Ben Corbett Timeline and Summary

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• Ben gets a special assignment from the President himself to head on down to Eudora and write up a report about what's going down over there. Roosevelt even gives Ben the name of a guy who can help, one Abraham Cross.
• When Ben gets to Eudora, everything seems fine. Sure, there's some segregation, but that's happening all over the place; for the most part, everyone is welcoming and kind to him.
• Ben decides to track down Abraham Cross.
• He meets the guy down in the Quarter, and Abraham takes him to several lynching sites and explains what's been happening around town. It turns out things are a lot worse than Ben imagined.
• When he tries to stand up for the Black people in town, Ben is attacked and lynched himself. He almost dies, but Abraham and his family nurse Ben back to health.
• By the time Ben is back on his feet, everyone in town knows about his scuffle with the mob. He goes to stay with his buddy Jacob for a while, but stops after the guy takes him to a Ku Klux Klan meeting one night.
• It seems like everyone in town, from the police chief to the local doctor, is part of the KKK. Yikes.
• Ben goes to stay with his buddy L.J. who isn't a KKK member and is willing to lend Ben a hand.
• L.J. hires protection for Ben to stop the White Raiders from hunting him down again. When Ben hears that Abraham's family is in trouble, he and L.J. head over there to protect them, too. Things go from bad to worse when the White Raiders show up, guns in hand—there's a scuffle and two people die.
• Normally this sort of thing would get swept under the rug in Eudora, but L.J. convinces the police chief he has to make an arrest because the men killed two people for no reason. Luckily the chief listens and throws some of the White Raiders in jail.
• Ben knows that the trial won't be a fair one, though, especially when his dad is appointed as judge for the case.
• Ben helps the other lawyer assigned to the case (Jonah) argue against the White Raiders, but it's no use—the men walk free. Again.
• Ben is frustrated and decides to make a big statement to the whole town. He visits Abraham one last time before his old, sick friend dies, then he asks Abraham's granddaughter, Moody, if she'd like to hold his hand walking down the street. Since Moody is Black and Ben is white, this is a big deal in this neighborhood. Everyone stares at them, and some people even spit or threaten worse.
• Ben and Moody tell everyone to get ready for the White Raiders to show up again that evening.
• The White Raiders enter the Quarter mighty and proud, only to be taken down a peg or two by the Black people in the Quarter. Ben has the chance to kill Jacob and some of the other White Raiders, but he doesn't because he doesn't know how he'd live with himself if he did.
• Instead he goes back to Washington, D.C. to be with his family. Luckily, his wife has reconsidered leaving him, and he promises he won't go anywhere either.