A Shot in the Moonlight, Ben Montgomery
A Shot in the Moonlight, Ben Montgomery
2 Rating(s)
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A Shot in the Moonlight
How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South

Author: Ben Montgomery

Narrator: Zeno Robinson, Ben Montgomery

Unabridged: 7 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/26/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The sensational true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, who in 1899 joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice in the Jim Crow south. “Taut and tense. Inspiring and terrifying in its timelessness.”(Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad )
 
After moonrise on the cold night of January 21, 1897, a mob of twenty-five white men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in southwestern Simpson County, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns, and a few tucked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning, a freed slave who'd farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years, and who had been wrongfully accused of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began firing through the doors and windows of Dinning's home, he fired back in self-defense, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.

So began one of the strangest legal episodes in American history — one that ended with Dinning becoming the first Black man in America to win damages after a wrongful murder conviction.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery resurrects this dramatic but largely forgotten story, and the unusual convergence of characters — among them a Confederate war hero-turned-lawyer named Bennett H. Young, Kentucky governor William O'Connell Bradley, and George Dinning himself — that allowed this unlikely story of justice to unfold in a time and place where justice was all too rare.

About Ben Montgomery

Ben Montgomery is an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and the founder of the narrative journalism website gangrey.com. In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school. Ben lives in Tampa with his wife, Jennifer, and three children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on March 27, 2021

Quick thoughts: George Dinning of Kentucky becomes the first Black man in the US to win damages from a wrongful murder conviction. Mr. Dinning's story is inspiring, riveting, emotional, and important. I was hooked on this book and and had to read it as fast as I could. Even though this really happene......more

Goodreads review by Moonkiszt on May 23, 2021

Sobering. Hard to read while white (truly is hard to read while human, but especially cringe-y when shared dna with the villians is present). Still, Ben Montgomery tells a great true tale. He gets all his facts down, all the players - main and side - in order and well-drawn, he places the setting and......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on March 14, 2021

Several years ago I went to a local church to hear a Metro Detroit fiber artist talk about her quilt. The quilt was huge, a stark black with thousands of names embroidered on it. April Anue, the artist, told us how God hounded her to make this quilt, and what it cost her, the anguish and tears that......more

Goodreads review by Richard Montgomery on January 30, 2021

Inherited Hatred Ben Montgomery's "A Shot in The Moonlight" shines a light from our past on the ugly and prevalent race hatred that still exists in the 21st century in the Divided States of America. His book unearths not just one family's sad story a century ago, but tragedy after tragedy of horrors......more

Goodreads review by Gail on February 16, 2021

Halfway through reading this book, I direct messaged a friend of mine on Instagram who is an attorney in Louisville and lives in New Albany, Indiana, right across the Ohio River. I wrote to him: "I'm tearing through this book .. I feel like it's one I wanted to specifically recommend to you bc it's p......more

Quotes

“As he did in his spectacular reporting on the Dozier School in Florida, Ben Montgomery excavates another hidden strand of American history. Taut and tense, A Shot in the Moonlight is inspiring and terrifying in its timelessness.”—Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys

“Ben Montgomery’s masterful retelling of George Dinning’s story reminds us that history is created by ordinary people who confront wrongdoing. This is a powerful portrayal of prejudice at its most depraved, humanity at its most determined, and a judicial system that can, at its best, address injustice.  It reminds us of what to hope for in our current troubled times.”—Lois Lowry, author of The Giver

"A Shot in the Moonlight is a searing narrative, thoroughly engrossing and timelier than ever. With remarkable journalism and meticulous research, Ben Montgomery has passionately crafted a masterwork of nonfiction."—Gilbert King, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove

"Ben Montgomery's A Shot in the Moonlight is a meticulously reported account that resurrects a remarkable story of race and justice that had been largely lost to history. Like so many Black Americans throughout our nation's history, George Dinning demanded justice. Unlike so many others, and after a strenuous battle that Montgomery expertly documents, he was ultimately able to secure it."—Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and A New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement

"Ben Montgomery has unearthed and vigorously reported the traumatic and important story of a Black man who had the courage to shoot back. His storytelling and attention to time, context, and detail is nothing short of mesmerizing. This is the feat of one of the best nonfiction writers in the world today. A Shot in Moonlight is a challenge, a triumph."—RJ Young, author of Let It Bang: A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns

“True racial reconciliation requires that America take a hard and honest look at its past, and, to that end, A Shot in the Moonlight is essential reading. Ben Montgomery brings his considerable skills as a writer and reporter to the story of George Dinning, a Black man who somehow survived vigilante violence and found justice in 1897 Kentucky. More broadly, in his elegant narrative, Montgomery lays bare the horrors and indignities of the Jim Crow era that remain foundational to the pain of today.”—Tim Madigan, author of The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

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