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FAIR GAME: SURVIVING A 1960 GEORGIA LYNCHING

  • Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley Street Boston, MA, 02119 United States (map)
6.24 Fair Game.jpg

Directed By Clennon L. King (USA, 63min)

As JFK was making a run for the White House in the spring of '60, 24-year-old Navy vet James Fair, Jr. of New Jersey joined a friend on a road trip home. But their arrival in segregated Early County, Georgia could not have been more ill-timed. It coincided with the alleged rape and murder of an 8-year-old Black girl, prompting authorities to finger Fair as the fall guy. Less than three days later, with no jury present or lawyer to defend him -- no physical evidence, autopsy, or court transcript -- a judge set a date for Fair with Georgia’s electric chair. That's when Alice Fair mounted an unforgettable 26-month campaign in a fight for her son's life.

Roxbury-based filmmaker Clennon L. King dedicates the documentary to the 24 known Black men who were lynched in Early County, Georgia between 1881 and 1960, and to his father, Georgia’s legendary civil rights attorney C.B. King, who tried to prevent Fair from becoming the 25th victim.