In his book, William Ivy Hair recounts race relations and the events leading up to the shooting spree of Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900. Hair devotes most of his book examining the life of Robert Charles and presenting an alternative biography to the ones written in newspapers immediately after his death.
             In the first chapter, "Copiah", Hair asks the question "What sort of person was the actual Robert Charles, and why is his living and dying worth remembering?" (p. 2). Hair begins by examining the humble beginnings of Robert Charles. Charles was born shortly after the Civil War, most likely in Copiah County, Mississippi where he was raised. Charles was born into a family of sharecroppers living on a cotton plantation. The chapter goes on to discuss the family of Charles and the rural area where he was raised. When writing of the country landscape, Hair states that "any black or white boy would learn to use a rifle at an early age" (p. 8).
             The next chapter, "Democratic Thunder", is devoted to discussing the areas where Charles spent his life following the Reconstruction. It was during Charles's adolescence that the Democratic Party restored its political majority in the South. Hair briefly discusses the conditions for sharecroppers and other laborers of that time. He then goes on to describe the cruelty that blacks were subjected to. Blacks needed only be accused of a crime to be exposed to such atrocities as being shot, lynched, or burned in front of a crowd. However, "crime" could simply be that respect wasn't given to "members of the superior, ruling race" (p. 14). Hair tells the story of John Prentiss "Print" Matthews. Matthews was a white, Southern Republican, who was elected Sheriff in Copiah County. He successfully created an Independent Party that was comprised of black and white farmers. Matthews refused to be silenced ...