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Are you sure it was the last lynching?
The comment from an English teacher at Lord Fairfax Community College was one I had heard before. It went something like this: “This wasn’t the last lynching in Northern Virginia. There was another one that came later.” John Owens, a librarian at Lord Fairfax, reported the comment to me. John said that a teacher at…
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I was the evening’s entertainment but also a proud papa
Last Tuesday was the kind of day that resides in memory long after it’s lived. I went north that day to talk about The Last Lynching at All Souls Church in Washington. What made the evening memorable, however, was that my son Andrew Hall introduced me. One of the sponsors for the program thought that Andrew, a…
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The new year begins with an appearance in Washington
I was delighted to be invited to appear this month at the All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington. My son Andrew lives in Washington and has been a member of the church for several years. He thought that The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia and the talk I give about lynching in Virginia would fit…
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Family learns of grandad’s role in Thompson story
Pam Androsky remembers the day she was riding with her father on Fiery Run Road in northern Fauquier County. When they passed what was then the Borden Farm and is today the Marriott Ranch, he pointed to the mountain and said, “That’s where they found a colored man hanging from an apple tree.” George Kenney…
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These are a few of my favorite things
Here are three things that this writer is happy about: The story about my book by Pam Kamphuis, editor of the Piedmont Virginian magazine. Pam asked me to write about Fauquier County’s reaction to publication of The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia. I did, and last week she posted that piece on the magazine’s website.…
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What is the nature of your complaint, sir?
When Pam Kamphuis read my recent blog post about the Philip Carter Winery, she asked if I would step back and reflect on the resistance I’ve faced since publication of The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia. Kamphuis, the editor of The Piedmont Virginian in Warrenton, said she wanted to use the piece on the magazine’s…
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Surprised and disappointed, but I shouldn’t have been
A representative of the Philip Carter Winery in Fauquier County wrote to me over the weekend to ask that my appearance there be rescheduled from September. She wrote, “In light of recent events in the media, etc, we feel that it would be advantageous to both yourself and the winery to reschedule for a later…
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For me, fall will be for the book
I’m glad that my first book event this fall will be in Fauquier County, where The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia is set. The summer has been quiet, but I have scheduled seven appearances beginning in September. The first occurs just after Labor Day at the Philip Carter Winery in Fauquier. The winery is off…
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Two reviewers take the measure of my work
Two reviews of this book appeared recently, and both authors made similar observations: that The Last Lynching in Northern Virginia is instructive for its recounting of a long-ago lynching, but also for how it describes the lingering effects of that incident. As Mark Tooley wrote, the book is a “window into a time that seems…
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Thank you to the residents of Fauquier County
When I recall the events of last Saturday in Fauquier County, I see myself on stage facing a nearly full auditorium. I hear Rufus Mincey’s startling revelation. And I see a line of people waiting to buy my book. Thank you to the people of Fauquier for making my first author visit there a wonderful…
Historical Nonfiction Author
Jim Hall 