Deaths of Civil Rights Workers

[John Simkin]

I thought it might be worth starting a thread on Civil Rights workers who were murdered during the struggle during the 1950s and 1960s.

This includes James Reeb. A Unitarian minister, Reeb was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and took part in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in 1965. While in Selma on 8th March, Reeb was attacked by white mob with clubs. Reeb, who suffered massive head injuries, died in hospital two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAreeb.htm

[John Simkin]

The white racists also murdered women civil rights workers.

Viola Fauver was born in Pennsylvania on 11th April, 1925. As a child, Viola lived in Tennessee and Georgia. After an unsuccessful marriage and the birth of two children, Viola married Anthony J. Liuzzo, a Teamster Union official from Detroit. Viola had three more children and at the age of 36 she resumed her education at Wayne State University. After graduating with top honors Viola became a medical lab technician.

A member of the NAACP, Viola decided to take part in the Selma to Montgomery March on 25th March, 1965, where Martin Luther King led 25,000 people to the Alabama State Capitol and handed a petition to Governor George Wallace, demanding voting rights for African Americans. After the demonstration had finished, Viola volunteered to help drive marchers back to Montgomery Airport. Leroy Moton, a young African American, offered to work as her co-driver.

On the way back from one of these trips to the airport, Viola and Leroy, were passed by a car carrying four members of the Ku Klux Klan from Birmingham. When they saw a white woman and black man in the car together, they immediately knew that they had both been taking part in the civil rights demonstration at Montgomery. The men decided to kill them and after driving alongside Viola's car, one of the men, Collie Wilkins, put his arm out of the window, and fired his gun. Viola Liuzzo was hit in the head twice and died instantly. Leroy was uninjured and was able to get the car under control before it crashed.

The four men in the car, Collie Wilkins (21), Gary Rowe (34), William Eaton (41) and Eugene Thomas (42) were quickly arrested. Rowe, an FBI undercover agent, testifed against the other three men. In an attempt to prejudice the case, rumours began to circulate that Viola was a member of the Communist Party and had abandoned her five children in order to have sexual relationships with African Americans involved in the civil rights movement. It was later discovered that these highly damaging stories that appeared in the press had come from the FBI.

Despite Rowe's testimony, the three members of the Ku Klux Klan were acquitted of murder by an Alabama jury. President Lyndon Johnson, instructed his officials to arrange for the men to be charged under an 1870 federal law of conspiring to deprive Viola Liuzzo of her civil rights. Wilkins, Eaton and Thomas were found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAliuzzo.htm

[William Kelly]

The last US Congress considered a new law that would create a special Federal Task Force to investigate unsolved civil rights murders of the 50s-60s & 70s.

In the past decade or so, the killers of Medgar Evers (1963), Birmingham church bombers and Philadelphia, Miss. civil rights worker killers have been brought to justice by local authorities, without federal assistance.

While the law had much support, I don't know if it was passed by both House and Senate, before time ran out. I will check. If it was not passed, it will most certainly be reintroduced.

Of course, JFK's murder could fit into that category as well.

BK

[John Simkin]

Samuel Younge was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on 17th November, 1944. He became active in the civil rights movement while a student of the Tuskegee Institute.

In the winter of 1966, Younge was working as a vote registration volunteer at the Macon County courthouse. On 3rd January, Younge stopped at a service station to buy some cigarettes and use the toilet. When Younge discovered that African Americans did not use the same facilities as whites, he complained to the owner, Marvin Segrest. During the argument that took place about the Jim Crow facilities, Segrest picked up his gun and shot him dead.

Younge was the fifth civil rights worker who had been killed in Alabama in 12 months. After a protest march organised by students at the Tuskegee Institute, Segrest was arrested and charged with murder. At the end of his trial, an all-white jury found Segrest not guilty of murder.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAyounge.htm

[John Simkin]

Jonathan Daniels was born in Keene, New Hampshire, on 20th March, 1939. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute and Harvard University, Daniels entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson in February, 1965, Daniels responded to the plea of Martin Luther King to join the voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama. He attended the Selma to Montgomery protest march and remained in the area working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Lowndes County.

On 20th August, 1965, Daniels was with another white man, the Reverend Richard Morrisroe, and two African American women in Hayneville, Alabama. The group were asked to leave when they entered a store to buy soft drinks. When Daniels complained about this decision, the white store-owner, Tom Coleman, shot him dead. Morrisroe was also shot by Coleman but he recovered from his wounds. Six weeks after the shooting, an all-white jury found Coleman not guilty of murder.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACdaniels.htm

[Michael Hogan]

I thought it might be worth starting a thread on Civil Rights workers who were murdered during the struggle during the 1950s and 1960s.

Some, but not all of the names below were Civil Rights workers. The Memorial was designed by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

From the Civil Rights Memorial

Southern Poverty Law Center

http://www.splcenter.org/

On the Civil Rights Memorial are inscribed the names of individuals who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom during the modern civil rights movement 1954 to 1968. Between the first and last entries is a space that represents civil rights heroes who died before or after this period and others whose stories were not known when the Memorial was created. The martyrs include those who were targeted for death because of their civil rights activities; those who were random victims of vigilantes determined to halt the movement; and those who, in the sacrifice of their own lives, brought a new awareness of the struggle to people all over the world.

May 7, 1955 Belzoni, Mississippi

REV. GEORGE WESLEY LEE, an NAACP leader and one of the first black people registered to vote in Humphreys County, used his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. White officials offered Lee protection on the condition he remove his name from the list of registered voters and end his voter registration efforts, but Lee refused and was murdered.

August 13, 1955 Brookhaven, Mississippi

LAMAR SMITH was shot dead on the courthouse lawn by a white man in broad daylight while dozens of people watched. The killer was never indicted because no one would admit they saw a white man shoot a black man. Smith had organized blacks to vote in a recent election.

August 28, 1955 Money, Mississippi

EMMETT LOUIS TILL, a 14-year-old boy on vacation from Chicago, reportedly flirted with a white woman in a store. That night, two men took Till from his bed, beat him, shot him, and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River. An all-white jury found the men innocent of murder.

October 22, 1955 Mayflower, Texas

JOHN EARL REESE, 16, was dancing in a cafe when white men fired shots into the windows. Reese was killed and two others were wounded. The shootings were part of an attempt by whites to terrorize blacks into giving up plans for a new school.

January 23, 1957 Montgomery, Alabama

WILLIE EDWARDS JR., a truck driver, was on his way to work when he was stopped by four Klansmen. The men thought Edwards was another man who they believed was dating a white woman. They forced Edwards at gunpoint to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River. Edwards' body was found three months later.

April 25, 1959 Poplarville, Mississippi

MACK CHARLES PARKER, 23, was accused of raping a white woman. Three days before hls case was set for trial, a masked mob took him from his jail cell/ beat him, shot him, and threw him in the Pearl River.

September 25, 1961 Liberty, Mississippi

HERBERT LEE, who worked with civil rights leader Bob Moses to help register black voters, was killed bya state legislator who claimed self-defense and was never arrested. Louis Allen, a black man who witnessed the murder, was later also killed.

April 23, 1963 Attalla, Alabama

WILLIAM LEWIS MOORE, a postman from Baltimore and CORE activist, was shot and killed during a one-man march against segregation. Moore had planned to deliver a letter to the governor of Mississippi urging an end to intolerance.

June 12, 1963 Jackson, Mississippi

MEDGAR EVERS, who directed naacp operations in Mississippi, was leading a campaign for integration in Jackson when he was shot and killed by a sniper at his home.

September 15th, 1963 Birmingham Alabama

ADDlE MAE COLLINS, DENISE McNAIR, CAROLE ROBERTSON and CYNTHIA WESLEY were getting ready for church services when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing all four of the school- age girls. The church had been a center for civil rights meetings and marches.

September 15, 1963 Birmingham, Alabama

VIRGIL LAMAR WARE, 13, was riding on the handlebars of his brother's bicycle when he was fatally shot by white teen-agers. The white youths had come from a segregationist rally held in the aftermath of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.

January 31, 1964 Liberty, Mississippi

LOUIS ALLEN, who witnessed the murder of civil rights worker Herbert Lee, endured years of threats, jailings and harassment. He was making final arrange- ments to move North on the day he was killed.

March 23, 1964 Jacksonville, Florida

JOHNNIE MAE CHAPPELL, who cleaned houses to help support her family, was shot by four white men as she searched for a lost wallet along a roadside. The murder occurred during an outbreak of racial violence in downtown Jacksonville. Her story was not known when the Memorial was dedicated.

Apri17, 1964 Cleveland, Ohio

REV. BRUCE KLUNDER was among civil rights activists who protested the building of a segregated school by placing their bodies in the way of construction equipment. Klunder was crushed to death when a bulldozer backed over him.

May 2, 1964 Meadville, Mississippi

HENRY HEZEKIAH DEE and CHARLES EDDIE MOORE were killed by Klansmen who believed the two were part of a plot to arm blacks in the area. (There was no such plot.) Their bodies were found during a massive search for the missing civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.

June 21, 1964 Philadelphia, Mississippi

JAMES EARL CHANEY, ANDREW GOODMAN, and MICHAEL HENRY SCHWERNER, young civil rights workers, were arrested bya deputy sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who had plotted their murders. They were shot, and their bodies were buried in an earthen dam.

July 11, 1964 Colbert, Georgia

Lt. Col. LEMUEL PENN, a Washington, D.C., educator, was driving home from U.S. Army Reserves training when he was shot and killed by Klansmen in a passing car.

February 26, 1965 Marion, Alabama

JIMMIE LEE JACKSON was beaten and shot by state troopers as he tried to protect his grandfather and mother from a trooper attack on civil rights marchers. His death led to the Selma-Montgomery march and the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act.

March 11, 1965 Selma, Alabama

REV. JAMES REEB, a Unitarian minister from Boston, was among many white clergymen who joined the Selma marchers after the attack by state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Reeb was beaten to death by white men while he walked down a Selma street.

March 25, 1965 Selma Highway, Alabama

VIOLA GREGG LlUZZO, a housewife and mother from Detroit, drove alone to Alabama to help with the Selma march after seeing televised reports of the attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She was driving marchers back to Selma from Montgomery when she was shot and killed bya Klansmen in a passing car.

June 2, 1965 Bogalusa, Louisiana

ONEAL MOORE was one of two black deputies hired by white officials in an attempt to appease civil rights demands. Moore and his partner Creed Rogers were on patrol when they were blasted with gunfire from a passing car. Moore was killed and Rogers was wounded.

July 18, 1965 Anniston, Alabama

WILLIE BREWSTER was on his way home from work when he was shot and killed by white men. The men belonged to the National States Rights Party, a violent neo-Nazi group whose members had been involved in church bombings and murders of blacks.

August 20,1965 Hayneville, Alabama

JONATHAN MYRICK DANIELS, an Episcopal Seminary student in Boston, had come to Alabama to help with black voter registration in Lowndes County. He was arrested at a demonstration, jailed in Hayneville and then suddenly released. Moments after his release, he was shot to death bya deputy sheriff.

January 3,1966 Tuskegee, Alabama

SAMUEL LEAMON YOUNGE JR., a student civil rights activist, was fatally shot by a white gas station owner following an argument over segregated rest rooms.

January 10, 1966 Hattiesburg, Mississippi

VERNON FERDINAND DAHMER, a wealthy businessman, offered to pay poll taxes for those who couldn't afford the fee required to vote. The night after a radio station broadcasted Dahmer's offer, his home was firebombed. Dahmer died later from severe burns.

July 10, 1966 Natchez, Mississippi

BEN CHESTER WHITE, who had worked most of his life as a caretaker on a plantation, had no involvement in civil rights work. He was murdered by Klans- men who thought they could divert attention from a civil rights march by killing a black person.

July 30, 1966 Bogalusa, Louisiana

CLARENCE TRIGGS was a bricklayer who had attended civil rights meetings sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He was found dead on a roadside, shot through the head.

February 27, 1967 Natchez, Mississippi

WHARLEST JACKSON, the treasurer of his local NAACP chapter, was one of many blacks who received threatening Klan notices at his job. After Jackson was promoted to a position previously reserved for whites, a bomb was planted in his car. It exploded minutes after he left work one day, killing him instantly.

May 12, 1967 Jackson, Mississippi

BENJAMIN BROWN, a former civil rights organizer, was watching a student protest from the sidelines when he was hit by stray gunshots from police who fired into the crowd.

February 8, 1968 Orangeburg, South Carolina

SAMUEL EPHESIANS HAMMOND JR., DELANO HERMAN MIDDLETON and HENRY EZEKIAL SMITH were shot and killed by police who fired on student demonstrators at the South Carolina State College campus.

April 4, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., a Baptist minister, was a major architect of the civil rights movement. He led and inspired major non- violent desegregation campaigns, including those in Montgomery and Birmingham. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated as he prepared to lead a demonstration in Memphis.

[William Kelly]

OKAY, Now here's something you can support that would do something about it. Chris Dodd served on HSCA and is running for President. -BK

Bill would reopen thousands of unsolved Civil Rights-era criminal cases

February 8, 2007

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representatives John Lewis (D-GA) and Hulshof (R-MO) today reintroduced legislation which would give the Department of Justice and the FBI the ability to reopen Civil Rights-era criminal cases which have gone cold. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was named after teenager Emmett Till who was murdered and mutilated while on a summer vacation in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Public outrage surrounding the case helped to propel the inception of the modern-day Civil Rights movement in America.

In many states there are still similar unsolved Civil Rights crimes on the books. In 1946, a pregnant African American woman and her husband driving through Monroe, Georgia were forced from their car by a mob. They were dragged 50 yards down a wagon trail and shot while a crowd of 200 people watched. No one was ever charged for these crimes. Recently, the Georgia Association of Black Public Officials urged prosecutors to bring charges in the case.

"It is critically important that we work to right the wrongs of the past and bring to justice the people who perpetrated heinous crimes based solely on racial hatred," said Sen. Dodd, who introduced a similar bill last Congress. "While we cannot bring back and make whole those who suffered and died at the hands of racists, we can at least reaffirm our nation's commitment to seek the truth and work to make equal justice a reality."

"By shedding light on unsolved civil rights era murders, this bill takes great strides toward ending our nation's 'quiet game' on civil rights murders. Justice is better served by allowing our nation to acknowledge past wrongs, including wrongs aided by lax law enforcement," said Leahy, who serves as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "There is no place for racial violence or political terrorism in a democracy. We must rededicate ourselves to protecting the full human equality of all Americans. We start today with this bill that will ensure we do not let the guilty go unpunished or justice be denied.

"These unsolved murders leave a stain on the integrity of the judicial system in America," said Rep. John Lewis who was also an original co-sponsor of the first bill and has pushed for reintroduction in this Congress. "The credibility of the government is in question here. These lingering unsolved cases lead African Americans and other citizens to wonder whether this nation is truly committed to justice or whether there are times when we find it convenient to look the other way. That is why it is so important to bring this chapter of our dark past to a close."

"It is appropriate that we allocate the necessary resources to make sure that justice is served," stated Rep. Hulshof. "As a former prosecutor, I believe we must give law enforcement the necessary tools to aggressively seek those who have committed these crimes, regardless of the time that has passed."

The bill has 57 bi-partisan co-sponsors in the House at last count. It would create an Unsolved Crimes Section within the Department of Justice, an Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Investigative Office within the FBI, and strengthen coordinated efforts between federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and prosecutors to bring these long-time fugitives to justice. Both offices will focus on prosecuting cases that occurred prior to 1970 and resulted in the death of the victims that still remain unsolved. The bill requires annual reporting to Congress on the progress made in these cases and authorizes $11.5 million in annual appropriations to fund these new services. The Emmet Till Act also provides funding for a Community Relations Service within the DOJ to work with local communities to solve these crimes.

Edited February 24, 2007 by William Kelly

[John Simkin]

April 23, 1963 Attalla, Alabama

WILLIAM LEWIS MOORE, a postman from Baltimore and CORE activist, was shot and killed during a one-man march against segregation. Moore had planned to deliver a letter to the governor of Mississippi urging an end to intolerance.

Harry Moore was born in Houston, Florida, on 18th November, 1905. After the death of his father in 1914 Moore was sent to live with his mother's sister in Daytona Beach. The following year he moved to Jacksonville where he lived with another of his aunts, Jessie Tyson.

In 1919 Moore began his studies at the Florida Memorial College. After graduating he became a schoolteacher in Cocoa, Florida. He later became principal of Titusville Colored School in Brevard County.

Moore established the Brevard County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in 1934. With the support of the NAACP attorney, Thurgood Marshall, Moore led the campaign to obtain equal pay for African Americans working in Florida's schools. Moore also began organizing protests against lynching in Florida.

In 1944 he formed the Florida Progressive Voters League which succeeded in tripling the enrollment of registered black voters. By the end of the Second World War over 116,000 black voters were registered in the Florida Democratic Party. This represented 31 per cent of all eligible black voters in the state, a figure that was 51 per cent higher than any other southern state.

Moore's successful campaigns had made him unpopular with powerful political figures in Florida and in June 1946 he was dismissed from his teaching job. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People responded by appointing Moore as its organizer in Florida. Moore was a great success in this role and by 1948 the NAACP had over 10,000 members in Florida.

In 1949 Moore organized the campaign against the wrongful conviction of three African Americans for the rape of a white woman in Groveland, Florida. Two years later, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Soon afterwards, Sheriff Willis McCall of Lake County, shot two of the men while in his custody. One was killed and other man was seriously wounded.

After the shooting Moore called for the McCall's suspension. A month later, on 25th December, 1951, a bomb exploded in Moore's house killing him and his wife. Although members of the Ku Klux Klan were suspected of the crime, the people responsible were never brought to trial.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmooreH.htm

[John Geraghty]

OKAY, Now here's something you can support that would do something about it. Chris Dodd served on HSCA and is running for President. -BK

Bill would reopen thousands of unsolved Civil Rights-era criminal cases

February 8, 2007

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representatives John Lewis (D-GA) and Hulshof (R-MO) today reintroduced legislation which would give the Department of Justice and the FBI the ability to reopen Civil Rights-era criminal cases which have gone cold. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was named after teenager Emmett Till who was murdered and mutilated while on a summer vacation in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Public outrage surrounding the case helped to propel the inception of the modern-day Civil Rights movement in America.

In many states there are still similar unsolved Civil Rights crimes on the books. In 1946, a pregnant African American woman and her husband driving through Monroe, Georgia were forced from their car by a mob. They were dragged 50 yards down a wagon trail and shot while a crowd of 200 people watched. No one was ever charged for these crimes. Recently, the Georgia Association of Black Public Officials urged prosecutors to bring charges in the case.

"It is critically important that we work to right the wrongs of the past and bring to justice the people who perpetrated heinous crimes based solely on racial hatred," said Sen. Dodd, who introduced a similar bill last Congress. "While we cannot bring back and make whole those who suffered and died at the hands of racists, we can at least reaffirm our nation's commitment to seek the truth and work to make equal justice a reality."

"By shedding light on unsolved civil rights era murders, this bill takes great strides toward ending our nation's 'quiet game' on civil rights murders. Justice is better served by allowing our nation to acknowledge past wrongs, including wrongs aided by lax law enforcement," said Leahy, who serves as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "There is no place for racial violence or political terrorism in a democracy. We must rededicate ourselves to protecting the full human equality of all Americans. We start today with this bill that will ensure we do not let the guilty go unpunished or justice be denied.

"These unsolved murders leave a stain on the integrity of the judicial system in America," said Rep. John Lewis who was also an original co-sponsor of the first bill and has pushed for reintroduction in this Congress. "The credibility of the government is in question here. These lingering unsolved cases lead African Americans and other citizens to wonder whether this nation is truly committed to justice or whether there are times when we find it convenient to look the other way. That is why it is so important to bring this chapter of our dark past to a close."

"It is appropriate that we allocate the necessary resources to make sure that justice is served," stated Rep. Hulshof. "As a former prosecutor, I believe we must give law enforcement the necessary tools to aggressively seek those who have committed these crimes, regardless of the time that has passed."

The bill has 57 bi-partisan co-sponsors in the House at last count. It would create an Unsolved Crimes Section within the Department of Justice, an Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Investigative Office within the FBI, and strengthen coordinated efforts between federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and prosecutors to bring these long-time fugitives to justice. Both offices will focus on prosecuting cases that occurred prior to 1970 and resulted in the death of the victims that still remain unsolved. The bill requires annual reporting to Congress on the progress made in these cases and authorizes $11.5 million in annual appropriations to fund these new services. The Emmet Till Act also provides funding for a Community Relations Service within the DOJ to work with local communities to solve these crimes.

Bill,

That indeed is something I could support, but he doesn't seem to want to withdraw from Iraq any time soon. That would lose him a lot of Dem votes, but perhaps pick him up some republican ones if Giuiliani was to get the nom. On the other hand, you won't get a statement of support on something as specific as this from either Clinton or Obama, so he seems to be the best thing to go on in presidential terms..

John

[John Simkin]

February 26, 1965 Marion, Alabama

JIMMIE LEE JACKSON was beaten and shot by state troopers as he tried to protect his grandfather and mother from a trooper attack on civil rights marchers. His death led to the Selma-Montgomery march and the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Jimmy Lee Jackson was born in Marion, Alabama, in December 1938. A farm labour and church deacon, Jackson was active in the civil rights movement.

On 18th February, 1965, Jackson, his mother, Viola Jackson, and grandfather, eighty-two year old Cager Lee Jackson, took part in a protest demonstration led by Reverend C. T. Vivian in favour of African American voter registration. The marchers were attacked by state troopers and both Jackson's mother and grandfather were hit with billy clubs. When Jackson went to help them he was shot in the stomach by a state trooper. Jackson was arrested and charged with assault and battery before being taken to hospital.

Jimmie Lee Jackson died of his wounds on 26th February, 1965, at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. After Jackson's death the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) decided to hold the Selma to Montgomery protest march in March, 1965.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAjacksonJL.htm

[William Kelly]

OKAY, Now here's something you can support that would do something about it. Chris Dodd served on HSCA and is running for President. -BK

Bill,

That indeed is something I could support, but he doesn't seem to want to withdraw from Iraq any time soon. That would lose him a lot of Dem votes, but perhaps pick him up some republican ones if Giuiliani was to get the nom. On the other hand, you won't get a statement of support on something as specific as this from either Clinton or Obama, so he seems to be the best thing to go on in presidential terms..

John

Hi John,

I'm not endorsing Dodd for President, just saying that the E. Till Bill is certainly worthwhile supporting, but there's a reason it didn't get past in the last congress, and I don't know what the opposition is, other than from the Southern racists murderers who got away with it.

A half-dozen major civil rights murders of the 50s and 60s - Medgar Evers, Phila. Miss., York, Pa., and Birmingham church bomb killers have been brought to justice without federal assistance, so this belated effort is almost too late to really do anything except wrap up the cases that went unattended.

As for the Democratic presidential nomination, I think Hill and O will sock it out and a dark horse will sneak in at the end, and Dodd is the most reasonable, stable, experienced and believable candidate who hasn't sold his soul.

If the Till Bill is passed, the Task Forces is creates in Justice and FBI would certainly be a threat to those killers who thought they got away with murder, now residing in old age homes.

JFK, RFK and MLK would cetainly qualify as having their civil rights violated pre-1970s.

BK

[Michael Hogan]

FBI Reopens Investigations Into 100 Civil Rights-Related Murder Cases

WASHINGTON Feb 27, 2007 (AP)— The FBI has reopened investigations of about a dozen decades-old suspicious deaths, officials said Tuesday amid a Justice Department focus on cracking unsolved cases from the nation's civil rights era.

The high-priority cases, which FBI Director Robert S. Mueller described as numbering between 10 and 12, are among an estimated 100 that investigators nationwide are looking at as possible civil rights-related murders.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged that many of the cases may be beyond the boundaries of what the federal government can legally prosecute. But they "remain on our radar," he said.

"Much time has passed on these crimes," Gonzales told reporters in Washington. "The wounds they left are deep, and still many of them have not healed. But we are committed to re-examining these cases and doing all we can to bring justice to the criminals who may have avoided punishment for so long......"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2908811

[John Simkin]

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

Wednesday February 28, 2007

The Guardian

A last hope of justice over one of the most painful episodes in the racial history of the US was apparently lost yesterday when a Mississippi grand jury refused to issue an indictment for the killing of Emmett Till, the teenager whose murder 50 years ago galvanised the civil rights movement.

Fifty-two years after Till's kidnap and murder, and two years after his remains were exhumed from his grave by federal investigators, a jury declined to issue charges against one of the few people left alive and implicated in his death.

The prosecution had sought manslaughter charges against Carolyn Bryant, now 73, the widow of one of the two white men who confessed to Till's killing after their earlier acquittal by an all-white jury.

Till, aged 14, who lived in Chicago, had been visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi in August 1955, and allegedly whistled at Ms Bryant in a grocery store. He was later abducted by a group of men - and some some say Ms Bryant - and his mutilated body was dredged out of the Tallahatchie river three days later.

The decision yesterday frustrates a plan to resolve scores of suspected murders of African Americans in the south in the civil rights era. In Washington yesterday, the FBI announced a partnership with the civil rights group NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and the National Urban League, to try to bring closure to cases before the last witnesses of that era die.

The FBI re-opened some of the cases last year, and the Poverty Law Centre last week referred an additional 74 deaths. "Although we cannot turn back the clock nor right these wrongs we will continue to work closely with our partners to bring a measure of justice to the victims' families and friends who never lost hope," said the FBI director, Robert Mueller.

But the FBI has given the Till file only to local prosecutors, suggesting they pursue a case against Ms Bryant.

"You're looking at Mississippi. I guess it's about the same way it was 50 years ago," said Simeon Wright, who was in the store with Till. "We had overwhelming evidence and they came back with the same decision ...same attitude."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...2022832,00.html

[John Simkin]

June 12, 1963 Jackson, Mississippi

MEDGAR EVERS, who directed naacp operations in Mississippi, was leading a campaign for integration in Jackson when he was shot and killed by a sniper at his home.

Medgar Evers was born in Decatur, Mississippi on 2nd July, 1925. He served in the United States Army during the Second World War and after he returned in 1946 he found employment selling insurance.

Evers joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and helped organize chapters all over Mississippi. In 1954 the NAACP employed Evers as its full-time state field secretary. This main involved Evers in monitoring, collecting and publicizing data concerning civil rights violations.

Although the national leadership of the NAACP opposed mass direct action, Evers also organized and participated in sit-in protests against segregation in Mississippi. As a result of this Evers suffered several beatings and spells in prison.

Despite several warnings from local white racist groups, Evers continued to organize protests against Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. On 11th June, 1963, Medgar Evers was murdered in the driveway of his home. Byron de La Beckworth, a white segregationist, was charged with the crime but the case ended in two hung juries but was convicted in a third trial held in 1994.

[John Dolva]

This is an interesting case well worth wide study.

A few hours before Medgar was shot (it has been described as the first modern political assassination in the area, different from the numerous murders and disapperances of black people occuring during these years) he had been at a meeting watching John F. Kennedys famous Civil Rights speech. People who spoke of him at that meeting spoke of a distracted, troubled man. There seems something more than usual to be troubling him. He was not a newcomer to mistreatment.

After the assassination, Robert F. Kennedy flew to Medgars brother Charles' side and they over time became close friends. Charles later was with Roberts retinue when Robert himself was assassinated.

A study of the treatment of the Medgar case is a study in contrast to the JFK assassination. Had the case against Oswald come to court and run in a similar manner, Oswald would have been aquitted. The Rifle abandoned at the site, the fingerprints, the cartridge cases, the rifles history, FBI testimonies, witness testimonies etc etc etc were dealt with by Byrons lawyers in such a way that the White jury could comfortably accept a not guilty verdict.

The Governor of Mississippi and General Walker, (the instigators and leaders of the Oxford insurrection) both turned up in court to offer moral support to Byron.

+++++++++++++++++

technically Emmett Till was not a civil rights worker, he was simply a boy who had grown up in a different climate where his normal young lad behaviour was seen by his murderers as a threat to their way of life, a bad 'uppity' example for the local 'niggers'.

extensive thread on Till : http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...ost&p=39158

Another similarity here to the JFK asassination: His mother refused a closed casket over his mutilated body, saying 'let them see what they have done'. Words echoed nine years later by Jackie when refusing to change out of her blood/brain stained clothes.

Edited March 3, 2007 by John Dolva