A Shot in the Moonlight

How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South

By: Ben Montgomery

Narrated by: Zeno Robinson, Ben Montgomery

Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

The sensational true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, who in 1899 joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice in the Jim Crow South.

“Taut and tense. Inspiring and terrifying in its timelessness.” (Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad)

After moonrise on the cold night of January 21, 1897, a mob of 25 White men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in Southwestern Simpson County, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns, and a few tucked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning, a freed slave who'd farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years and who had been wrongfully accused of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began firing through the doors and windows of Dinning's home, he fired back in self-defense, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.

So began one of the strangest legal episodes in American history - one that ended with Dinning becoming the first Black man in America to win damages after a wrongful murder conviction.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery resurrects this dramatic but largely forgotten story and the unusual convergence of characters - among them a Confederate war hero-turned-lawyer named Bennett H. Young, Kentucky Governor William O'Connell Bradley, and George Dinning himself - that allowed this unlikely story of justice to unfold in a time and place where justice was all too rare. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2010 Ben Montgomery (P)2021 Little, Brown & Company

Critic Reviews

“True racial reconciliation requires that America take a hard and honest look at its past, and, to that end, A Shot in the Moonlight is essential reading. Ben Montgomery brings his considerable skills as a writer and reporter to the story of George Dinning, a Black man who somehow survived vigilante violence and found justice in 1897 Kentucky. More broadly, in his elegant narrative, Montgomery lays bare the horrors and indignities of the Jim Crow era that remain foundational to the pain of today.” (Tim Madigan, author of The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921)

"Ben Montgomery's A Shot in the Moonlight is a meticulously reported account that resurrects a remarkable story of race and justice that had been largely lost to history. Like so many Black Americans throughout our nation's history, George Dinning demanded justice. Unlike so many others, and after a strenuous battle that Montgomery expertly documents, he was ultimately able to secure it." (Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement)

"Ben Montgomery has unearthed and vigorously reported the traumatic and important story of a Black man who had the courage to shoot back. His storytelling and attention to time, context, and detail is nothing short of mesmerizing. This is the feat of one of the best nonfiction writers in the world today. A Shot in Moonlight is a challenge, a triumph." (RJ Young, author of Let It Bang: A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns)