The Hanging Tree
- ISBN-10
- 163021230X
- ISBN-13
- 9781630212308
- Series
- THE HANGING TREE
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016-01-03
- Author
- Kristy Thomas
Description
Ester is an older African American woman who begins the scene in her late seventies humming and standing underneath The Hanging Tree in the downtown square of Mansfield, TX where she was born and raised. This tree represents the death of hundreds of African American men, women and children that were hung in this city for as long as time can remember. In 1957 one of its victims was Ester's son Toby. He was determined to integrate the local high school so with a group of his friends they protest at the doors of the school. Men from the city arrive and beat all of them but Toby was the ringleader and they took him downtown and hung him. Ester comes to this tree very often just to feel like she is in the presence of her son. She goes from present time back to the night that the murder happened remembering all of the things that she did that night to try and support her son while being a mother in a vital time of American history. Ester is a strong woman and her story is unlike any that has been told of a time in our history that we can never forget. This is just a snapshot; her moment in time that forever shaped who she was as a woman and as a mother. The moment that she watched her son swing from The Hanging Tree.
