Murder in the Land of Cotton

The election results flow in, confirming the growing crowd's hopes that the first black candidate for mayor of the city will be the clear winner. Teams of supporters head to the park in the center of the city to acclaim his victory. The candidate strides to the platform from which he will address the crowd. He climbs the platform and tries to speak. Before he utters a word, he is struck by a fusillade of bullets that kills him instantly. In the confusion, no one can identify the assassins, who escape undetected. As the murder of the candidate becomes known, black citizens become enraged and begin rioting. The National Guard-all-white troops from other parts of the state-is called in to curb the turmoil. With the guard patrolling the streets, a new coalition of leaders emerges, led by a brilliant young black lawyer, the stunning woman publisher of the city's only daily newspaper, and a woman attorney raised in the city. They seize control of the city's destiny, bringing the killers to justice and identifying the man who engineered the murder. At its heart, the novel is an examination of the challenges to the deeply held culture of a southern city in the nineteen sixties and the courage of the citizens who bring about change. In writing the novel, attorney educator Paul Firstenberg drew on his experience as Chancellor of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is his first work of fiction. He previously authored four nonfiction books based on his years as an executive of nonprofit organizations and as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and the Baruch College of Public Affairs. He received his law degree from Harvard University. Murder in the Land of Cotton is an incredible read. Its sense of time and place is acute. Then as now, American society was changing, and Firstenberg has captured it in a nicely nuanced way. He did keep me guessing whether they would apprehend the killers and whether the city really could move on. I'm looking forward to the movie. -Fredrick S. Lane, professor emeritus, Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, the City University of New York The novel immerses the reader in the shifting landscape of the South after the passage of the civil rights laws. The reader's attention is captured by a high-profile murder and the portraits of two extraordinary women who join together to help guide the city to a new era. Definitely new model southern heroines. -Catherine Brodsky, master's degree, art history, Columbia University The hunt for the killers of the mayor keeps you in suspense. -Michael Jaffe, attorney and senior partner in a management-consulting firm