you can work with, Jack.”
During those long years on death row, Henry, as part of his self-education, had read every book he could get his hands on. One of the first subjects he had read about was the civil rights movement, especially how that movement had played out in his home state of Florida. He figured that if he could understand the civil rights movement, its leaders, and what motivated them, it might help him understand himself and turn his life around. He’d read about a lawyer in St. Albans, Florida, a white man, who had put his life on the line on numerous occasions to protect innocent black people accused of crimes. The man’s name was Tom Wylie. When he was released from prison, Henry eventually took a trip to St. Albans to see some of the historic sites from the civil rights movement. While he was there, he stopped to see Tom Wylie. He just walked into the office, gave the secretary his name, and two minutes later, he was shaking hands with the man himself.
“What brings you to these parts, Henry?” Tom asked after Henry had introduced himself and told Tom he was visiting from Miami.
“I know this city was a hotbed of action during the civil rights movement and I just wanted to visit the sites and meet you.”
“Me? Why would you want to meet me?”
“Well, I read about Rufus Porter for one thing, and the civil rights committee of which you were a member. There’s one particular story I recall, about you single-handedly taking on the local Klan on a dirt road one night. You were riding shotgun for a doctor on an emergency call to the black community and they stopped you. Is that true?”
Rufus Porter was a black man who had been accused of raping a white woman. There was no evidence to support the charge other than the fact that Rufus was in the vicinity of the crime, but, in those days, that was enough. Tom had taken Rufus’s case even though he’d put his own life in danger, and he had gotten Rufus off. The other story was true as well.
“You can’t believe everything you hear, son,” Tom said. He was a tall man, not as tall as Henry but close. And he was thin like a reed, but strong. Henry could tell that from his handshake. His face and hands were tan and weathered, and he had a full head of thick brown hair, cropped short, with only a stray strand of gray here and there, even though he had to be in his midsixties. “I did represent a man named Rufus Porter but that story and the other one are way overblown.”
“Sure they are,” Henry said. “When I read Rufus Porter’s own account of the hair on his forearms standing straight whenever he mentioned your name, that’s exactly the word I thought of—overblown.”
Tom changed the subject immediately. “Since you’re here, Henry Wilson, I guess I should be neighborly and take you to lunch. After that, I’ll give you a short tour. I’m sure you’d like to see the Monsoon Hotel where the manager poured the acid in the pool.”
“I would,” Henry replied.
At the height of the civil rights movement, when Congress was actually debating the Civil Rights Act and the southern senators were filibustering, the manager of the Monsoon Hotel had poured acid in the hotel pool while a group of black and white protesters were swimming. Somebody took a picture of the act and it made the newspapers all over the world. It was such a clear picture of the racism that existed in the South, and the backlash was so great that it caused the senators to end their filibuster and the Civil Rights Act to be passed.
Henry was so moved reading about the courage of the young demonstrators and people like Tom Wylie. That’s who I want to be if I ever get out of here, he’d thought to himself at the time. Now he was out and he was sitting at a table having lunch with Tom Wylie.
“So what’s your story, Henry?” Tom asked after they had ordered and had their drinks. Both men were drinking water.
“I was on death row for seventeen years. I just got released a couple of months ago.”
“That’s why your name sounded familiar to me,” Tom said. “I read all about your case. Jack Tobin represented you. Fine lawyer. Good man, too. We’ve met a few times at different events