Carroll Case

Major Works

• The Slaughter (1998)

Biography of Carroll Case

by Rose Chandler (SHS)

Carroll Case was born March 15, 1939. He attended Brookhaven High School in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He also attended Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. Today he lives with his wife Suzanne in McComb, Mississippi, and they have two children, Christy and Rebecca. Case is an award winning visual artist and freelance writer. His drawings and painting have been exhibited in many places.

Carroll Case was the first Mississippi writer to have his short stories included in the prestigious DeGrummond collections of children’s literature. His stories about Mississippi have appeared in Southern newspapers and magazines and have been filmed for national television audiences. He became interested in the story of the black soldiers in 1985 and has researched it thoroughly.

Reviews

A Review of The Slaughter

By Rose Chandler (SHS)

The Slaughter: An American Atrocity is a fictional account of the alleged killing in 1943 of more than 1,000 African American soldiers on a military base in southwestern Mississippi during World War II. Carroll Case, author of the novel, writes the book using oral accounts and then novelizes the events. The book contains actual documents from the NAACP, Camp Van Dorn, and various other places. Changing the names of characters and places, Case takes the information collected in a thirteen-year investigation and transforms the information into an exceptional page-turning novel.

Clay Brady, a young investigative reporter at States Times in Jackson, Mississippi, accepts an offer from Vassar Lawrence, an editor of a smaller newspaper The Chronicle in Clay’s hometown, Camellia City, to become feature editor. Vassar has a specific job assignment for Clay, but it is so classified that she can not explain to him exactly what it is. The only thing he knows is that he is not allowed to tell anyone.

Shortly after Clay settles in Camellia City, unusual events begin to occur, such as Vassar’s death and Clay’s instant promotion to replace Vassar as editor. Most of these events lead to Clay’s suspicion of Ash Walker, a handsome seventy-year-old publisher of the Chronicle who has complete control over everyone in Camellia City. In Camellia City, racism is so bad that killings are a usual occurrence. Anyone who offends Ash Walker or anyone associated with him has to struggle to live. As Clay investigates the alleged killings of the soldiers in 1943 and the very people in Camellia City who were involved in it, he has to struggle to survive. He has to be very careful of whom he encounters because he does not know who are his friends or who are the enemies.

Writing a story like The Slaughter: An American Atrocity from information collected in a thirteen-year investigation can not possibly be the easiest to accomplish. However, Carroll Case makes it seem so easy by carrying the reader deep into the story as if the reader was there. Although the book was not written in dialect, a reader can clearly see through the structure of the sentence that it takes place somewhere in the South. If someone were to read this novel, they would instantly be captured by the racial conflicts that unfold throughout the novel. I feel Case did very well in revealing what happened to those African-American soldiers and telling the story of what happened to himself during his investigation. I believe this book is worthy of reading as it is an indictment of the American society. I would recommend this story of this gruesome atrocity to anyone and everyone.

Interview with Suzanne Case, wife of Carroll Case

by Rose Chandler

How did Mr. Case come about investigating the incident?

He found out about the incident accidentally through a guy he worked with. Then he started investigating and found out even more information.

And this was around 1985?

Yes it was. I see you have gotten your information.

When was Mr. Case born?

March 15, 1939.

Where did he attend school?

He went to Brookhaven High School in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and then he went to Ole Miss.

Related Websites

• Read a biography about Carroll on his art website
• See paintings by Carroll Case
• Photography by Carroll Case
• Reviews of The Slaughter on Amazon.com

Bibliography

• Case, Carroll.  The Slaughter:  An American Atrocity.  U.S.:  FBC, Inc., 1998.
• The Slaughter:  An American Atrocity About The Author Page.  Online.  Internet.  4 December 2002. Available HTTP: TheSlaughter.com/homepage12.html
• Case, Suzanne.  Telephone interview.  15 December 2002.