Cora Mae and the Atlanta Ripper
Set in Jim Crow-era Atlanta from 1911-1915, this novel follows Cora Mae Johnson, a young Black seamstress whose life is forever changed when a serial killer begins targeting women in her community. Through Cora Mae's eyes, we witness the terror that grips Sweet Auburn as the "Atlanta Ripper" claims twenty-one victims while police prove indifferent to crimes against Black women.
As bodies accumulate and false arrests are made, Cora Mae and her neighbors organize elaborate protection networks-walking groups, escort services, and early business closures-transforming their thriving community into a fortress. The killer's campaign spans two waves of murders separated by three years of silence, during which many residents fled north as part of the Great Migration.
The novel explores how systematic violence shaped one of the largest movements of people in American history. When the Atlanta Ripper finally falls silent in 1915, he leaves behind not just grief, but a diaspora of survivors who carry their trauma and resilience to Northern cities.
Ultimately moving to Chicago herself, Cora Mae becomes a chronicler of this untold history, ensuring the twenty-one victims are remembered not as statistics but as full human beings whose deaths helped catalyze the transformation of American society. The story reveals how communities can survive even systematic attempts to destroy them.
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