Super Short Summary

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King recounts the 1949 Groveland, Florida case where four young Black men were accused of raping Norma Lee Padgett, a white teenager, under dubious circumstances. Despite questionable evidence, intense racial prejudice leads to violence from the Ku Klux Klan and a harsh judicial struggle. Thurgood Marshall and his NAACP legal team defend the accused, exposing systemic racism and seeking justice in a turbulent civil rights battle. Depictions of racial violence and injustice are a central element of this narrative.