Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America is a 2012 nonfiction book by the American author Gilbert King.

It is a history of the attorney Thurgood Marshall's defense of four young black men in Lake County, Florida, who were accused in 1949 of raping a white woman.

Thurgood Marshall, known as "Mr. Civil Rights" and one of the most important American lawyers of the 20th century, entered the fray and represented the suspects for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan came to town, burned the homes of blacks to the ground, and chased hundreds into the swamps, as they were intent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys."

"[5] In addition to being named to several "Best Books of 2012" lists by newspapers such as The Christian Science Monitor and The Boston Globe, Devil in the Grove was nominated in 2013 for the Chautauqua Prize[6] and an Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.

[citation needed] The Christian Science Monitor noted that "King's style, at once suspenseful and historically meticulous, advances the facts of the Groveland case while simultaneously weaving together details from Marshall's professional rise within the NAACP and his home life in Harlem ... Devil is a compelling look at the case that forged Thurgood Marshall's perception of himself as a crusader for civil rights ...