Eden Rise
A novel by
Robert J. Norrell
NewSouth Books
Montgomery
Also by Robert J. Norrell
Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington (2009)
The House I Live In: Race in the American Century (2005)
The Alabama Journey: State History and Geography (1998)
The Alabama Story: State History and Geography (1993)
The Making of Modern Alabama: State History and Geography (1993)
We Want Jobs! A Story of the Great Depression (1992)
Opening Doors: An Appraisal of Contemporary American Race Relations (1991)
James Bowron: The Autobiography of a New South Industrialist (1991)
A Promising Field: Engineering at Alabama, 1837–1987 (1990)
Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee (1985)
NewSouth Books
105 S. Court Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
Copyright 2012 by Robert J. Norrell All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58838-268-9
ebook ISBN: 978-1-60306-194-0
LCCN: 2012026219
Visit www.newsouthbooks.com.
For Tracey
Contents
7 - Joe Black Pell for the Defense
Prologue
“You can make the difference, Tom,” U.S. Attorney Randy Russell told me. “I know it’s been years, but even now you can do us justice.”
Russell’s urging caused me to lose much of a night’s sleep. I got up that Saturday morning and went to an AA meeting. Let go of it, because you can’t keep it from happening. I hadn’t known that AA lesson the awful summer I was nineteen, when the world seemed to cave in on me. And now Randy Russell was asking me to summon that dead world’s ghosts. At 9 a.m., I called my sister and asked if she had time for a ride down home.
“I need some advice.”
“Sure thing,” said Cathy. “Telling my big brother what to do has always been my favorite pastime.”
I picked her up and we headed southwest out of Birmingham, the midday sun behind us, pitching its yellow rays almost horizontal