Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Scott Farris the  New York Times best-selling author of four books on American political history, including  Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression, Almost President:

The Men Who Lost the Race But Changed the Nation (2011),  Kennedy and Reagan: Why Their Legacies Endure (2013) and  Inga: Kennedy's Great Love, Hitler's Perfect Beauty and J. Edgar Hoover's Prime Suspect (2016).

 He is a former journalist specializing in political and governmental reporting and one-time bureau chief for United Press International who also taught journalism at the University of Wyoming.

 Good day Scott and thanks for taking part in our interview.

 Norm: How long have you been writing? And how long did it take you to get your first major book contract? 

 Scott: Thank you for the invitation to participate! While I began my professional life more than 40 years ago as a journalist, most notably with United Press International, I did not begin writing books until I was almost fifty.

Mostly for fun (though I also had delusions of being a college professor in mid-life) I had gone back to school to get a master’s degree in history and concluded that if I could write a thesis, I could write a book.

I also had run for Congress in 1998 (and lost) but the experience gave me the idea for my first book, which is the role losers play in our political system.

By chance, I made the acquaintance of Egil “Bud” Krogh, whose name will be recognized by political history buffs as one of the Watergate conspirators.

Bud was tormented by his role in that affair and wrote a book called Integrity to explore why, as a generally honest man, he had been willing to break the law in that instance.

Thinking about the book germinating in my own mind, I asked Bud how you go about getting published. He replied that it helps if your stepdaughter is a leading literary agent. He introduced me to said literary agent, Laura Dail, who liked my proposal and took me on as a client – two kindnesses for which I will be forever grateful.

Laura helped me shape my proposal and shopped it around and it was initially rejected, though I received positive feedback from a number of intrigued publishers and some good advice from one editor who said my initial concept was too esoteric.

She said people like to read about people, so I restructured the proposal and made the book called Almost President a series of biographical sketches about losing presidential candidates and their impact on history. Lyons Press liked it and bought it.

So the whole process from my introduction to Laura to publication took four years. Getting non-fiction, at least, published is not a quick process, only a worthwhile one. 

Norm: When did the idea for Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression first emerge?

Scott: Genealogical curiosity. I had long heard family legends that my great-grandfather had rather suddenly left South Carolina after the Civil War and relocated to a remote part of Arkansas because he had killed a Black man.

One day, I was reading Eric Foner’s magisterial book Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution in which he noted that several thousand White men had fled South Carolina in that period to avoid arrest and conviction for being part of the Ku Klux Klan.

I decided to discover if this had been my great-grandfather’s motive and learned that he had been indicted, not for murder, but for participating in the brutal beatings of two Black men in order to prevent the men from voting. As I learned the context for these horrific assaults I saw a book of contemporary relevance form.

Norm: Can you share a little of your book with us? 

Scott:  My book tells the story of the successful post-Civil War crackdown on the Ku Klux Klan by the Grant administration.

This was the high point of Reconstruction and was a tremendous achievement that instead became a missed opportunity that might have dramatically altered the racial history of the United States.

I tell the stories of several fascinating early civil rights pioneers, Black and White, and how the Ku Klux Klan evolved from a social club to a massive paramilitary organization devoted to preventing African Americans and their White allies from voting with the goal of restoring southern society to something akin to what existed before the war: bondage by another name.

To combat the Klan, Congress gave the president the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and Grant sent in federal troops, including the 7th Cavalry, to make mass arrests of suspected Ku Klux.

There were so many that hundreds never went to court, but those who did go to trial were charged with committing the then-novel crime of violating another citizen’s civil rights. 

The most important and high-profile trials were held in South Carolina where the Ku Klux were represented by two former U.S. attorneys general and the juries were predominantly African-Americans who, along with many witnesses, displayed extraordinary courage in fulfilling their civil duty.

The prosecutions were masterminded by the then-current U.S. attorney general who was, remarkably, a former Confederate and enslaver named Amos T. Akerman who had become extraordinarily committed to civil rights for African Americans.

The trials produced a remarkable debate over the meanings of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution while also exposing to a shocked and appalled nation (for this was front page news nationwide) the absolutely ghastly crimes committed by the Ku Klux. 

In addition to highlighting some truly extraordinary figures, the book also tells the depressing story of how the U.S. Supreme Court, which could have enshrined civil rights nearly a century earlier than it eventually did, betrayed the promise of the trials with decisions that ought to be as reviled in popular memory as Dred Scott or Plessy v. Ferguson.

Still, displaying the power of the law when it is vigorously enforced, even in relatively small doses, the trials broke the black of the KKK, which disappeared from our national life for a half-century until it was resurrected in a newly incarnated version following the release of the odious film Birth of a Nation.

I do end the book on a more upbeat note by discussing how descendants of some of those involved in the trials and others in the local community have worked in recent years toward racial reconciliation and preserving the truth  of these events.

This is why I weave in the story of my great-grandfather, whose story also helps explain the motives of those who participated in the Ku Klux.

As I state in the book, I do not believe in inherited guilt but I do believe our ancestors bequeath us certain obligations, and so the book is a small attempt at making amends for my ancestor’s role in perpetuating racial injustice.

I do note that I also highlight another ancestor, a cousin of my great-grandfather’s, who captained an otherwise all-Black militia to battle the Klan. All families have a mix of good and bad.

Norm: What did you know going in about your subject matter?

Scott: My first book, Almost President, partially covered the Reconstruction era, but writing the book, as writing every book is, was a tremendous learning experience for me.

There are some superb histories out there, but they represent a very small fraction of the number of volumes you can find regarding the Civil War, for example.

Reconstruction has been one of the least-studied periods of American history. I recall going to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington and being gobsmacked that the entire set of displays on the Reconstruction period would fit in my modestly-sized living room at home.

I think this is because it is such painful period that is genuinely viewed as a failure. I will say that I think my book is part of a very recent upsurge in interest in Reconstruction, as demonstrated by the Henry Louis Gates documentary on PBS last year.

More people are discovering what I learned, which is that Reconstruction was  a time of great promise that is worth studying so we might avoid squandering future opportunities for creating a more just and peaceful society.

Norm: What was the time-line between the time you decided to write your book and publication? What were the major events along the way?

Scott: I had been thinking about writing Freedom on Trial for several years before fully committing to it in 2016, immediately following (or even a little before) the publication of my previous book about Inga Arvad, the glamorous suspected Nazi spy who was the great love of John F. Kennedy’s life. (I have sold the movie option for that book, which would make a fabulous streaming series, if I say so myself.) So, similar to Almost President, Freedom on Trial was a four-year adventure.

The great challenge for me with every book is that I do not have the means to be a full-tine writer. I have a fairly demanding full-time day job as a government affairs specialist for one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies.

So, I had to find time to research and write, including travel to South Carolina. That trip, I think, was key event in the book coming together. I love archival research, but you can also glean much information and get a sense of narrative tone by actually standing in the place where events happened.

Norm: Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?  What are some of the references that you used while researching this book?

Scott: I was fortunate that there was a tremendous amount of source material. As I mentioned, national and local newspapers covered these trials extensively. This included the Yorkville Enquirer, the newspaper of York County, South Carolina, which is where my great-grandfather lived and which was the epicenter of Ku Klux activity at the time. 

Congress held hearings throughout the South on the Ku Klux Klan and the transcripts, which include testimony by both suspected Ku Klux and their victims, fill thirteen volumes.

Best of all, Akerman, because he wanted to rouse the nation to action, commissioned a rare transcript of the trials held in Columbia, South Carolina, for the federal court winter term in 1871-72, so much of the book has verbatim testimony that is often as riveting as any courtroom drama from film or stage.

When I traveled to South Carolina and Georgia, I admit I was curious how I would be received, but I was overwhelmed by the kind assistance of so many.

This was not a pleasant episode of local history, but I discovered several local York County historians had already done tremendous work, and historians and archivists at the Historical Center of York County, the York County Library, the University of South Carolina and Winthrop University all bent over backwards to be of help.

Individually, I was fascinated to speak with writer and filmmaker Dr. Spenser Simril Jr. and Tuskogee University professor Dr. Lisa Bratton. Each hail from families that had the enslaved and the enslavers and each has worked to bring together White and Black descendants within their respective families to create one family. 

Another inspirational voice was Pastor Sam McGregor of the Allison Creek Presbyterian Church, whose congregation can take credit for the raising of the first state historical marker in South Carolina that acknowledges the existence of the Ku Klux Klan.

The marker tells the story of a particularly remarkable person featured in the book, Elias Hill, an autodidact former slave and a quadriplegic who was a brilliant preacher, teacher and political leader so persecuted by the Klan that he led a large group of emigrants to Liberia in 1871.

There, he was just beginning a campaign to protest the poor treatment of native Liberians by African-American immigrants when he died of malaria. American history is overstuffed with remarkable stories that have never been widely told.

Norm: What purpose do you believe your book serves and what matters to you about the story?  

Scott: First, it simply tells a fascinating story about a largely unknown period and event in American history. Second, voter suppression, civil insurrection and civil rights aren’t issues of the distant past, they remain the hot topics in today’s headlines. If my book helps to deepen our understanding of how we got to where we are, perhaps we will have a better sense of how to continue moving forward and not take backwards steps.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Scott: In addition to telling this story well and illuminating the present through the past, I hope my book inspires others to take a candid look at their own family history.

We all love to brag on ancestors who fought valiantly in war or performed some great deed, but every ancestor was not a hero and several of mine weren’t even law-abiding.

But I have their DNA, too, and they also connect me to the past of this nation. I think it is important, for good or bad, to appreciate those historical connections. It makes us better citizens and perhaps even better people, because truth is important. If we aren’t anchored by truth, then we are unmoored and that is not a good thing for us personally or nationally.

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book?  

Scott: Striking the right tone and balance in the narrative. Issues as touchy as race are full of landmines, especially when the author is an older White man, but I want people of all persuasions and opinions to read my books and hopefully be informed if not even a little bit changed by them.

You seldom change minds by argument, but you can do so with stories. Stories, not dialectics, are how humans process information. I seek understanding.

Clearly, there are good guys and bad guys in my book, but I ask the same question Bud Krogh asked of himself: why do otherwise good people do bad things?

In this particular instance, I needed to know, because I have the DNA of some of those who are the bad guys in my book. It keeps you both humble and alert to realize each of us, under the right circumstances, are capable of very bad behavior.

Norm: What would you say is the best reason to recommend someone to read Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression?

Scott: It’s a fascinating story incredibly relevant to today’s news and – I say this with no modesty whatsoever – I am a very good writer who tells this story very well. 

Admittedly, this is a book that can be hard to read because it recounts some very gruesome incidents and the end result is dispiriting.

But based on many reader reviews and the opinion of several scholars for whom I have the highest opinion, all stated this book greatly enhanced their knowledge of some very important issues and deeply enriched their understanding of American history.

Norm: How can readers find out more about you and Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression?

Scott: I confess to being no fan of social media, much to my agent’s and publisher’s chagrin, so I have not kept up my web page nor am I active on Twitter or Facebook.

I do have pages on Goodreads, Amazon and the Barnes and Noble website, so there is information in those places, although, obviously, Freedom on Trial should be available through any bookstore (or library) of your choice. If not, insist they order it – especially the libraries.

Norm: Should we be scared about American democracy?

Scott: Our national motto of e pluribus unum – “out of many, one” – is our greatest aspiration and our greatest challenge.

One theme of my first book, Almost President, is that our democracy is more fragile than most imagine, which is why I applaud those previous losing candidates who graciously accepted their painful defeats in service to unifying America.

That obviously did not happen in 2020 with Mr. Trump – and in fairness to my Republican friends I acknowledge Mrs. Clinton was not particularly gracious in 2016.

On the other hand, one key theme of Freedom on Trial is how much individual Americans love our country. I was truly awestruck at how, despite the persecution and tribulations they have experienced, Black Americans remain so patriotic and committed to our nation’s continued improvement.

How can those of us who have experienced far fewer travails feel anything less?  I have two children just entering adulthood.

When I think of the current state of affairs, I feel considerable distress, but when I look at them and their peers, I see a generation that offers a great deal of hope. They more than my generation has embraced the idea of strength in diversity in the same way a cloth is strong by how the many threads are interwoven. 

Norm: What are you upcoming projects?  

Scott: Very much in the spirit of the previous question, I am writing a book on how the 1952 presidential election between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson explains and defined the state of modern politics.

It was the first election, really, since the Cold War began and also the first election that had to take stock of how much World War II had changed America.

Old notions about conservatism or liberalism changed dramatically, as did American society. The cliché of the 1950s is that it was the time of conformity but it was instead a time of great intellectual and cultural ferment, and it was the reaction to that ferment, not governmental policies, that began to define what it meant to be a liberal or a conservative.

Of particular interest is how the erudite Stevenson led to Republicans becoming overtly anti-intellectual, while Democrats then seemed to abandon genuine economic reform.

1952 was a particularly pivotal year in many ways, ending 20 years of a Democrat occupying the White House, and setting in motion a host of important political careers, including those of Nixon, Kennedy, Goldwater – even Reagan, for that was the year he married Nancy.

It was also the year when Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was published, when Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed organized the first a rock and roll concert and when there were more sightings of UFOs than any other. It has been a fun book to research and I hope to finish writing it for publication in 2024.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, if you could invite three authors (dead or alive) to your dinner table, who would they be and what would you discuss?

Scott: As my above answers attest, many writers are not particularly fascinating themselves; their job is to write about those who are fascinating.

I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most eminent historians alive, but we are talking about a dinner party, not a graduate seminar, and dinner parties should be fun and lively.

So, I would want to invite writers known for being witty and/or provocative conversationalists. So an interesting mix would be Abraham Lincoln, Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin, three of the most quotable writers in history.

Lincoln, of course, never wrote a book, but is among the finest prose stylists in the English language.

With such guests,  a host of marvelous stories and memorable bon mots would be expected, not to mention engrossing debate over an extraordinary range of issues and each sought to understand the other’s time period. The topics covered would range far and wide, but mostly, I imagine there would be a lot of laughter, which would be most convivial after the pandemic.

Norm: Thanks again and good luck with Freedom on Trial: The First Post-Civil War Battle Over Civil Rights and Voter Suppression?

Scott: Thank you, Norm! It has been a great pleasure!