To Poison a Nation

About this book

"An explosive, long-forgotten story of police violence in New Orleans that exposes the historical roots of today's criminal justice crisis"-- 1900. New Orleans police officers confronted a black man named Robert Charles as he sat on a doorstep in a working-class neighborhood where racial tensions were running high. What happened next would trigger the largest manhunt in the city's history, while white mobs took to the streets, attacking and murdering innocent black residents during three days of bloody rioting. Finally cornered, Charles exchanged gunfire with the police in a gun battle witnessed by thousands. Baker immerses listeners in a boisterous world of disgruntled laborers, crooked machine bosses, scheming businessmen, and the black radical who tossed a flaming torch into the powder keg. -- adapted from jacket