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1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The Tragedy of Robert Charles Mar 09, 2010
By N. Scott
"N scott"
This book thoroughly explores the life, loves, and times of a man who truly believe's in himself and freedom. And all that he was willing to die for. The authors genuine artistic visionary brings back to life, the "MAN" who's story needs to be told and hopefully depicted on film!!! This is truly a great book, makes for compelling read.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The Tragedy Sep 15, 2009
By Gift Card
"book reader"
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy." The Tragedy of Robert Charles is indeed one such tragedy. There are many events in American history that, because of the sheer horrors of them, they are covered-up, kept quiet. Herein, so horrific was this tragedy at the time, newspapers across Europe decried the base barbarism displayed in it. The New York Times was so outraged by the mindless violence in New Orleans, it sent out glaring reports in headline news. In the hundred-nine years since the tragedy, however, only two books had been left for posterity: Ida B. Wells-Barnett's decriptive account in "Mob Rule In New Orleans" in September 1900, William I. Hair's investigative account in "Carnival Of Fury" in 1976, and many journalistic mentions and footnotes supporting opposition to the carnival-like practice of lynching practiced by whites of the time, or opposition to restrictive Jim Crow legislation being pushed through the nation's laws. Through time, myth and legend converged with truth, and thus truth was lost, as in Louis Lomax's "Mister Jelly Roll" about the incident. Only until John Muhammed and Lee Malvo embarked on their cowardly sniper spree and was apprehended did the tragedy resurface as a criminal aside. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Throughout America's insidious history of slavery, then ignorant, Jim Crow segregation that destroyed forty years of progress in America between the races, there had been plots of insurrection and campaigns against this evil: Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vessey's elborate plots at mass insurrection to free their brethren; John Brown's bloody, religious campaign against the sinful practice of slavery; Nat Turner's murderous march to freedom; and Mark Essex's violent reaction to racism and white supremacy. Though Robert Charles did discuss and write about the stultifying effects that racism, white supremacy, and Jim Crow had and would have on blacks in America, he had no political or social agendas. He quietly advocated going back to Africa as the solution to racism, white supremacy, and Jim Crow for blacks, and had no ambitions whatsoever for a future in America. Robert Charles was a self-educated, caring, soft-spoken, ordinary man who was in love with two women. However, he would be thrust into history from a single act of police brutality. He and a young companion was awaiting the opportune time to go and be with two women on a midnight tryst, something we refer to as a "booty call" today, when they were confronted by three New Orleans Policemen. One of the policemen decided to strike Robert Charles with his billet, and began a five day orgy of primal savagery on the streets of New Orleans by mobs consisting of one to five hundred armed white men and teenagers who murdered, savaged, and brutalized any black man, woman, or child they encountered. For Robert Charles, he was placed in a Catch-22 in a time when blacks were considered "sub-human". He was faced with choosing between two ways to die: by ignominious mob lynching in the carnival-like celebration that had befallen countless other blacks in America before him, or die in the dignity of combat, all for resisting brutality that many other blacks were inured to. He chose the latter, taking refuge in a dwelling referred to as a "slave's quarters", and waged courageous battle with well over ten thousand white citizens, policemen, and military infantry. The Tragedy of Robert Charles is a true American tragedy, a book that we all must read to get a glimpse of what lay inside of us all. In the fist page of the book, it is dedicated to the future of our children. Let's hope we can learn something from our gruesome past. . . I have.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Priceless Biography Dec 14, 2009
By David A. Forson
Robert P. Robertson's comprehensively researched novel, "Tragedy of Robert Charles," brings alive the historic story of Robert Charles - a black man who defended himself against more than a thousand white shooters determined to lynch him in 1900 New Orleans. Charles identified with and was bound for Africa, and was a committed organizer of the forward-to-Africa movement. Robertson addresses unanswered questions raised by previously published accounts, and offers lessons from the betrayal of Robert Charles who considered assimilation in a racist society as anathema. Robert Robertson artistically channels Robert Charles' voice and emotional ups-and-downs using a distinctly black prism. The author's life-long existential familiarity with black life in New Orleans (where the story unfolds) brings a refreshingly meaningful immediacy in this rare and thorough, fluff-free, intricately-crafted 400+ page biography.
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