The Evidence of Things Not Seen
Reissued Edition
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4.5 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Over twenty-two months in 1979 and 1981 nearly two dozen children were unspeakably murdered in Atlanta despite national attention and outcry; they were all Black. James Baldwin investigated these murders, the Black administration in Atlanta, and Wayne Williams, the Black man tried for the crimes. Because there was only evidence to convict Williams for the murders of two men, the children's cases were closed, offering no justice to the families or the country. Baldwin's incisive analysis implicates the failures of integration as the guilt party, arguing, "There could be no more devastating proof of this assault than the slaughter of the children."
As Stacey Abrams writes in her foreword, "The humanity of black children, of black men and women, of black lives, has ever been a conundrum for America. Forty years on, Baldwin's writing reminds us that we have never resolved the core query: Do black lives matter? Unequivocally, the moral answer is yes, but James Baldwin refuses such rhetorical comfort." In this, his last book, by excavating American race relations Baldwin exposes the hard-to-face ingrained issues and demands that we all reckon with them.
Customer Reviews
Horrific event, Incomparable Baldwin
“It was never said, in so many words, but everyone appeared to suspect that this particular computer had had its own reasons for selecting this particular judge.
Each of us knows, though we do not like this knowledge that a courtroom is a visceral Roman circus. No one involved in this contest is, or can be, impartial.”
And just like that, we’re off to the races. So sick that the Atlanta child murder situation happened, but Baldwin’s writing is in a class by itself. I’m always so embarrassed when I read Baldwin because I look back on the pages I’ve read and think “this is far too much highlighting”. No one thinks like Baldwin, leaves you in tatters with a single sentence, or exposes so much truth in such few words.
“The magic and virtue of Baldwin’s pen is that it rings with what one knows instinctively and from a great depth is truth. There are, of course, harsh challenges and no promise of survival, to say nothing of victory, in that truth.” - Derrick Bell with Janet Dewart Bell
“History, I contend, is the present—we, with every breath we take, every move we make, are History—and what goes around, comes around.” - Baldwin