lesson, sometimes like a lecture, and sometimes an undeserved dressing down, but it always had the air of authenticity connecting it to the reality of the times. That balanced what would have been nothing more than a progressive handbook on race and made it a real primer on racial injustice and the uphill battle still being fought to eradicate hate. Today, more than ever, it has reared its ugly face, but it is coming from both directions with a fierceness none of us could ever have imagined. We are still not colorblind nor are we blind to any other differences we humans share.
In this novel, when Jerome Washington is accused of murdering his employers, Anne and Leslie Hanover, one of the most prominent and wealthy families in the county, his wife Pearl and her grandmother, Miss Jessup, a feisty, independent, no-nonsense woman, turn to Jack Lee, a young, white lawyer, for help. Jerome swears he is innocent and they do as well. Jerome is a decorated veteran of Vietnam, like Jack’s brother Jefferson, only Jerome, unlike Jefferson, had not deserted and escaped to Canada. He had injuries which caused him to limp and made some jobs impossible. Thus, he was grateful to be employed by the Hanover’s, so why would he kill them?
Because Jack has little to no experience with murder cases, and this case has the power to explode in an election year, the prosecution seeks to have him removed and have a more experienced trial lawyer appointed. However, they fail in the attempt to arrange a kangaroo court, a court with a lawyer that might allow a black man to be framed for a crime he swears he did not commit, with manufactured evidence and violent tactics to prevent the truth from seeing the light of day. Another lawyer, a very experienced activist who has appeared before the Supreme Court, arrives on the scene to either take over or to help him. Desiree DeBose is a prominent, black lawyer. She has devoted herself to the cause of justice, and she guarantees that the accused will have excellent representation and an attempt at a fair and just trial. It is doubtful, however, that he will have a fair trial in a Virginia court, especially with a jury that is not of his peers. There is not one black juror, since few are allowed onto the jury pool rolls.
There is a wealthy and influential coal mine owner, Howard Pickett, who appears on the scene and seeks publicity. He supports George Wallace. He also appears to be bankrolling a lot of the evidence manipulation and funding of the witnesses’ testimonies, threats of violence, even from law enforcement, and murders that are taking place. Why are there few repercussions? The reader may feel confused at times, for how could such blatant interference in a trial go unremarked and unpunished or uncovered by the media? Then again, we witness today, in our own election year, the media’s collusion with the side they support.
Jack calls in his investigator to help. Donny Peppers, although white, he arrives with his black wife, Shirl. This introduces an interracial relationship, a relationship only recently no longer a crime in some states. Coincidentally, also, Jack’s brother Jeff returns when amnesty is granted to deserting soldiers. He had once had a close relationship with Christine Hanover, the daughter of the deceased couple, and he aids Jack in his investigation. So does Jack’s father who had engaged in a friendly relationship with Miss Jessup over the years. So, there are lots of intertwined threads that need to be unknotted and explained. Sometimes, there is a feeling that some of the themes are contrived. There is what seems to be an attempt to show Desiree as arrogant and smarter than Jack, though he is happy enough to admit that she is, and he is not at all put off by her superior attitude or behavior. As a matter of fact, their relationship buds into a warm and honest friendship.
Many of the characters are actually presented a bit like caricatures, with the whites being racist and blind to right and wrong, and the blacks being presented as very honorable and righteous, abused by a system that ignores right and wrong. In the novel, that theme is justified. With the charge of murder against Jerome, the death penalty, long dormant, is reinstated in Virginia. Since the Commonwealth wants very much to win this case and to send a message, they try Jerome and Pearl in Richmond and send in a high-powered District Attorney, Edmund Battle, and a very well-known Judge, Josiah Ambrose, to handle the case. Their reputation for fairness may be dubious, when it comes to the trial of a black man, but this is an election year and they want to give it the appearance of justice. Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace all want to be President. For the public, the judge postures himself as honorable and fair, giving the defense every advantage, but it is his modus operandi so that his trial looks just, but his racial animus eventually shines brighter than his false persona.
As the case proceeds and holes are poked into it by DeBose and Jack, new evidence is manufactured and Pearl Washington, Jerome’s wife, is arrested and accused of helping him carry out the murder and covering it up. Although it seems obvious that the violence occurring, and the sudden court surprises with new evidence and witnesses being introduced, should indicate a manipulation of the proceedings, the judge and the jury, described as decidedly racist, seem unaware or unconcerned about the injustices occurring or the lies that are exposed with the arrest of witnesses for perjury.
It is true that one of the most prominent families is dead, has been murdered in a most brutal manner, and it is true that there is supposed evidence that seems to point to Jerome and his wife, but one has to wonder if it has been manufactured or planted, and if so, by whom? Who else had a motive to kill the Hanover's? Their daughter was supposedly out of town, their son had an alibi as well. No one else was on the property at the time of their deaths but Jerome. Many of his peers that work on the property or for the family seem to provide damning evidence. At times, the way things were done will shock the reader. Both sides are able to bring about their own form of justice, but injustice had been largely on the side of the law against the Washington’s. Although Pearl can prove she did not aid Jerome, and Jerome is innocent, she does not want him to know where she was on the day of the murder. One of their own kind had taken advantage of her, and she was taking care of her own female problem that day. The woman who helped her refuses to testify because she could be arrested. There are others who are also hiding their whereabouts on the day of the murder, but it takes time to expose all of the facts.
Throughout the investigation, it felt as if crimes were ignored. Arson, assaults and attempted murders went uninvestigated. Law enforcement seemed to be totally compromised, as were the jury, judge and DA. It was difficult to believe. The court scenes were excellent and credible, as were the racist attitudes of the former Klansmen. Still, sometimes the blacks were too “good”, and the whites, with few exceptions, were “too bad”. There were unresolved crimes that took place and crimes in which the accused were absolutely framed. The crimes remained unremarked about in the novel, perhaps to prove how little law and order there really was and how only money and politics counted in the justice system. Is it the same today?
The novel captures the times, the racism, the politics, the war, the pain it caused, the way facts were manipulated and the way people could be framed. The powerless could be taken advantage of and were. Will there ever be colorblindness? Is that the answer? Is that what any race wants? Somehow, we seem to be separating ourselves again, but we are also living today in a modern world with manufactured evidence against people, regardless of color, and with false sworn testimonies by experts, so it is not hard at all to imagine how such a trial like Jerome and Pearl’s could have taken place in the 60’s or even today.