The Lynching of Ladies

About the Book

The Lynching of Ladies is the first in a trilogy of memoirs about two best friends. After experiencing one traumatic experience after another, one dresses herself in tenacity and perseverance and the other in self-loathing and defeat. These ladies experience social, emotional, and physical lynchings throughout their young lives. When Casey tells Arianna, “Men go off to war, women go off to men—there are casualties in both,” a turning point begins. Both carry the broken pieces of their adolescence into adulthood, with disastrous results . . . until one day a healthy dose of self-esteem saves one of them in a life-altering way. These events do not happen without much wit and laughter. It is written for women who want to stop being the victim and become the victor. This is a self-help primer for women all over the world, regardless of social station or economic background. It is written to help stop “the lynching of ladies!” None of this happens without much wit and laughter.

About the Author

Ms. Jo Ann Poole Mason is the fourth child of six, the product of the love between Walter and Helen Poole. She was born on Valentine’s Day, 1953. She received her masters and bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University in the early seventies. She was told by her white professor that black girls don’t major in English at a major, big top ten university and that she should go back to Gary, Indiana, and marry a steel-mill worker. She called her dad, crying, and told him. “What does this man look like?” he asked. She described him, and her father said, “Doesn’t sound like Jesus to me!” and hung up on her. She knew he left her one option: to stay and finish. And she did, with English honors, the only minority in any of her courses. At one time, there were four of the six Poole children on Bloomington’s campus, at the same time pursing their higher education. The value their parents placed on education netting over twelve college degrees from their offspring. Pretty darn good for two people who used to pick cotton! Ms. Mason was first African American deputy commander in Germany. She was Woman of Year and awarded the Command Civilian Award for Valor. She is the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Award, Joint Meritorious Award, Hidden Hero Award, Air Force Angel Award. Ms. Mason speaks four foreign languages to include Spanish, French, German, and Korean. She has lived in England, Korea, and Germany (2).