Joseph Madison Beck is an Atlanta attorney. He also teaches at Emory Law School and has lectured at universities throughout the United States and abroad.
JoeBeck's vivid account of a racially charged rape case in South Alabama in 1938 is a loving tribute to his father's courage as a young attorney standing up to the evils of Jim Crow. It is also a gripping courtroom drama with trial evidence and testimony based on facts, not fiction that draws a haunting portrait of a search for justice.--Morris Dees, Southern Poverty Law Center founder [A] a powerful telling of injustice in a less tolerant time.--Seth Kantner While this case may or may not have subconsciously influenced Harper Lee, [the author's father] Foster Beck's story is one worth knowing and full of lessons valuable three quarters of a century later. A poignant and warmly engaging memoir. Joseph Beck's book is based on facts... and those details make his story fresher and more alive than [Harper Lee's] justifiably oft-told narrative. --Johnathan Ringel Joseph Madison Beck's enthralling memoir on humanity, justice, and the world we live in is one full of emotion and suspense in equal measure.--Blake Fournoy As a lawyer himself, author Beck lays out the circumstances of the case with gripping, almost cinematic detail... [F]ascinating.--Bridget Thoreson An insightful window into the everyday life of small-town Alabama in the 1930s... A sad but gripping account.--Ryan Claringbole It is organized and written so effectively, with insider narratives and therapy transcripts as driving forces, that the structure is almost invisible, and the reader is pretty much swept along by the content--which is well worth engaging with. . . . [T]he book is a fresh and inspiring start for this new approach. Full of different voices and creativities, in practice as well as in therapy, it gives hope.--Martin Luther King III This is a powerful book, written in extremely strong language reflecting the strong feelings of its authors. . . . [A]n absolute must-have for anyone working to help sufferers from these killing disorders.--Seth Kantner [A]fter over 20 years of battling with anorexia/bulimia, I have found something that speaks my language. . . . I have been asked over the years (and have often asked myself) what is it going to take to get out of this torture. I never really attempted answering this question until we finally got the book.