Senator Doug Jones of Alabama sees unsettling echoes of America’s racist past in the Trump era. His new book is a wake-up call with a powerful message: Never forget.
.videocontent{position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%}.tvplayer > div {position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%} U.S. Donald Trump Congress Doug Jones was just nine years old when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The 1963 blast killed four young girls and awakened the nation to the dangerous struggle for civil rights in the Deep South.
That’s what inspired him to write his new book, Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights . Jones, now a U.S. senator after winning a remarkable special election in Alabama in 2017, saw deeply unsettling echoes of the past in Charlottesville, where white nationalists carrying tiki torches chanted “Jews will not replace us.
In your book, you describe visiting Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the man you prosecuted for the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombings, in prison. Why go back? There’s a lot of people who might not have forgiven him but the guard afterwards said “no one should have to die in prison,” and it struck me as well. Look back at what happened in Charleston, the victims of [shooter] Dylann Roof forgave him fairly quickly. I think victims can be forgiving, but for the greater community, it’s just so much better when someone can acknowledge their responsibilities and talk about that and ask for forgiveness. It’s just much more meaningful.
But there are some signs that the South is turning purple: your successful election, Beto O’Rourke in Texas...
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