Matthew Van Meter works with people whose voices have been ignored or silenced, both as a journalist and as the Assistant Director of Shakespeare in Prison. His reporting on criminal justice has appeared in The Atlantic and The New Republic, and he is currently editing the first critical edition of Shakespeare written entirely by incarcerated people. Raised Quaker on the East Coast, he now lives in Detroit.
"Deep Delta Justice is an uncommonly good true story told
uncommonly well. Based on extensive reporting and first-rate
historical research, it presents an unforgettable account of a
landmark civil rights lawsuit that culminated in a Supreme Court
decision affirming the right to a jury trial in most criminal
cases. Van Meter's narrative, which takes more twists and turns
than the Mississippi, is suspenseful, infuriating, and sometimes
funny. This is a wonderful book, worthy of a permanent place in the
literature of the American civil rights movement."--Patricia
O'Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made and
When TrumpetsCall: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House
"Deep Delta Justice provides the arresting, astonishing history of
a racial conflict that began on Louisiana's backroads and resulted
in a momentous Supreme Court victory for all Americans. Pairing an
investigative journalist's probing research with a novelist's eye
for detail, Matthew Van Meter offers the definitive backstory of an
all-too-often overlooked civil rights milestone."--Justin Driver,
Yale Law School, author of The Schoolhouse Gate
"A seminal work of impeccable scholarship."--Library Journal,
starred
"An examination of a 1966 racial confrontation and its aftermath,
which "would help dismantle the infrastructure of white supremacy
that had strangled [a rural Louisiana] community for centuries". .
. Will appeal to admirers of Bryan Stevenson . . . Timely
reading."--Kirkus
"Excellent debut...readers will be struck by how many of the issues
involved-voter suppression, public funding for private schools,
racial inequalities in the criminal justice system-are still being
legislated today."--Publisher Weekly, starred review
"In his vivid new book Matthew Van Meter takes us into the world of
injustice Jim Crow created, where the smallest of touches could
destroy a man's life. From that darkness he draws an absorbing
story of courage, resistance, and the promise of profound change.
Read Deep Delta Justice for the history it recovers - and the hope
it holds for our own dark time."--Kevin Boyle, authorof Arc of
Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz
Age
"In the spirit of Melissa Fay Greene's classic Praying For
Sheetrock, Matthew Van Meter takes readers to one of the most
indelible yet obscure battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement
and shows how grassroots heroism can topple even one of
segregation's most fearsome tyrants."
--Samuel G. Freedman, Columbia University Professor of Journalism,
author of Breaking the Line
"Matthew Van Meter dives into great detail through interviews,
research and a rich knowledge of the law to reveal the society as
well as the men subject to a justice system in need of systemic
change."--Observer
"A legal saga with an emphasis on storytelling, it's a valuable
contribution to the literature on the civil rights movement and the
ongoing fight against white supremacy." --Andru Okun, Washington
Post
"Eloquent..[and] poignant."--The National Book Review
"The story of Deep Delta Justice begins in 1966, when a Black
teenager in Louisiana named Gary Duncan attempts to break up a
fight. His trouble begins when he puts his hand on a white child.
Van Meter traces how this incident and the trial that followed,
Duncan v. Louisiana, eventually led to a major Supreme Court
decision about one's right to a jury trial."--LitHub
"This history revisits the prosecution of Duncan on a charge of
battery, after he touched a white boy's arm while intervening in a
fight...Van Meter argues that the case was an exemplar of a
"criminal procedure revolution" that brought federal standards to
state courts."--New Yorker, Briefly Noted
"Van Meter's narrative and characters come alive to illustrate a
pivotal time in American justice. The extraordinary details he
gleans from his research immerse readers in the climate and culture
of the era. Readers drawn to Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy will find
this book a similarly engaging reminder that the justice system is
ever-evolving."
--Booklist
Ask a Question About this Product More... |