
Big Red's Mercy
The Shooting of Deborah Cotton and a Story of Race in America
Mark Hertsgaard(Author)
Pegasus Books (Publisher)
Published on 7. May 2024
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-63936-675-0 (ISBN)
Description
Mark Hertsgaard and Deborah Cotton were strangers to one another, united only by a love of jazz and New Orleans' distinctive Second Line tradition. And then, during a Mother's Day parade they were thrown together when two gunmen fired into the crowd... Deborah Cotton--known to all as Big Red--was among the most grievously injured. She is the driving force of this deeply reported parable of two of America's most deeply rooted issues. A racial justice activist in her forties who was born to a Black father and a white mother, Cotton was one of twenty people--including the author--shot in the biggest mass shooting in the modern history of New Orleans. Once one of the largest slave ports, the city has long been a vortex of violence and racism. From her apparent deathbed, Big Red shocked observers by urging mercy for two young Black men accused of the attack. "Racism can kill Black people even when a Black finger pulls the trigger," she tells Hertsgaard, who, she later said, is "called" to investigate what actually happened, and why. Charismatic, complicated, and struck down in her prime, Big Red and her heroic life will captivate readers. In the wake of the shooting, she never stopped fighting as she sought to get to the core of this uniquely American maelstrom. Big Red's Mercy is an illuminating narrative that provides a human and unflinching look at modern America.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63936-675-0 (9781639366750)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mark Hertsgaard is the author of seven nonfiction books, including On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency and Hot: Living through The Next Fifty Years on Earth. As a journalist, Hertsgaard has reported from around the world for the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, TIME, The Nation, The Guardian, Scientific American, and more. He is the co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now (www.coveringclimatenow.org/).