Audio only
The Eyes of Willie McGee
A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow SouthBy Alex HeardNarrated by JD JacksonLength14h 1m
About this audiobook
“A memorable narrative of a civil rights case that deserves a larger place in American memory.” —Jon Meacham
“Riveting. . . . It’s like a real-life To Kill a Mockingbird, but with even more subtlety and complexity.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein
In this gripping saga of race and retribution, Alex Heard tells a moving and unforgettable story of the deep South that says as much about Mississippi today as it does about the mysteries of the past. In doing so, he evokes the bitter conflicts between black and white, north and south in America.
In 1945, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, was sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. The case was barely noticed until Bella Abzug, a young New York labor lawyer, was hired to oversee Willie McGee's appeal. Together with William Patterson, a dedicated black reformer, Abzug risked her life to plead the case. “Free Willie McGee” became an international rallying cry, with supporters flooding President Truman's White House and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas and famous Americans—including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, and Norman Mailer—speaking out on McGee's behalf. By 1951, millions worldwide were convinced of McGee's innocence—even though there were serious questions about his claim that the truth involved a secret love affair.
In this unforgettable story of justice in the Deep South, Mississippi native Alex Heard reexamines the lasting mysteries surrounding McGee's haunting case.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (427)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreHistory, Psychology
Length14 hrs 1 min
Narrated byJD Jackson
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMay 11, 2010
LanguageEnglish
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m4.7 (589)$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
AretéBrian Johnson19h 57m4.7 (2.2K)$35
Ullathin KuralPrem Rawat8h 17m4.8 (165)$18 · $0.00
Vax FactsPaul Thomas MD, Deedee Hoover10h 26m4.7 (577)$25
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m4.7 (594)$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m4.6 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m4.6 (2.3K)$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m4.6 (146.2K)$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$0.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
Then the Fish Swallowed HimAmir Ahmadi Arian7h 40m3.8 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Land Of Big NumbersTe-Ping Chen6h 35m4.0 (12.2K)$24 · $0.00
The OswaldsPaul R. Gregory8h 11m4.1 (269)$20
Death of an Altar BoyE. J. Fleming9h 52m4.1 (608)$23 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of George Orwell (Annotated)George Orwell54h 10m4.5 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
AlmightyDan Zak10h 49m4.1 (473)$20 · $0.00
Policing the WombMichele Goodwin13h 15m4.5 (481)$23
IntellectualsPaul Johnson18h 18m3.9 (9.1K)$28
A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (Summarized Edition)Harriet Beecher Stowe5h 54m4.0 (1.7K)$2
THE BELLY OF PARISÉmile Zola14h 56m4.0 (9.1K)$2 · $0.00
Trust the PlanWill Sommer8h 13m4.2 (5K)$7 · $0.00
We Carry Their BonesErin Kimmerle8h 1m4.0 (5.2K)$26 · $0.00
Benito Cereno & BartlebyHerman Melville6h 12m4.0 (3.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 2Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn27h 31m4.6 (6K)$53 · $0.00
The Last Days of StalinJoshua Rubenstein8h 46m4.1 (1.8K)$20
Hate Crime HoaxWilfred Reilly9h 44m4.1 (1.5K)$20
A Book of American MartyrsJoyce Carol Oates24h 44m3.9 (8.2K)$5 · $0.00
Burn It DownMaureen Ryan13h 54m3.9 (3.5K)$33 · $0.00
The Right to Truth in International Human Rights LawJulia Kertesz13h 20m$16 · $0.00
Vanity Fair: August 2016 IssueVanity Fair5h 19m$14