On January 14, 1968, 51-year-old Buford Lolley was brutally murdered in Enteprise, Alabama. It took nearly nine years to arrest a suspect, who was later acquitted of the murder charges. After more than a half-century, the Lolley murder remains a stone cold case. This book represents an opportunity to reexamine this terrible, unsolved crime and its aftermath under an objective light. Both the murder victim and David Hutto, the man who was almost certainly falsely accused of murder, deserve the opportunity to have their stories told. At the same time, the author remembers a simpler and more innocent time which was ultimately disrupted by evil.

The 25-Day Vice-President: Alabama's William Rufus de Vane King documents the life and times of an often overlooked 19th Century statesman. Born to wealth and privilege in North Carolina, King grew up to become an attorney and was elected by Tarheel voters to serve in the State Legislator and U.S. Congress.

In 1819, after serving in Europe as Legation Secretary for the American Foreign Minister to the Two Sicilies and Russia, King migrated to the Alabama Territory. He quickly became a prominent member of the territory's rapidly growing, slaveholding, planter-class aristocracy. As an established community leader, King helped construct a new city near his plantation home. Furthermore, he was credited with naming the community Selmz, in honor of a favorite Ossian poem.

After Alabama was admitted to the Union, King was elected as one of the 22nd state's first U.S. Senators. For nearly three decades, he served in the Senate representing his adopted home state. As a slaveholder, King believed perpetuation of the barbaric institution was a Constitutional right. Nonetheless, he never joined forces with the so-called fire-eaters, rabid secessionists who advocated disunion if the federal government threatened to abolish slavery.

As a Moderate Democrat, King was a political conciliator rather than agitator. While serving in the U.S. Senate, he facilitated compromises between pro- and anti-slavery forces, temporarily forestalling inevitable secession and the bloody American Civil War. As a conciliator and compromiser, King was a political anomaly in the Deep South.

King died in March 1853, just 25 days after he was sworn into office as the 13th Vice-President of the United States, and eight years before the onset of the Civil War. Inaugurated while he was seeking treatment for terminal tuberculosis in the island nation of Cuba, King remains the first and only American President or Vice-President to take the oath of office on foreign soil.

King was no doubt an enigmatic figure. He was a respected statesman who vainly sought to save America from disunion. In his later years, he resigned from Congress to serve as Foreign Minister to France where he convinced the European power to refrain from interfering with America's Manifest Destiny expansionist agenda.

While mild-mannered and chivalrous, King was never a shrinking violet. On at least three separate occasions, he accepted challenges to participate in potentially deadly duels when his honor was called into question. As a lifelong bachelor, King was the target of unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo concerning his sexual orientation. Political enemies repeatedly proclaimed King was gay, derisively nicknaming him Miss Fancy.

The 25-Day Vice-President is a compelling narrative. Much of William R. King's life journey unfolded during America's tumultuous Antebellum-era, when the nation was not yet a century-old. While slavery proved to be the most divisive issue, other controversies led to bitter disagreements and the formation of rival political parties.

Given the taboo nature of same-sex relationships in the 19th Century, King's private life is explored under a detailed and objective light. Readers will be challenged to judge whether individuals' personal and private choices detract from their accomplishments or meaningfully alter the historical record.

Undoubtedly, King is one of many lesser-known public figures who helped weave America's complex political and social fabric.

His admirers call him a military genius, while his detractors label him a cold-blooded killer. Regardless of the characterization, Nathan Bedford Forrest entered the American Civil War as a virtual unknown, but emerged as a Rebel hero and a Yankee villain. As a young adult, the Tennessean worked his way up the economic ladder, operating a livery business and brick yard, and serving as the town constable and coroner. With fierce determination to improve his financial standing, he eventually became a successful slave trader, real estate broker, and cotton planter. By the time the Civil War broke out in April of 1861, Forrest was a millionaire. Joining the Rebel cavalry with no previous military training, he became the only man in either the Confederate or Union Armies to rise from the rank of Private to Lieutenant General. He soon became the Confederacy's most accomplished cavalryman. His daring troopers repeatedly disrupted Union Army communication and supply lines. Lacking a West Point resume, and having benefited from a year of formal education, at most, Forrest developed his own battlefield strategies, which have since been studied at military academies throughout the world. A master at mobile warfare, the intrepid Forrest readily transformed his cavalrymen into foot soldiers when battlefield conditions were favorable. Forrest was also devastatingly adept at using artillery to pound the enemy into submission. At the same time, he was a master at the bluff, often inducing much larger Union Army forces to surrender to his troopers. When asked to summarize his military strategy, he offered a simple, but often-quoted maxim: Get there first with the most men. Unlike many contemporary military leaders, Forrest led the charge into battle. Wounded 4 times, his courage under fire inspired his troopers and fortified their resolve. During the course of the Civil War, Forrest killed 31 enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and had 30 horses shot out from under him. At the end of the war, his troopers were credited with having taken 31,000 prisoners of war. Forrest emerged from the Civil War physically battered and financially ruined. He was never able to replicate his pre-war financial successes, and ultimately was employed as the supervisor of convict labor camp. Rebelling against the sociopolitical culture of freedmen, carpetbaggers, and scalawags, Forrest joined the newly-formed Ku Klux Klan and was purportedly elected as the secret organization's first Grand Wizard. While endeavoring to maintain white supremacy in his native South, Forrest eventually grew disillusioned with KKK's violent reprisals against former slaves, and unsuccessfully attempted to disband the racist organization. The Wizard of the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest is a concise biography of an enigmatic, yet unlikely warrior, who occupied an unforgettable role in the tragic and compelling lore of the American Civil War.

A Pea River Progeny: Alabama's Colorful and Controversial Governor James E. Big Jim Folsom chronicles the life of a 20th century Deep South politician who left behind a memorable legacy. A Populist who appealed to the common folks, Folsom directly bypassed the state's powerful, long-standing political machine and local power brokers to twice win the Governorship. He was devoted to helping the often-overlooked and less affluent residents of Alabama. Folsom's Progressive but largely unpopular views on civil rights were far ahead of his time. The biography of Folsom is filled with early- to mid-20th century Alabama and Southern history. At the same time, it is Shakespearian-like -- marked with comedy, drama, tragedy, and unfulfilled promises. At six-feet, eight inches tall and weighing 275 pounds, he was a literal and figurative giant. Folsom's compassion and Populism, however, were often tainted by his outrageous antics, progressive descent into alcoholism, and unpopularity with white supremacists. Those who read about Big Jim Folsom will discover his life and times are often stranger and more compelling than fiction.

Freedom and Opportunity is a narrative about the remarkable life and times of Robert Smalls. Born a slave in Low Country South Carolina, Smalls managed to plan and orchestrate a daring escape from involuntary servitude aboard a purloined Confederate steamship in May 1862. For the duration of the Civil War, Smalls served the Union military as a pilot and ship Captain.
After the Civil War, Smalls became an affluent businessman and community leader. Through rigorous study, the former slave achieved full literacy and developed polished oratorical skills. Smalls eventually entered the world of Reconstruction-era politics, serving in the South Carolina General Assembly and as a five-term U.S. Congressman.
Robert Smalls' compelling life is a genuine rag to riches story. His journey from Gullah-born slave to respected statesman is seamlessly interwoven with the complex history of the beginning, propagation, and end of the barbaric institution of slavery in the United States.

Implement evidence-based feedback practices that move learners forward

Feedback is essential to successful instruction and improved student performance, but learners often dread and dismiss feedback and its effectiveness can vary. Thus, sharing intentions, clarifying success criteria, knowing what type of feedback to provide and when, and activating students as owners of their learning are essential feedback functions.

Instructional Feedback presents a comprehensive summary of the most recent research on instructional feedback and describes its successful implementation. With a focus on evidence-based approaches adapted to specific contexts, the authors use common classroom situations to demystify feedback and place it within a broad instructional context, along with definitions, characteristics, and precautions about its effect on students' emotions and behaviors. Inside you'll find:

• Coverage of all grades and concentrations, including math, language arts, music, art, and science
• Peer feedback, self-assessment, and subject-specific nuances
• Student and teacher examples of feedback and suggestions for improvement

Engaging and concise, Instructional Feedback discusses why feedback is so powerful, how it is promising, and what it looks like in practice.

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions are opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who we are, were, and might be. These institutions are vehicles for educating and civilizing society that work on a variety of levels, ranging from a community event to a single child making a first visit. The Museum Effect documents this phenomenon, explains how it happens, and makes suggestions as to how these institutions can work to facilitate this process.

This is a story about cops and robbers, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, a desperate time for many, when the boundaries between right and wrong were often blurred. It is the story of J. Edgar Hoover versus the John Dillinger Gang--the center pieces of the so-called War on Crime. It was an era of bank heists. Between 1931 and 1934, bank robberies in the United States averaged two per day. Three-quarters of those robberies occurred in the Midwest; in Indiana, alone, there were 29 bank robberies in 1933. The gangsters earned sympathy from many of their fellow countrymen. After the stock market crash of 1920, which precipitated the Great Depression, many jobless Americans saw their homes or farms drawn into foreclosure by banks. In the eyes of many small business owners and farmers, the banks were as much the enemy, if not more so, than the men who robbed them. Some who were deprived of their homes and livelihoods quietly cheered as the bank robbers extracted measure of revenge against the heartless financial powerbrokers. When John Dillinger began robbing banks in 1933, some 13,000,000 Americans were unemployed. Breadlines were commonplace throughout the country, while building entryways, park benches, and subway lobbies served as bedrooms for the homeless. Widespread despair reinforced the notion that banks had declared war against the common man. John Dillinger was the most celebrated off all the Depression-era bank robbers. A handsome and charismatic ladies' man, Gentleman John was also nicknamed the Jackrabbit--reflective of his agility when vaulting over bank counters. Unlike some of his bloodthirsty counterparts, Dillinger was known to have killed only one person during his crime spree, making him appear more roguish than dangerous. An elusive Dillinger became the Robin Hood of his generation. In the eyes of J. Edgar Hoover, John Dillinger was anything but a Robin Hood-like hero. Humorless, tightly wound, and self-righteous, Hoover viewed any measure of lawlessness as a threat to his organized world. Dillinger became America's first Public Enemy Number One. When Bureau agents finally ambushed and killed John Dillinger, Hoover's mastery of public relations helped birth the now-legendary Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). For the remaining 37 years of his life, J. Edgar Hoover wielded unprecedented power and influence from the throne he grandiosely, but aptly referred to as the Seat of Government. When Hoover's agents finally ambushed and killed Dillinger

To date, only four American Presidents have been murdered--Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Were it not for the murderous acts of four men, Ford's Theater, the Baltimore & Potomac Depot, the Temple of Music, and the Texas School Book Depository would have never gained the attention of historians. Presidential assassins, John Wilkes Booth, Charles Julius Guiteau, Leon Frank Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald left indelible stains on those buildings, as well as the annals of history. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fired a derringer into the back of Abraham Lincoln's head while the President was attending a performance at Washington D.C.'s Ford's Theater. Lincoln survived only nine hours; Booth was tracked down and killed 12 days later. Charles Julius Guiteau shot James Garfield in the back with a revolver on July 2, 1881, as the President prepared to board a train at the capitol city's Baltimore & Potomac Depot. Garfield suffered for 80 agonizing days, before succumbing to complications arising from his bullet wound. Guiteau was executed almost a year to the day after he shot Garfield. On September 6, 1901, Leon Frank Czolgosz shot William McKinley twice with his revolver, once in the chest and the other in the abdomen, during a public reception at the Pan-American Exposition's Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. McKinley lived for eight days; Czolgosz was executed less than two months after the shooting. Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy with an Italian military surplus rifle on November 22, 1963 during a presidential motorcade in downtown Dallas, Texas. Firing from a self-constructed sniper's nest on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, Oswald wounded President Kennedy in the neck and head, and seriously injured Texas Governor, John Connally. Kennedy was killed almost instantly from the gunshot wound to his head, even though physicians at Parkland Hospital did not officially pronounce him dead until a half-hour after the shooting. Two days later, Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a mentally unstable strip club manager, who sought revenge on behalf of the Kennedy family and a grieving nation. The Presidential Assassins: John Wilkes Booth, Charles Julius Guiteau, Leon Frank Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald recounts the lives of four men, who forever changed history. Did they seek notoriety? Were their violent acts personally or politically motivated? Were they mentally unstable? Those questions and many others are addressed in each of their compelling stories.

For 37 years, Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. served his country as a United States Attorney, Federal District Judge, and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge. At the time, Johnson was the youngest man in history (at age 37) to be appointed as Federal District Judge, and subsequently played a pivotal role in facilitating desegregation. From his courtroom in Alabama's capitol city, Judge Johnson helped transform Montgomery from the Cradle of the Confederacy to the Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Johnson's judicial edicts, intensely unpopular with the majority of white Alabamians, who embraced the delusional doctrine of separate but equal, facilitated the end of blatant segregation in Alabama's school systems and other public facilities. Bill Moyers, journalist and one-time aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, proclaimed that Johnson altered forever the face of the South. Martin Luther King characterized Johnson as the man who gave the true meaning to the word justice. Among the multitude of cases argued in Johnson's courtroom included the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the violent, racially motivated attacks against the Freedom Riders, disenfranchisement of black voters, the Selma to Montgomery March, school desegregation, neglect and mistreatment of the hospitalized mentally ill, and violations of the constitutional rights of prison inmates. Stoic and unencumbered by second guessing, Frank Johnson, Jr. left an edible mark on history.

Since 1897, when Grover Cleveland left office after his second term as President of the United States, eight other Democrats have been elected to the nation's highest office. What differentiates Cleveland from his Democratic successors? He was a true Conservative. Cleveland advocated limited government, states' rights, frugal economic principles, strict interpretation of the Constitution, sound currency, low taxes, tariff reduction, a balanced budget, the absence of national debt, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. A self-made man, Cleveland believed that if the federal government provided assistance to any particular group, it would foster a state of dependency that would unfairly punish American taxpayers. Cleveland's political ascendency was truly remarkable. In the span of just three years, he was elected, in succession, as the Mayor of Buffalo, Governor of New York, and President of the United States. Decidedly opposed to big government, Cleveland backed his philosophy with action. Opposing what were deemed as unnecessary appropriations by the legislative branches of both local and state governments, Cleveland earned the reputation as the Veto Mayor and the Veto Governor. During his two terms as President, he repeatedly stalemated Congress, vetoing 584 bills; more than the combined total (204 vetoes) of the 21 Chief Executives who preceded him. Amazingly, Congress managed to override only seven of Cleveland's vetoes. Cleveland's two terms as President are marked by a plethora of firsts. He remains the only person in history to win non-consecutive terms to the presidency. The uncertainty about chronicity eventually led Congress to pass a resolution formally designating Cleveland as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland, Andrew Jackson, and Franklin Roosevelt are the only presidential candidates to win a majority of the popular vote in three consecutive presidential elections (Roosevelt actually won four consecutive races). Like Jackson, Samuel Tilden, and Al Gore, Cleveland had the unfortunate, but historical distinction of winning the popular vote in a presidential election, while finishing second in the Electoral College. Cleveland is the only President of the United States to have actively participated in an execution, while serving as Sheriff of Erie County, New York. To date, Cleveland is the only man ever to be married in the White House. His 21-year-old wife, Frances (27 years his junior and the nation's youngest First Lady), is the only woman to ever give birth in the White House. Grover Cleveland: The Last Conservative Democratic President chronicles the life and times of a man who placed principle above politics, and whose core Conservatism has yet to be matched by subsequent Democratic Presidents.

This a biography of rock and roll pioneer, Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. In his 18 month professional career, he was an innovative singer, musician, and song-writer. His musical is enduring nearly six decades after his death

This is a real-life spy story--one that not only polarized America and much of the world, but also tore a family asunder. More specifically, it pitted a brother against his sister and brother-in-law; one was sentenced to prison and the other two were executed. A Family Affair: The Rosenberg Espionage Case is tragic and compelling drama about Atomic Spies that occurred in an era when fear often trumped reason.

In October of 2000, the Federalist Society and The Wall Street Journal asked 132 professors of history, political science, and law to rank presidents on a scale from one to five; five equaled highly superior, while one represented below average. Ultimately, 78 of the invited scholars chose to participate in the historical exercise. It was not surprising to discover that George Washington finished first in the survey (with an average score of 4.92), and Abraham Lincoln followed a close second (4.87). One of the presidents on the opposite end of the spectrum, Andrew Johnson (with a score of 1.65) was the subject of my 2012 biography entitled The Loyalist. Johnson, who has the misfortune of succeeding the martyred Abraham Lincoln, was the first president to be impeached, which no doubt contributed to his negative rating. The 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, with an average rating of 1.33, came in dead last among the 39 chief executives. Interestingly, Buchanan's administration directly preceded Lincoln's. Is it mere coincidence that two of the four lowest-rated presidents were bookends to Lincoln? Did the unfortunate timing of the Buchanan and Johnson administrations subject them to impossibly high standards? Why is James Buchanan regarded as the worse president? The answer is far from simple and is as much a reflection of the troubled times surrounding his administration as it is the of the man himself.

Just because the art is beautiful doesn't mean the artist was a saint . . .

Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists examines the lives of nine great artists who were less than exemplary human beings in their lives outside of their art.

It explores the question, Why do we like magnificent art from artists who were awful human beings? For example, the great Baroque painter, Caravaggio, who developed the chiaroscuro style of painting, was in constant trouble with the law, even having killed a man in a duel. Frederick Remington, the great painter of the American West, was an incredible racist and bigot. His evocative paintings of Native Americans on the trail on horseback give no hint of Remington's enmity toward them and other ethnic groups in America. Jackson Pollock? His irascibility and petulance were compounded by a lifelong battle with alcoholism, ultimately leading to a fatal automobile accident. Whistler and Courbet were philanderers and libertines.

Scoundrels introduces people to great art by showing the more salacious side of the personal lives of great artists over time. This book not only tells the stories of a dozen artists, but explores how to look at art and the separation between art and artist. This lively narrative is enhanced by over 100 full-color reproductions of great paintings and details from them.

Few people outside of South Carolina are familiar with the name of, much less the role, James F. Byrnes played in shaping 20th century America. He is the only man in the history of the United States to occupy positions in all three federal government branches--executive, congressional, and judicial. From pre-World War I through the 1960s, Byrnes was an influential legislator, supreme court justice, and intimate adviser to presidents. The Assistant President: South Carolina's James F. Byrnes chronicles the life and times of an important but often forgotten public servant.

In the summer of 1945, the world was introduced to the horrific consequences of nuclear warfare. On the sixth day of August, an American B-29 bomber dropped a revolutionary new weapon, the atomic bomb, over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The catastrophic detonation instantly killed over 100,000 residents of the city, with thousands more dying from explosion-related injuries in the months and years to follow. Three days later, a second nuclear weapon was released over the skies of Nagasaki, killing over 40,000 Japanese citizens, most of whom were civilians. Six days after the second nuclear attack, the Empire of Japan surrendered, and World War II was ended. Jubilation among the Allied countries was tempered by a profound sense of relief; nearly four years of bloody war had finally come to an end. Some 406,000 Americans died during World War II, while another 671,000 were wounded. By the end of the war, an astonishing one out of every one hundred thirty six Americans had been killed or wounded in the fighting. American military personnel, along with their spouses, children, parents, and friends, were eager to see the bloody conflict come to and end, by any means possible. Consequently, President Harry Truman's decision to utilize the atomic bomb to bring Japan to its knees was wildly popular in the weeks and months that followed the Japanese surrender. In the six plus decades since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, many have questioned both the necessity and morality of America's deployment of the bomb. Significantly influenced by revisionist history, passionate debate has focused on the justification for nuclear warfare to subdue an enemy already nearing defeat. Like so many other momentous events, the reader must balance the reality of the world in 1945 against the seemingly clearer prism of revisionist history. Fire in the Sky: The Story of the Atomic Bomb chronicles the development and use of the first atomic bombs. This is a remarkable story about the lives and times of the brilliant scientists, seasoned military officers, and determined government leaders, who reshaped history, and irrevocably changed the dynamics of warfare.