Jim Kershner

Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life - Carl Maxey Jim Kershner

Commendation Quotes: An essential biography of one city's civil rights hero, wonderfully written and impeccably researched.... "Carl Maxey" was a man whose complicated life transcended its own gripping details to mirror a turbulent time in our recent history, a time when it seemed as if race and justice would forever run on separate tracks. Commendation Quotes: Jim Kershner's biography of activist "Carl Maxey" is not only inspirational and informative, but because it is so well written it is also a pleasure to read. Table of Contents: Preface and Acknowledgments1. An Orphan's Fire2. A Father in Black Robes3. The Count and the Club4. Walking Right into Trouble5. King Carl Wins the Crown6. Eastern Washington's First Black Lawyer7. Stirrings from the South8. The Haircut Uproar and a Perfunctory Execution9. Freedom Summer in the Tail End of America10. "The Sickness of Our Nation"11. A Right Hook to Scoop Jackson12. The Seattle Seven Circus13. The Maxey Temper14. Ruth Coe's Greek Tragedy15. "No Goddamned Award"16. "Living through All This B. S."17. Type-A GandhiNotes on SourcesIndexBiographical Note: Jim Kershner is a journalist for "The Spokesman-Review" in Spokane. Marc Notes: Carl Maxey came from a childhood in the scandal-ridden Spokane Children's Home to make a name for himself, first as an NCAA championship boxer, and then as eastern Washington's first black lawyer and a renowned civil rights attorney who always fought for the underdog. Journalist Jim Kershner creates a moving portrait of the man. Publisher Marketing: "Carl Maxey" was, in his own words, "a guy who started from scratch - black scratch." He was sent, at age five, to the scandal-ridden Spokane Children's Home and then kicked out at age eleven with the only other "colored" orphan. Yet Maxey managed to make a national name for himself, first as an NCAA championship boxer at Gonzaga University, and then as eastern Washington's first prominent black lawyer and a renowned civil rights attorney who always fought for the underdog. During the tumultuous civil rights and Vietnam War eras, "Carl Maxey" fought to break down color barriers in his hometown of Spokane and throughout the nation. As a defense lawyer, he made national headlines working on lurid murder cases and war-protest trials, including the notorious Seattle Seven trial. He even took his commitment to justice and antiwar causes to the political arena, running for the U. S. Senate against powerhouse senator Henry M. Jackson. In "Carl Maxey" A Fighting Life, Jim Kershner explores the sources of Maxey's passions as well as the price he ultimately paid for his struggles. The result is a moving portrait of a man called a "Type-A Gandhi" by the New York Times, whose own personal misfortune spurred his lifelong, tireless crusade against injustice. Review Citations: Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2008 pg. 192 (EAN 9780295988467, Hardcover)