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The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma
Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here was more than a bestseller; it was a national event. His beautifully narrated, heartbreaking nonfiction account of two black boys struggling to grow up in a Chicago public housing complex spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, was a made-for-television movie starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey, won many distinguished awards, and sparked a continuing national debate on the lives of inner-city children.
In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears.
The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Alex Kotlowitz proves why he is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race.
From the Hardcover edition.
In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears.
The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Alex Kotlowitz proves why he is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race.
From the Hardcover edition.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Alex Kotlowitz
17 books267 followersFROM HIS WEBSITE:
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. He has served as a correspondant and writer for a "Frontline" documentary, "Let’s Get Married", as well as correspondant and writer for two pieces for PBS’s "Media Matters." His articles have also appeared in "The Washington Post," "The Chicago Tribune," "Rolling Stone," "The Atlantic" and "The New Republic." He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches two courses every winter, and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies where he teaches one course every fall. He has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.
Kotlowitz grew up in New York City. His father, Robert, is the author of four novels and a memoir of World War II, "Before Their Time." His mother, Billie, who died in 1994, ran the Thematic Studies Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His brother, Dan, is a professor of Theatrical Lighting Design at Dartmouth. Kotlowitz graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct..
His first journalism job – after a yearlong stint on an Oregon cattle ranch – was with a small alternative newsweekly in Lansing, Michigan. After a year there, he freelanced for five years, producing for "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour" and reporting for NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." From 1984 to 1993, he was a staff writer at "The Wall Street Journal," writing on urban affairs and social policy.
His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York’s Catholic Interracial Council.
He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago.
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. He has served as a correspondant and writer for a "Frontline" documentary, "Let’s Get Married", as well as correspondant and writer for two pieces for PBS’s "Media Matters." His articles have also appeared in "The Washington Post," "The Chicago Tribune," "Rolling Stone," "The Atlantic" and "The New Republic." He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches two courses every winter, and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies where he teaches one course every fall. He has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.
Kotlowitz grew up in New York City. His father, Robert, is the author of four novels and a memoir of World War II, "Before Their Time." His mother, Billie, who died in 1994, ran the Thematic Studies Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His brother, Dan, is a professor of Theatrical Lighting Design at Dartmouth. Kotlowitz graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct..
His first journalism job – after a yearlong stint on an Oregon cattle ranch – was with a small alternative newsweekly in Lansing, Michigan. After a year there, he freelanced for five years, producing for "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour" and reporting for NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." From 1984 to 1993, he was a staff writer at "The Wall Street Journal," writing on urban affairs and social policy.
His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York’s Catholic Interracial Council.
He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago.
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May 10, 2013
My great-great grandparents and their children having built a cottage in the woods in unincorporated Lake Charter Township near Lake Michigan and generations of us as children having spent our summers there, I have always been familiar with the towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. St. Joe was the prettier of the two, the one with the old grand hotel, nice parks and the Silver Beach amusement park (now, sadly, gone), but Benton Harbor was the place that had the big shopping centers, movie theatres, auto shops and hardware stores. When something broke, usually a car, that is where Dad would go. Trips to St Joe/Benton Harbor were quite the event in childhood, the sixteen miles up the Red Arrow Highway seeming a vast distance to feral kids.
My earliest memories of Benton Harbor go back to the mid-fifties. Home of Whirlpool and to the now almost extinct House of David cult, it was an industrial city back then. Like Gary, Indiana it was substantially black, but then both places were thriving, relatively speaking. People had jobs. It seemed a big place. They even had a race riot in 1968, back when all the big cities seemed to be having them. In recent years, however, its industrial base has mostly disappeared. Many people don't have jobs. Storefronts are empty, the four downtown theatres are closed, tumbleweeds--yes, tumbleweeds--can be seen on the main thoroughfares. It is no longer the place to go when one has business "in town"--business is now at great malls beyond the city limits. My brother, Fin, a postman in Benton Harbor for fifteen years now, keeps me informed about the place, occasionally drives up there with me to show off his newest routes or interesting local developments, one of which was Jimmy Carter, in town with Habitat for Humanity, actually hammering nails--I didn't see this myself--on a rooftop.
Kotlowitz' book about St. Joe and Benton Harbor was popular in both towns, prominently displayed in bookstores. Indeed, I talked to a girl, a black girl, working at one of the latter's stores about the story he tells. She, claiming to have known Eric, the murder victim, said it was substantially accurate. The only false note is that the book suggests that the St. Joseph River separates the two. It actually isn't quite that neat, but it serves as a metaphor of connection and of separation.
My earliest memories of Benton Harbor go back to the mid-fifties. Home of Whirlpool and to the now almost extinct House of David cult, it was an industrial city back then. Like Gary, Indiana it was substantially black, but then both places were thriving, relatively speaking. People had jobs. It seemed a big place. They even had a race riot in 1968, back when all the big cities seemed to be having them. In recent years, however, its industrial base has mostly disappeared. Many people don't have jobs. Storefronts are empty, the four downtown theatres are closed, tumbleweeds--yes, tumbleweeds--can be seen on the main thoroughfares. It is no longer the place to go when one has business "in town"--business is now at great malls beyond the city limits. My brother, Fin, a postman in Benton Harbor for fifteen years now, keeps me informed about the place, occasionally drives up there with me to show off his newest routes or interesting local developments, one of which was Jimmy Carter, in town with Habitat for Humanity, actually hammering nails--I didn't see this myself--on a rooftop.
Kotlowitz' book about St. Joe and Benton Harbor was popular in both towns, prominently displayed in bookstores. Indeed, I talked to a girl, a black girl, working at one of the latter's stores about the story he tells. She, claiming to have known Eric, the murder victim, said it was substantially accurate. The only false note is that the book suggests that the St. Joseph River separates the two. It actually isn't quite that neat, but it serves as a metaphor of connection and of separation.
March 8, 2019
“ ‘Race is an issue to those people who make it an issue’ -William Gillespie, former mayor of St. Joseph’s.
“ ‘This is racial. If we get these kids educated, you won’t be able to fill up your jails. You won’t have people on welfare. You won’t be able to print in your newspaper that this is the worst place to live! Pitiful. Just pitiful.’ ” -Reverend Walter Brown of Benton Harbor
The relatively small Michigan towns of St. Joseph’s and Benton Harbor are as geographically close (separated by a bridge) as they are economically and racially loving in different worlds.
St. Joe’s has a hospital, police station and courthouse (located perhaps not by coincidence in a place where it is the first thing someone coming from Benton Harbor would see crossing into St. Joe’s), jobs, and pristine beaches (the beach located in Benton Harbor is claimed by St. Joe’s in a bid seemingly to leave nothing of value to its neighbor).
Benton Harbor has none of these things.
What it has is poverty, failing schools, drugs, and crime so rampant that it was once voted one of the most dangerous places to live in America.
Perhaps their most important difference: St. Joe’s is as White as Benton Harbor is Black.
How can two towns so geographically close to each other be such starkly different places to live?
Rather than tackle this question directly, Alex Kotlowitz examines the lives of these two towns through the death of 16 year old Eric McGinnis in 1991. McGinnis, a Black teenager from Benton Harbor, was found in a river in St. Joe’s with abrasions around his neck and his pants unzipped and unbuttoned.
The reaction to his death brought to the surface barely concealed anger and distrust between the two towns and produced, perhaps predictably, very different ideas about what happened on the night Eric disappeared.
The citizens of St. Joe’s, many believing Eric slipped and fell somehow into the river, were seemingly baffled by the cries of murder and racism coming from their neighbors across the river. Not everything is about race they said. In fairness, there were prominent St. Joe’s citizens like its sheriff who genuinely wanted to know what happened.
Was Eric’s death an accident as many in St. Joe’s believed?
Was it related to his having a White girlfriend and being seen dancing with a White girl at a teen club in St.Joe’s?
Was it related to a man seen chasing Eric down the street that fateful night after allegedly catching him breaking into his car?
Most people in St. Joe’s however, seemed to just want the story to go away and push Benton Harbor back out of their daily lives as the always had just as much as citizens of Benton Harbor wanted to keep the story of Eric’s death alive.
Citizens of Benton Harbor saw Eric’s death as yet another example of Black men from their town being murdered by White men from St.Joe’s (the discovery of Eric’s body happened to coincide with the trial of a White police officer accused of shooting an unarmed Black man as well as a Benton Harbor school board election in which the the superintendent was trying to remove the two White members of its board.
It is a mark of Kotlowitz’s talent as a writer that this incredible tension leaps off the page as we jump from town to town, wild theories about Eric’s death, and an almost visceral hatred between the two towns. Each new slander and back and forth accusations takes a toll on the reader
Years of trying to uncover the facts of this story clearly began to take its toll on Kotlowitz as well:
“The more people I spoke to, the more, not less, confused I felt. Race relations in the last days of this century, I came to realize, was a tale short of victors. Heroes? Shoot, every time I drove over that bridge, I’d let out a sigh of relief, eager to get away from the innuendoes and gossip of whichever town I was leaving.”
Kotlowitz uncovers quite a bit about these towns but more often than not finds most people at best unwilling to trust him and at worst openly hostile to his project. That notwithstanding, this is a fascinating glimpse into American race relations at the turn of the 21st centuty. There remain by the end of this book, and through no fault of the author, too many unanswered questions about the death of Eric McGinnis. The seemingly intractable differences between these two towns is frustrating to both reader and author alike. Perhaps if one were to take only one lesson from this human tragedy it would be in the words of the author:
“I’ve come to realize that most of us would like to do right, but, as was said of the South’s politicians during Jim Crow, race diminishes us.”
“ ‘This is racial. If we get these kids educated, you won’t be able to fill up your jails. You won’t have people on welfare. You won’t be able to print in your newspaper that this is the worst place to live! Pitiful. Just pitiful.’ ” -Reverend Walter Brown of Benton Harbor
The relatively small Michigan towns of St. Joseph’s and Benton Harbor are as geographically close (separated by a bridge) as they are economically and racially loving in different worlds.
St. Joe’s has a hospital, police station and courthouse (located perhaps not by coincidence in a place where it is the first thing someone coming from Benton Harbor would see crossing into St. Joe’s), jobs, and pristine beaches (the beach located in Benton Harbor is claimed by St. Joe’s in a bid seemingly to leave nothing of value to its neighbor).
Benton Harbor has none of these things.
What it has is poverty, failing schools, drugs, and crime so rampant that it was once voted one of the most dangerous places to live in America.
Perhaps their most important difference: St. Joe’s is as White as Benton Harbor is Black.
How can two towns so geographically close to each other be such starkly different places to live?
Rather than tackle this question directly, Alex Kotlowitz examines the lives of these two towns through the death of 16 year old Eric McGinnis in 1991. McGinnis, a Black teenager from Benton Harbor, was found in a river in St. Joe’s with abrasions around his neck and his pants unzipped and unbuttoned.
The reaction to his death brought to the surface barely concealed anger and distrust between the two towns and produced, perhaps predictably, very different ideas about what happened on the night Eric disappeared.
The citizens of St. Joe’s, many believing Eric slipped and fell somehow into the river, were seemingly baffled by the cries of murder and racism coming from their neighbors across the river. Not everything is about race they said. In fairness, there were prominent St. Joe’s citizens like its sheriff who genuinely wanted to know what happened.
Was Eric’s death an accident as many in St. Joe’s believed?
Was it related to his having a White girlfriend and being seen dancing with a White girl at a teen club in St.Joe’s?
Was it related to a man seen chasing Eric down the street that fateful night after allegedly catching him breaking into his car?
Most people in St. Joe’s however, seemed to just want the story to go away and push Benton Harbor back out of their daily lives as the always had just as much as citizens of Benton Harbor wanted to keep the story of Eric’s death alive.
Citizens of Benton Harbor saw Eric’s death as yet another example of Black men from their town being murdered by White men from St.Joe’s (the discovery of Eric’s body happened to coincide with the trial of a White police officer accused of shooting an unarmed Black man as well as a Benton Harbor school board election in which the the superintendent was trying to remove the two White members of its board.
It is a mark of Kotlowitz’s talent as a writer that this incredible tension leaps off the page as we jump from town to town, wild theories about Eric’s death, and an almost visceral hatred between the two towns. Each new slander and back and forth accusations takes a toll on the reader
Years of trying to uncover the facts of this story clearly began to take its toll on Kotlowitz as well:
“The more people I spoke to, the more, not less, confused I felt. Race relations in the last days of this century, I came to realize, was a tale short of victors. Heroes? Shoot, every time I drove over that bridge, I’d let out a sigh of relief, eager to get away from the innuendoes and gossip of whichever town I was leaving.”
Kotlowitz uncovers quite a bit about these towns but more often than not finds most people at best unwilling to trust him and at worst openly hostile to his project. That notwithstanding, this is a fascinating glimpse into American race relations at the turn of the 21st centuty. There remain by the end of this book, and through no fault of the author, too many unanswered questions about the death of Eric McGinnis. The seemingly intractable differences between these two towns is frustrating to both reader and author alike. Perhaps if one were to take only one lesson from this human tragedy it would be in the words of the author:
“I’ve come to realize that most of us would like to do right, but, as was said of the South’s politicians during Jim Crow, race diminishes us.”
December 14, 2015
(White) Oak Park, IL journalist Kotlowitz is best known for his story of south side Chicago black youth in the eighties, There Are No Children Here. Oprah bought the rights, made a good film based on the book. This book follows that book, and is not set in Chicago, or the deep south, or St Louis, or any place that usually comes to mind when one thinks of racial divisions in the US. This focuses on two adjoining and historically somewhat opposite towns in southwest Michigan, Benton Harbor, which has historically been more African American and working class, and St. Joseph, which is whiter and more middle and upper middle class. I am somewhat familiar with these towns, having grown up in Grand Rapids, north of there, but mots of my life I just passed by them on the way to Grand Rapids from Chicago.
Having born in Michigan and lived more than half of my life there, I pay attention to Michigan news, and knew about this murder that more deeply divided the town. Kotlowitz does deep research, listening carefully to both sides of the story, careful to depict both sides as fairly as possible, and creates a very long book with no resolution, which was his point, I guess, and his strategy, to have his work be a part of the national dialogue on race. I was a little impatient with its length, having read it when it just came out. I guess I appreciate his not wanting to take sides, I got that point, but I wanted him to do so more, finally. It's all still here, these perspectives, and the book could make a good contribution to the dialogue still.
Having born in Michigan and lived more than half of my life there, I pay attention to Michigan news, and knew about this murder that more deeply divided the town. Kotlowitz does deep research, listening carefully to both sides of the story, careful to depict both sides as fairly as possible, and creates a very long book with no resolution, which was his point, I guess, and his strategy, to have his work be a part of the national dialogue on race. I was a little impatient with its length, having read it when it just came out. I guess I appreciate his not wanting to take sides, I got that point, but I wanted him to do so more, finally. It's all still here, these perspectives, and the book could make a good contribution to the dialogue still.
November 5, 2024
This was a really interesting but also a tragic story. I had no idea of the history between these two towns. I think the author was well researched and did a good job of relating past history and circumstances to allow the reader to understand the racial tensions that existed there.
January 9, 2022
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER is a journalist's take on the investigation of the apparent drowning of a black teenager in the St. Joseph River in Berrien County MI in the early 1990s. The St. Joseph River divides the cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. The population of the former is more than 90% black. The population of the latter is 95% white. Benton Harbor is dirty, run down and sketchy. St. Joseph is affluent, comfortable and clean.
Eric McGinnis was an average teenager from Benton Harbor. He had been seeing a white girl from St. Joseph. The last time he was seen alive, he was being chased down a St. Joseph street toward the river by an angry middle-aged white man. When his body later was pulled from the river, folks in Benton Harbor assumed that Eric was the victim of a hate crime. Folks in St. Joseph assumed that he had jumped or fallen into the river and drowned by his own doing or negligence.
Alex Kotlowitz, an award winning writer for the Wall Street Journal and other publications, was drawn to this story because he hoped it might teach us something about racism in America. He also thought that investigative journalism might reveal the truth behind McGinnis' death.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER fails to deliver on either of these promising premises. We never learn what happened to Eric. Nor does Kotlowitz teach us anything new about racism.
Let's take the police investigation first. The case was assigned to an unimpressive, middle-aged white detective from St. Joseph. He seems to have been earnest enough in his effort to investigate Eric's death, but he was inexperienced, ill-trained and untalented. The result of his investigation was inconclusive - though the prosecutor in Berrien County announced that Eric's death was by accidental drowning. Not surprisingly, the prevailing belief in Benton Harbor was that the investigation had not been undertaken to get to the bottom of how Eric had died. Rather, the view in Benton Harbor was that the authorities investigated with the purpose of protecting the white population of St. Joseph from blame.
In St. Joseph, the population came to believe that Eric died from his own negligence or at the hands of one of the black gangs from Benton Harbor. That fit with how the white population of St. Joe generally regarded violence in the black community and the deaths of a young African-American men.
Kotlowitz tried very hard, for four years, to discover the truth. But met with no success. He was able to eliminate the middle-aged man who chased Eric as a suspect, but he failed to identify or even suggest any other likely candidate. When the book is done, we simply have no idea what really happened to Eric.
Kotlowitz similarly failed to discover anything new about racism. His account of the investigation of Eric's death confirms that black and white populations can look at the exact same facts and draw dramatically different and completely irreconcilable conclusions from those facts. But we knew that already. What we need to understand is how that is possible and what can be done to change it.
As to that, Kotlowitz has nothing to say to us. In his defense, this is one of the most intractable problems in our society and no one seems to have many good answers. At least, Kotlowitz tried to plumb its depths. And his effort makes the book readable and worthwhile. I recommend it.
Eric McGinnis was an average teenager from Benton Harbor. He had been seeing a white girl from St. Joseph. The last time he was seen alive, he was being chased down a St. Joseph street toward the river by an angry middle-aged white man. When his body later was pulled from the river, folks in Benton Harbor assumed that Eric was the victim of a hate crime. Folks in St. Joseph assumed that he had jumped or fallen into the river and drowned by his own doing or negligence.
Alex Kotlowitz, an award winning writer for the Wall Street Journal and other publications, was drawn to this story because he hoped it might teach us something about racism in America. He also thought that investigative journalism might reveal the truth behind McGinnis' death.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER fails to deliver on either of these promising premises. We never learn what happened to Eric. Nor does Kotlowitz teach us anything new about racism.
Let's take the police investigation first. The case was assigned to an unimpressive, middle-aged white detective from St. Joseph. He seems to have been earnest enough in his effort to investigate Eric's death, but he was inexperienced, ill-trained and untalented. The result of his investigation was inconclusive - though the prosecutor in Berrien County announced that Eric's death was by accidental drowning. Not surprisingly, the prevailing belief in Benton Harbor was that the investigation had not been undertaken to get to the bottom of how Eric had died. Rather, the view in Benton Harbor was that the authorities investigated with the purpose of protecting the white population of St. Joseph from blame.
In St. Joseph, the population came to believe that Eric died from his own negligence or at the hands of one of the black gangs from Benton Harbor. That fit with how the white population of St. Joe generally regarded violence in the black community and the deaths of a young African-American men.
Kotlowitz tried very hard, for four years, to discover the truth. But met with no success. He was able to eliminate the middle-aged man who chased Eric as a suspect, but he failed to identify or even suggest any other likely candidate. When the book is done, we simply have no idea what really happened to Eric.
Kotlowitz similarly failed to discover anything new about racism. His account of the investigation of Eric's death confirms that black and white populations can look at the exact same facts and draw dramatically different and completely irreconcilable conclusions from those facts. But we knew that already. What we need to understand is how that is possible and what can be done to change it.
As to that, Kotlowitz has nothing to say to us. In his defense, this is one of the most intractable problems in our society and no one seems to have many good answers. At least, Kotlowitz tried to plumb its depths. And his effort makes the book readable and worthwhile. I recommend it.
September 8, 2019
After Kotlowitz’ acclaimed There are No Children Here I knew that this book about St. Joseph and Benton Harbor Michigan would astound me too. Not to mention it is set in a small town in SW Michigan that I am familiar with and at times reflects the town I grew up in.
Kotlowitz uses the death of young Eric McGinnis to tell the story of race tensions between St. Joe and Benton Harbor, towns separated by a river. While McGinnis’ death—he was found in the St. Joe River, not far from Lake Michigan— is still a cold case, there is much to learn about race from the events surrounding his death. Kotlowitz explores numerous avenues that contribute to the tensions that exists between the towns.
McGinnis’ death is not the first or last tragedy or race-related issue that has plagued St. Joe and Benton Harbor. As Kotlowitz reports this story over four years, he learns about cop shootings, a school board ouster, gang violence, teen romance and drama, lynching, political infighting, and more. And this was in the early 1990s, a time of nationwide race conflict not unlike our days in 2010s. While an inconclusive book that leaves so many loose ends, I still find it very relevant and worth the read. Not to mention Kotlowitz’s very readable reporting and writing style.
Kotlowitz uses the death of young Eric McGinnis to tell the story of race tensions between St. Joe and Benton Harbor, towns separated by a river. While McGinnis’ death—he was found in the St. Joe River, not far from Lake Michigan— is still a cold case, there is much to learn about race from the events surrounding his death. Kotlowitz explores numerous avenues that contribute to the tensions that exists between the towns.
McGinnis’ death is not the first or last tragedy or race-related issue that has plagued St. Joe and Benton Harbor. As Kotlowitz reports this story over four years, he learns about cop shootings, a school board ouster, gang violence, teen romance and drama, lynching, political infighting, and more. And this was in the early 1990s, a time of nationwide race conflict not unlike our days in 2010s. While an inconclusive book that leaves so many loose ends, I still find it very relevant and worth the read. Not to mention Kotlowitz’s very readable reporting and writing style.
December 3, 2024
It's one of the worst books I've ever read tbh. The entrie book wants to do both sides and is bad on race relations in America. O don't think Alex is a racist. But i also do not think he is qualified in the slightest to really handle this story. Outside of the actual content, it's just a boring read. There's an interesting tale to be had about Eric and the mishandled investigation. Alex prose one sucks and too just jumps around telling unconnected stories. Alex appears to want to tell a bunch of unwanted stories to then try to tie into a bigger picture, but that is never formed. Just adds up to a mismatch of a book that goes from anadotoe to anadote. Frankly, Alex doesn't have the courage to really stick to his hand and make a statement about what the tales of benton Harbor Saint joepsh mean about America at large. It's supposed to serve as a microcosm of America's race relations, but that's never explored to the slightest. An interesting story told boringly by a guy with no courage guts. You learn nothing you don't know about how race affects America by reading this book. You're better off just watching Spike Lee movies or anything else. Terrible never read again!!!!!!!!!!!
August 9, 2024
Very interesting true story about an area of Michigan I visit regularly. The events recounted happened when I was attended Battle Creek Central high school and we would travel to St Joe and Benton Harbor for athletic events often. This wasn’t a fun read or a great story but I was a good read.
June 18, 2025
Living close to where this took place I couldn't put it down. This was eye opening to me about these 2 cities. Very controversial. I'm not sure I believe all of it but I definitely see the divide.
July 21, 2025
Started off very interesting but the second half was kind of boring
June 24, 2020
An unsatisfying book to read six years into the Black Lives Matter movement, and two years into this current American presidency. The book opens when a 17-year-old African-American from Benton Harbor is found dead in the St. Joseph River, having ostensibly fallen in the river while in the town of St. Joseph. The citizens of the predominantly black and very poor Benton Harbor, where the boy, Eric, is from, believe Eric to be the victim of a murder. They believe he was most likely killed by white people in a crime that was not properly investigated by white police. The citizens of the predominantly white and middle-class St. Joseph, right next door, see Eric's drowning as an accident that Benton Harbor residents are using as an excuse to whine about race.
As soon as it becomes clear that the author isn't going to solve the mystery of how Eric died, the book becomes a reflection on racial tension, and on how the experience of race shapes your sense of what is probable and likely. It is not very satisfying or deep, although maybe in 1998 it was a strikingly new contribution to the conversation on race in the US. In his book _There Are No Children Here_, Kotlowitz was exemplary at getting out of the way and letting his subjects speak in their own clear voices. Here, maybe because no one has anything very penetrating to say about racial relations, that technique just yields a lot of murk and not much that's even memorable.
The book's structure changes from being driven by the question "Was Eric's death a murder or an accident?" to "Why is it that the two towns can't share a viewpoint on this incident?" and as it does, the "answer" to the question becomes a long exposition of current racial tensions: controversies over school board leaders and prior police abuses of black citizens in the area. One of these episodes -- a 21-year-old shot to death by a cop who mistook him for someone else -- is especially unsatisfying because we get extended and somewhat sympathetic characterization of the cop who shot him, and we are never told anything about the man who actually died. The loss of middle-class jobs, the gutting of a decent police force, and the infiltration of Benton Harbor by gangs from Detroit and Chicago complete the picture.
At the end of the book, the author concludes that he's seen people from both towns work on developing relationships with one another, but 20 years later this seems laughably optimistic. The state of Michigan put the city of Benton Harbor into receivership for several years (ending, I think, in 2017), appointing a non-democratically elected city manager to make all the decisions involved in running the city. This is the same arrangement which resulted in Flint's water crisis, for those of you keeping tabs at home. Local corporation Whirlpool "invested" in helping to build a world-class golf-course in Benton Harbor -- for which the owners of the golf course will pay no property taxes -- as a move to economically develop Benton Harbor. Surprisingly, not a lot of Benton Harbor residents play golf. This summer the governor of Michigan announced plans to close Benton Harbor's high school, and farm out the students to ten surrounding rural high schools. This is a decision that's still under negotiation, but all signs point toward bridges that have NOT been built, and racism that proceeds apace on a systematic level.
As soon as it becomes clear that the author isn't going to solve the mystery of how Eric died, the book becomes a reflection on racial tension, and on how the experience of race shapes your sense of what is probable and likely. It is not very satisfying or deep, although maybe in 1998 it was a strikingly new contribution to the conversation on race in the US. In his book _There Are No Children Here_, Kotlowitz was exemplary at getting out of the way and letting his subjects speak in their own clear voices. Here, maybe because no one has anything very penetrating to say about racial relations, that technique just yields a lot of murk and not much that's even memorable.
The book's structure changes from being driven by the question "Was Eric's death a murder or an accident?" to "Why is it that the two towns can't share a viewpoint on this incident?" and as it does, the "answer" to the question becomes a long exposition of current racial tensions: controversies over school board leaders and prior police abuses of black citizens in the area. One of these episodes -- a 21-year-old shot to death by a cop who mistook him for someone else -- is especially unsatisfying because we get extended and somewhat sympathetic characterization of the cop who shot him, and we are never told anything about the man who actually died. The loss of middle-class jobs, the gutting of a decent police force, and the infiltration of Benton Harbor by gangs from Detroit and Chicago complete the picture.
At the end of the book, the author concludes that he's seen people from both towns work on developing relationships with one another, but 20 years later this seems laughably optimistic. The state of Michigan put the city of Benton Harbor into receivership for several years (ending, I think, in 2017), appointing a non-democratically elected city manager to make all the decisions involved in running the city. This is the same arrangement which resulted in Flint's water crisis, for those of you keeping tabs at home. Local corporation Whirlpool "invested" in helping to build a world-class golf-course in Benton Harbor -- for which the owners of the golf course will pay no property taxes -- as a move to economically develop Benton Harbor. Surprisingly, not a lot of Benton Harbor residents play golf. This summer the governor of Michigan announced plans to close Benton Harbor's high school, and farm out the students to ten surrounding rural high schools. This is a decision that's still under negotiation, but all signs point toward bridges that have NOT been built, and racism that proceeds apace on a systematic level.
November 12, 2007
Although its focus is on the unsolved death of a black teenager found floating near a Coast Guard station on the St. Joseph River, it is really about the huge racial divide in America, described by the author in the tense relationship between the communities of St. Joseph (white) and Benton Harbor (black) in Michigan. For those who believe that racial discord can only be found in the South or huge urban centers, one only has to read a piece like this. Also important is how rumor and myth become rigidly accepted by some, as well as seeing that communities are seldom monolithic in their outlook. And although some people warily quiz me on life in South Carolina, I can assure them that in many ways racial relations are actually better here than in other places in this country, despite our glaring problems. I am a little tired of the common habit of writers putting themselves in their books; tell the story. I guess there is no rule against it, but it bothers me (it maybe a result of the historian background).
May 18, 2014
Is it possible to give a book a negative star? This was the most boring book I think I have ever read. Like yea you touch important points of live racism but honestly you didn't have to drag it on for 308 pages. You don't even find how Eric dies which even is more upsetting. Thanks to my sociology teacher I was forced to read this book. And just to note, you should have edited the book before it was published because it was poorly written and I can't even stand the book. Thank goodness I am done with it.
July 23, 2013
Great book with no answers. No surprise. The portrayal of my hometown seemed, to me, fair and revealing.
February 19, 2025
3.5
Read this for book club discussion at work. I think this story is compelling - the contrast of the two towns (I love that this was local-ish to us) and the racial divide when a black teenager turns up dead in the river - this is by default an interesting story. I also appreciate the intense research involved for Alex to go on all the tangents he went on to really paint the picture of the town.
My main issue was that he didn’t give us any kind of path forward. We learn how terrible the relations between the towns are (albeit from an outsiders perspective), but we also know that people may live in one town and work in the other, that people regularly cross for shopping or access to resources like the hospital. So how do people cope? How can these towns move towards reconciliation? The other thing that bothered me was that we never found out what actually happened to Eric, despite the clear research that showed a severe failure in the part of the initial investigators.
This book was written in the 90’s and a lot has happened in American race relations since then, and I would be interested in reading additional followup chapters.
Read this for book club discussion at work. I think this story is compelling - the contrast of the two towns (I love that this was local-ish to us) and the racial divide when a black teenager turns up dead in the river - this is by default an interesting story. I also appreciate the intense research involved for Alex to go on all the tangents he went on to really paint the picture of the town.
My main issue was that he didn’t give us any kind of path forward. We learn how terrible the relations between the towns are (albeit from an outsiders perspective), but we also know that people may live in one town and work in the other, that people regularly cross for shopping or access to resources like the hospital. So how do people cope? How can these towns move towards reconciliation? The other thing that bothered me was that we never found out what actually happened to Eric, despite the clear research that showed a severe failure in the part of the initial investigators.
This book was written in the 90’s and a lot has happened in American race relations since then, and I would be interested in reading additional followup chapters.
July 13, 2017
Oohh.... Ok, so this story was an eye opener for sure. I found this book at a thrift store, and was surprised to discover that this story takes place near my hometown.
Alex Kotlowitz is a journalist from Chicago who stumbles upon st joe/benton harbor as a vacation destination with his wife. He comes to town only a short while after a teenage boy was found drown in the St Joe River. Alex begins to do his own investigation of this accident by interviewing citizens of both sides of the river and we get the privilege of journeying with him and his conversations over the next few years. I was left saddened by the lack of closer in the case, kept waiting for a break thru that would provide closer for the families involved but it never came.
I guess I was the most surprised with the fact that I grew up in the same county as this event and so much of the situations Alex discusses I had never heard anything about. I could picture myself walking along the streets as he describes and even recognized some of the persons he mentioned, but It honestly was the first time I'd heard of these murders and unsolved cases. These events took place during my childhood. I'm ashamed to admit the disconnect I have had with Benton Harbor and the people who call it home. I appreciated Alex's persistence and determination to find justice for this family.
Alex Kotlowitz is a journalist from Chicago who stumbles upon st joe/benton harbor as a vacation destination with his wife. He comes to town only a short while after a teenage boy was found drown in the St Joe River. Alex begins to do his own investigation of this accident by interviewing citizens of both sides of the river and we get the privilege of journeying with him and his conversations over the next few years. I was left saddened by the lack of closer in the case, kept waiting for a break thru that would provide closer for the families involved but it never came.
I guess I was the most surprised with the fact that I grew up in the same county as this event and so much of the situations Alex discusses I had never heard anything about. I could picture myself walking along the streets as he describes and even recognized some of the persons he mentioned, but It honestly was the first time I'd heard of these murders and unsolved cases. These events took place during my childhood. I'm ashamed to admit the disconnect I have had with Benton Harbor and the people who call it home. I appreciated Alex's persistence and determination to find justice for this family.
January 23, 2018
Caring, dogged investigation into an unexplained death and a swirl of race relations, without heroes or villains or answers. Reads like a mystery book with a sociology background.
April 10, 2025
Illuminating, gripping portrait of Benton Harbor and St Joseph's tumultuous relationship
July 3, 2022
would give 3.5 if i could. its a good book but it rly is just from the 90s. like i wouldn't say its like The book you Need to read on racism in 2022. but i appreciate how easy it reads and how he organizes it all around the people of the towns. he has an impressive amount of empathy for all of them.
August 4, 2011
Journalist Alex Kotlowitz comes to Benton Harbor, Michigan with the intention of examining one of America’s poorest and most violent communities. This changes, however, when Kotlowitz discovers that 16 year-old Eric McGinnis, a black boy from the impoverished town, was found floating in the river dissecting Benton Harbor and its predominately white and affluent neighbor, St. Joseph. Kotlowitz becomes obsessed with the death, one that was hastily ruled an accident. The author spends four years traveling between the two starkly different communities in an attempt to discover the truth behind Eric’s death. Kotlowitz learns that the notion of truth vastly differs as he crosses the bridge connecting each town. Benton Harbor residents know Eric was murdered, likely by a white person from St. Joseph. St. Joseph residents, however, would like to let the tragic event live in the past. Despite their differences, residents of both towns fear the potential for race riots and chaos if the truth about Eric’s death is ever discovered. This investigative story offers a bleak account of race relations and racial inequality in the United States. It also presents a gritty report of the senseless violence prevalent throughout impoverished communities. Despite its stark tone, this book reads quickly as its subject compels its reader to learn more about the mysterious and tragic death.
March 15, 2021
My daughter asked me about Benton Harbor in reference to a Half Ironman race. I laughed. My daughter is a world traveler. I said, "You can go any place in the world, WHY would you choose Benton Harbor?" She asked why I said that and with only a little hesitation I replied, "It's sort of a ghetto." "Well when you were you last there?" Again I hesitated to say "50 years ago". Since she was coming to visit, I remembered I had a book on Benton Harbor and pulled it from my shelves. I read THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER in March 1998 almost exactly 23 years ago. It is not a big book and so I decided I should read it before I give it to her in case she asks questions because I didn't remember too much. In the interim years I have become an avid watcher of British mysteries on TV so I am much more appreciative of the ways professionals solve the puzzles of dead bodies that are found in rivers. There is no Poirot or even Inspector Morse in this small town mystery that because it is the US and not Britain has a much more racial slant. Actually the race relations between the "Twin Cities" of St. Joseph (we locals called it St. Joe) and Benton Harbor (which I did hear my sister slur as Benton Harlem) is really what this book is about. In light of the George Floyd murder before our eyes last year and the BlackLivesMatter movement coming to the for, makes this book timely as a way to study race relations in a county that went mostly for Trump. Even in 1998 Kotlowitz told us the county is Republican except for the small enclave of Benton Harbor.
The book is about the dead body of a black teenage boy that turns up floating in the St. Joe River that is the border between the 2 towns. St. Joe is 92% white and Benton Harbor 92% black. (I am told by my sisters that the area along the lake where the Ironman will be run is now all big housing developments and lakefront mansions for the usual Chicagoans second homes so maybe the numbers on BH have changed. However what I am told is that Benton Harbor proper is still poor black residents with what in 1996-98 were 45% families receiving public assistance, 62% families headed by single women and the schools so destitute that the State was going to take them over.
This dead body turned up in 1991. The St. Joe police are in charge of the investigation and the head detective does appear to be a man who cares and wants to solve the mystery of why the kid ended up dead in the river. The author turns up a year later and ends up spending 4-5 years pursuing every lead and interviewing over 90 people trying to go beyond what the police did. Many of the residents of BH felt that Eric (the dead boy) had been killed by white people from St. Joe and the crime was being covered up by the police. The black mother of Eric wondered at times if Eric wasn't killed by black kids since drugs and gangs were rampant in the community. In 1994 BH had the "dubious distinction of having the highest murder rate in the country." In December-January 1996-97 there were 10 homicides in 12 days in a place that is little more than a village.
The beauty of the book I suppose is the way that Kotlowitz explores the social and emotional issues of race and small town life. It is heartbreaking to read of the black mother losing her only child and never getting real answers to what happened. The mother is a woman with white friends who works at a job in St. Joe. She wants to believe he wasn't killed by whites. It turns out she and the head detective whom she comes to fear isn't pursuing a conclusion as adamantly as he should but later comes to not really want to know, graduated in the same high school class from Benton Harbor High School. Both were class of 1966 when BH school district included Benton Township and had only 10-20% black students. The detective was the father of children the same age as Eric and felt the loss as hard as any parent would. He wanted to solve what happened to Eric.
Pretty much every one of the 90+ people interviewed had a different slant on what happened the night Eric ended up in the river. There is the possibility that he was trying to get back to BH and went over a railroad bridge and slipped and fell into the river. The St. Joe River as it meets Lake Michigan is lined with walls such that once in the river especially in the dark and with the water always a cold temperature, it would be very difficult to find a way to get out.
Kotlowitz brings these small town people alive for us in their struggles to get along and in the long time attitudes and situations that have shaped their community. I was especially taken by an article in Harper's Magazine in August 2020 by James Pogue about Kenosha, Wisconsin which is almost directly across Lake Michigan from St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Pogue was explaining what has shaped the politics of small town middle America. In February 2021 Atul Gawande does the same in regard to the Covid-19 situation in Minot, North Dakota. I spent 11 months in Minot in 1971 and I grew up in Southwestern Michigan so these are the people of my youth. I guess I am trying to understand what happened to them that they think so differently than those of us who fled to more liberal and global areas.
The editor of the newspaper based in St. Joe sent reporters and photographers into BH in 1996 at the time of all the murders knocking on doors for a series of stories about the impact of the town's crime and possible solutions. "It gave our readers a different perspective. It put a human face on it. What I hoped it would show is that there are a lot of good decent people living in Benton Harbor. They're scared. They want help. I think sometimes there's a perspective that everyone over there is a drug addict or a criminal."
Living together and getting along in this country is extremely difficult and yet perhaps by studying life in the USA from the vantage point of a small town or towns we can begin to see how our perceptions are formed and that there are things we will always share--the river both in its beauty and capability of claiming a life.
The book is about the dead body of a black teenage boy that turns up floating in the St. Joe River that is the border between the 2 towns. St. Joe is 92% white and Benton Harbor 92% black. (I am told by my sisters that the area along the lake where the Ironman will be run is now all big housing developments and lakefront mansions for the usual Chicagoans second homes so maybe the numbers on BH have changed. However what I am told is that Benton Harbor proper is still poor black residents with what in 1996-98 were 45% families receiving public assistance, 62% families headed by single women and the schools so destitute that the State was going to take them over.
This dead body turned up in 1991. The St. Joe police are in charge of the investigation and the head detective does appear to be a man who cares and wants to solve the mystery of why the kid ended up dead in the river. The author turns up a year later and ends up spending 4-5 years pursuing every lead and interviewing over 90 people trying to go beyond what the police did. Many of the residents of BH felt that Eric (the dead boy) had been killed by white people from St. Joe and the crime was being covered up by the police. The black mother of Eric wondered at times if Eric wasn't killed by black kids since drugs and gangs were rampant in the community. In 1994 BH had the "dubious distinction of having the highest murder rate in the country." In December-January 1996-97 there were 10 homicides in 12 days in a place that is little more than a village.
The beauty of the book I suppose is the way that Kotlowitz explores the social and emotional issues of race and small town life. It is heartbreaking to read of the black mother losing her only child and never getting real answers to what happened. The mother is a woman with white friends who works at a job in St. Joe. She wants to believe he wasn't killed by whites. It turns out she and the head detective whom she comes to fear isn't pursuing a conclusion as adamantly as he should but later comes to not really want to know, graduated in the same high school class from Benton Harbor High School. Both were class of 1966 when BH school district included Benton Township and had only 10-20% black students. The detective was the father of children the same age as Eric and felt the loss as hard as any parent would. He wanted to solve what happened to Eric.
Pretty much every one of the 90+ people interviewed had a different slant on what happened the night Eric ended up in the river. There is the possibility that he was trying to get back to BH and went over a railroad bridge and slipped and fell into the river. The St. Joe River as it meets Lake Michigan is lined with walls such that once in the river especially in the dark and with the water always a cold temperature, it would be very difficult to find a way to get out.
Kotlowitz brings these small town people alive for us in their struggles to get along and in the long time attitudes and situations that have shaped their community. I was especially taken by an article in Harper's Magazine in August 2020 by James Pogue about Kenosha, Wisconsin which is almost directly across Lake Michigan from St. Joe/Benton Harbor. Pogue was explaining what has shaped the politics of small town middle America. In February 2021 Atul Gawande does the same in regard to the Covid-19 situation in Minot, North Dakota. I spent 11 months in Minot in 1971 and I grew up in Southwestern Michigan so these are the people of my youth. I guess I am trying to understand what happened to them that they think so differently than those of us who fled to more liberal and global areas.
The editor of the newspaper based in St. Joe sent reporters and photographers into BH in 1996 at the time of all the murders knocking on doors for a series of stories about the impact of the town's crime and possible solutions. "It gave our readers a different perspective. It put a human face on it. What I hoped it would show is that there are a lot of good decent people living in Benton Harbor. They're scared. They want help. I think sometimes there's a perspective that everyone over there is a drug addict or a criminal."
Living together and getting along in this country is extremely difficult and yet perhaps by studying life in the USA from the vantage point of a small town or towns we can begin to see how our perceptions are formed and that there are things we will always share--the river both in its beauty and capability of claiming a life.
December 7, 2014
This book is based on an incident in the early 90's and the ensuing 4-5 years. Hopefully, some of the prejudices and race based issues have eased. However, perhaps not, given some of the current events in various parts of the country(I read this during the Ferguson, MO lootings, etc).
St. Joseph and Benton Harbor - "Twin Cities" of SW Michigan where I drive through or stop with some frequency. Was not aware of the racial "boundary" between the cities and the absolute extremes of prosperity and poverty that had existed for so long. An interesting study.
A black teenager from the nearly all Black community of Benton Harbor is found in the river in the 98% White St. Joe and the mystery of his death still remains - murder? or accidental ?
An investigative reporter probes a crime, the communities, the people involved and also dissects the history of the two communities.
Applicable to any part of the country, but certainly interesting for Michigan based info.
St. Joseph and Benton Harbor - "Twin Cities" of SW Michigan where I drive through or stop with some frequency. Was not aware of the racial "boundary" between the cities and the absolute extremes of prosperity and poverty that had existed for so long. An interesting study.
A black teenager from the nearly all Black community of Benton Harbor is found in the river in the 98% White St. Joe and the mystery of his death still remains - murder? or accidental ?
An investigative reporter probes a crime, the communities, the people involved and also dissects the history of the two communities.
Applicable to any part of the country, but certainly interesting for Michigan based info.
February 10, 2017
Author is fantastic, he writes about the way of life in St Joe and Benton Harbor and the differences of how crimes get settled depending on which town you live in. This story follows a crime that happened in one side of town for a person that belonged to another side. Great book on race relations in the 90s, not biased, very descriptive in terms of how people felt. Hard to believe it's not a fiction piece
November 13, 2008
Tabloid account of a black teenager drowning and the author dramatizing it into a racial issue because law enforcement and first reponders who "could have saved him" were white. Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan certainly have had their fair share of crime but deserve more credit than an outsider's blundering.
June 17, 2012
Tabloid account of a black teenager drowning and the author dramatizing it into a racial issue because law enforcement and first reponders who "could have saved him" were white. Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan certainly have had their fair share of crime but deserve more credit than an outsider's blundering.
January 8, 2015
Amazing how this was written almost 20 years ago and, sadly, all the race/socioeconomic issues are still very pertinent today.
September 30, 2016
It's startling how parts of the discourse in this book regarding race relations is still relevant twenty years later.
November 26, 2018
I remember the first time I read a true crime book. At the end of 300 or 400+ pages, it concluded, ". . . and we'll never know for sure if so-and-so killed her, as he maintains his innocence to this day."
What?! I read through that entire story just to NOT GET CLOSURE? That was the last time I read a true crime book.
This book is partly a true crime book, and partly a sociological study. Maybe a sociological study masquerading as a true crime book? Or the other way around? In any case, neither angle quite worked with me. In terms of solving the crime of Eric's death--well, this is real life, so you can't make up a fancy plot twist or solution.
The chapters jumped around in a way that I found jarring. I wasn't a fan of his flow, though I quite enjoyed his other book There Are No Children Here and highly recommend readers to seek out that work. If you're going to read one Kotlowitz book on race in the USA, let it be that one. Though the mystery angle fell flat on its face for me, this book had some interesting commentary on race relations that I was surprised to find in the 1990's. It's always worth re-examining society from a perspective not your own.
I think Kotlowitz opened up some eyes about the multifaceted nature of both St. Joseph (not the pristine, lovely haven you'd think) and Benton Harbor (bringing sympathy and understanding to the people of this city). What I found particularly interesting is that neither town's residents wanted to be a part of the other town. I would've thought that since their town with 12,000 residents recorded "twenty homicides, eighty shootings, fifty stabbings, and six hundred reports of shots fired" in a single year, that the Benton Harbor folks would be dreaming of St. Joseph. Not so. There are other dangers for them across the river.
A decent book, but not one that I'd read again, or really push on others, though I think it helped the residents of the Twin Cities to see the incident (and their reactions) typed up in black and white.True crime just isn't my genre.
What?! I read through that entire story just to NOT GET CLOSURE? That was the last time I read a true crime book.
This book is partly a true crime book, and partly a sociological study. Maybe a sociological study masquerading as a true crime book? Or the other way around? In any case, neither angle quite worked with me. In terms of solving the crime of Eric's death--well, this is real life, so you can't make up a fancy plot twist or solution.
Many of those [adolescents] interviewed had no sense of time. What one said happened a week ago had really happened a month ago. They'd pass on rumor as if it were fact. And a few claimed to know more than they did (sometimes they knew nothing), while all they wanted was attention, to know that someone, in this case Reeves, depended on them. Reeves because so frustrated at one point that he considered bringing in a psychic. (p.209)Despite the years of investigative work that Kotlowitz put into this mystery, his hands were pretty tied by limited and/or conflicting evidence, and a subpar autopsy. Nevertheless, I kept hoping--despite all contrary evidence along the way--that something more would come out of the how-did-Eric-die angle. Sigh.
The chapters jumped around in a way that I found jarring. I wasn't a fan of his flow, though I quite enjoyed his other book There Are No Children Here and highly recommend readers to seek out that work. If you're going to read one Kotlowitz book on race in the USA, let it be that one. Though the mystery angle fell flat on its face for me, this book had some interesting commentary on race relations that I was surprised to find in the 1990's. It's always worth re-examining society from a perspective not your own.
I think Kotlowitz opened up some eyes about the multifaceted nature of both St. Joseph (not the pristine, lovely haven you'd think) and Benton Harbor (bringing sympathy and understanding to the people of this city). What I found particularly interesting is that neither town's residents wanted to be a part of the other town. I would've thought that since their town with 12,000 residents recorded "twenty homicides, eighty shootings, fifty stabbings, and six hundred reports of shots fired" in a single year, that the Benton Harbor folks would be dreaming of St. Joseph. Not so. There are other dangers for them across the river.
"Race relations in the last days of this century, I came to realize, was a tale short of victors." (p.149)
He gently asked whether I'd ever observed an autopsy before. I told him no. "You want a piece of advice?" he asked. "Don't stare. Just glance." He didn't have to do much convincing. . . . I was still just glancing, so the procedure took on the jerkiness of a 1920s motion picture. I missed some frames. (pp.238-9)
For these two towns, Eric has come to mark the divide, a reference point. To those in St. Joseph, Eric's death is proof that race blinds their neighbors to the obvious. To those in Benton Harbor, it is proof that because of race even the obvious is never what it seems. (p.307)
A decent book, but not one that I'd read again, or really push on others, though I think it helped the residents of the Twin Cities to see the incident (and their reactions) typed up in black and white.True crime just isn't my genre.
May 19, 2021
At the close of this book, it had been six years since the mysterious death of Eric McGinnis. He was a black boy found floating in the St Joseph River in Southwest Michigan. The best speculation that could be told was that he danced with a white girl and a white man chased him and again speculation, pushed him into the river. Ruth, the mother never got answers for what really happened and no one was ever arrested for his murder.
The author not only covered the investigation into Eric’s murder but also several other solved murders in St Joseph, Benton Harbor areas. With Benton Harbor being 92% black and St Joseph being 95% white, there always seemed to be racial tension. The young black boys were afraid to go to St Joseph after dark and the black women were afraid to go to St Joseph to shop because they were always watched carefully and the owners made remarks, such as “You are new here, right?”
On the other hand, Benton Harbor is shunned by residents of St Joseph. They tell their kids not to venture in because of drugs and gangs. They feel Benton Harbor is an embarrassment. In 1989, Money magazine anointed the Benton Harbor area, which includes St Joseph, the worst place to live in the nation. Everyone, of course, blamed Benton Harbor.
The history of Benton Harbor is that the blacks moved there from Indiana and Illinois because Michigan was very generous with welfare benefits. In the 1960s and 1970s, a combination of forces drained all the town of its prosperity, global competition killed off many foundries and auto parts stores. During this time, the white residents fled, like geese flying south. When the church moved across the river it was said that even God flew the black tide by crossing the river.
The two areas of Benton Harbor and St Joseph are physically and spiritually isolated from each other. Folks easily fall on one side or the other, watching for their own. Eric’s death drove another wedge between the communities.
If you google "What really happened to Eric McGinnis?", you will see that it is now 30 years and they still don't have a suspect.
The author not only covered the investigation into Eric’s murder but also several other solved murders in St Joseph, Benton Harbor areas. With Benton Harbor being 92% black and St Joseph being 95% white, there always seemed to be racial tension. The young black boys were afraid to go to St Joseph after dark and the black women were afraid to go to St Joseph to shop because they were always watched carefully and the owners made remarks, such as “You are new here, right?”
On the other hand, Benton Harbor is shunned by residents of St Joseph. They tell their kids not to venture in because of drugs and gangs. They feel Benton Harbor is an embarrassment. In 1989, Money magazine anointed the Benton Harbor area, which includes St Joseph, the worst place to live in the nation. Everyone, of course, blamed Benton Harbor.
The history of Benton Harbor is that the blacks moved there from Indiana and Illinois because Michigan was very generous with welfare benefits. In the 1960s and 1970s, a combination of forces drained all the town of its prosperity, global competition killed off many foundries and auto parts stores. During this time, the white residents fled, like geese flying south. When the church moved across the river it was said that even God flew the black tide by crossing the river.
The two areas of Benton Harbor and St Joseph are physically and spiritually isolated from each other. Folks easily fall on one side or the other, watching for their own. Eric’s death drove another wedge between the communities.
If you google "What really happened to Eric McGinnis?", you will see that it is now 30 years and they still don't have a suspect.
January 14, 2023
This book was super frustrating because it took place in my hometown and the neighboring town, and was all about the racial tensions between the two. I moved here in 2004 and grew up here, so I'm not blind to the fact that St. Joseph and Benton Harbor are made up of two completely different demographics. What I didn't know was how tense things used to be in the 80s and 90s. Even now, Benton Harbor still gets a bad rap for all the criminal activity, but I would like to think the racial tension between the two towns has diffused a little bit. For the story itself, I would have given the book five stars, because it taught me a lot and was super informational about how my city was developed.
On the other hand, I did not appreciate the writing. The author seemed to be using big words just because he could, which muddled the story a lot. He also went back and forth on the timeline a lot, which led to a lot of confusion while reading. It would have been nice if there was a timeline of events in the back of the book so it was easier to keep track of what happened when. There was also a lot of unnecessary information in the book. I didn't really need to know about some of the unrelated deaths or crimes that happened during the time Kotlowitz was writing the book. I hesitate to recommend this book to people, even my hometown friends, because of how confusing the writing is.
After I started reading the book, my mom informed me that the murderer had recently been caught. With that information, I wish the book had been written more recently than 1997. I wish that the story will be revisted now (not by the same author I hope), so we can get the full story. I'm now gonna go read the recent articles about the case and hope I can piece together how everyone mentioned in the book was involved.
On the other hand, I did not appreciate the writing. The author seemed to be using big words just because he could, which muddled the story a lot. He also went back and forth on the timeline a lot, which led to a lot of confusion while reading. It would have been nice if there was a timeline of events in the back of the book so it was easier to keep track of what happened when. There was also a lot of unnecessary information in the book. I didn't really need to know about some of the unrelated deaths or crimes that happened during the time Kotlowitz was writing the book. I hesitate to recommend this book to people, even my hometown friends, because of how confusing the writing is.
After I started reading the book, my mom informed me that the murderer had recently been caught. With that information, I wish the book had been written more recently than 1997. I wish that the story will be revisted now (not by the same author I hope), so we can get the full story. I'm now gonna go read the recent articles about the case and hope I can piece together how everyone mentioned in the book was involved.
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