NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Roy McMillan, Publicist
601/981-8377
SCRAPBOOK GIVES FIRST LOOK AT FATHER
In 53 years, James Harris had never seen his father. Then an author researching a book brought James an old scrapbook full of black and white photos. There, shown clearly in several pictures, was his father.
When Harris was less than one year old, helived with his sharecropper family near Newport, Mississippi. One night, a man drunk on moonshine burst into the family’s shack and began shooting. When it was all over, three children lay dead, one child wounded, and their father shot in the back and paralyzed. Harris’s mother had run out the homeduring the massacre, carrying her baby, James, to safety.
The killer ran from the law for days before being captured by a prison trusty using a trio of bloodhounds. Present at the capture was a newspaper photographer from the Kosciusko, MississippiStar-Herald who snapped a dramatic picture of the event. Months later, the photo was judged Best Photo of 1950 by the National Press Photographer’s Association. This entry from a small-town weekly newspaper beat out pictures from over 600 journalistic publications around the nation, including the biggest and richest.
As a result of the award, the photographer’s wife created a scrapbook of the crime and its aftermath. Over 50 of her husband’s pictures along with numerous article clippings from newspapers around the nation filled the scrapbook’s pages. For decades the scrapbook lay storedbeneath a bed. Finally, the couple’s son, Stokes McMillan inherited the old treasure and read its old clippings.
The story that McMillan discovered within the yellowing pages of that scrapbook was so fascinating that he decided to write a book about its subject. He set out to interview any living
witnesses to the story and soon found James Harris and his mother living in Durant, Mississippi. During his first interview with the pair, McMillan brought his mother’s scrapbook
along and showed them its contents. To his surprise, James Harris stated that this was his first ever glimpse of his father.
McMillan’s book is One Night of Madness, a 426-page true story stocked with over 20 of his father’s pictures of the event. Recently released for sale, it can be purchased at Amazon.com or the author’s website, stokesmcmillan.com.
Stokes McMillan is fourth generation born and raised in Attala County, Mississippi. He lives with his wife in Houston, Texas.