Spotlight Essay

In 1968, a young woman was found slain and a young black man was accused of the crime, simply because of the color of his skin. In this paper, I analyze the racial tensions in the late 1960s in small, Southern towns through the lens of the murder of Mary Hornick in Hartwell, Georgia. I argue that this was not an isolated event during this time period, and that many black men were facing racism and prejudice before being convicted of heinous crimes they did not commit.