Many of the murder cases from 1954 to 1968, the years that bracket the height of the civil rights movement, were not investigated or given cursory attention, leaving authorities little to work with today. Now the window of time is closing. Death is claiming potential defendants and witnesses.
"In nearly all these cases, there was no investigation at the time, and without an investigation, I don't think you have any ability to prosecute these crimes," said Don Cochran, professor at Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala., who, in 2002, helped successfully prosecute Bobby Cherry, then 71, for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls.
James Seale's arrest Jan. 24 on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the May 2, 1964, abduction and killings of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore — two of the 40 martyrs listed on the National Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala. — is certain to be one of the last because suspects are dying, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones of Birmingham said. Seale, 71, suffers from cancer.
Jones led the prosecution team that convicted Thomas Blanton, then 62, in 2001 in the Birmingham church bombing case and that won the Cherry conviction.
Since 1989, authorities in seven states have re-examined 29 killings from the civil rights era and made 28 arrests that led to 22 convictions. The latest was the 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, then 80, for orchestrating the 1964 slayings of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney.
Back then, fear was in the air
Just how many people died during that period is uncertain. Next to the National Civil Rights Memorial is the Civil Rights Memorial Center, where 86 additional names appear on a wall dedicated to the "forgotten others."
Johnnie Mae Chappell, a mother of 10, is one of those honored on the wall. She was killed March 23, 1964. She had bought ice cream earlier for her children and was looking for her missing billfold along a road in Jacksonville, Fla., when she was shot from a car with four white men. Her admitted shooter went to prison for three years; charges were dropped against three other suspects.
The plaque on the wall also says: "The names of all those who lost their lives to racial violence during the civil rights movement will never be known. The media often paid little attention to the death of black people. Many murders were never fully investigated."
Retired FBI agent Jim Ingram said he and other agents investigating racial violence in Mississippi in the 1960s often ran into hostile neighbors, frightened witnesses, reluctant prosecutors and all-white juries, many of whom refused to convict in these crimes.
Working for the New Orleans' Times-Picayune, veteran reporter Bill Minor was one of the journalists in Mississippi willing to shed light on these crimes.
"The bias permeated the entire journalistic apparatus back then," he said. "It was not only unpopular, it was unsafe to pursue civil rights stories."
Minor said he traveled to Poplarville, Miss., in 1959 to investigate the lynching of Mack Charles Parker, who was dragged from his jail cell and killed by a white mob.
In town, Minor spotted friends he knew. "They wouldn't come across the street for fear of being seen with me," he said.
The FBI investigated the killing, determined who the mob members were and turned the case over to state authorities, who refused to prosecute.
Minor eventually learned the names of those supposedly involved. The last of those suspects died a few years ago, he said.
Little is known about most of the "forgotten others" listed on the wall of the Civil Rights Memorial Center, said Penny Weaver of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which built the center.
Ellie Dahmer said these forgotten killings still should be investigated and prosecuted, if possible. "If they can find out who did it, I don't care how old they are, I think they should go to prison," she said. "Just think about the poor people that didn't get a chance to get old."
Dahmer watched her husband, Vernon, die in a hospital in 1966 after defending his family from an attack by Klansmen. It wasn't until 1998 that Sam Bowers went to prison for ordering the killing. On Nov. 5, 2006, Bowers died behind bars at 82.
Not too late to 'right these wrongs'
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., believes there is bipartisan support in Congress for the Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act that would create a cold cases unit within the Justice Department to track down evidence in the unpunished killings.
By creating such a unit to punish these pre-1970 crimes, he said, "we are saying that historical context is no excuse for brutality in America, and we are reclaiming our integrity as a nation by doing what we can to right these wrongs today."
The 2005 investigation of the 1967 slaying of Wharlest Jackson shows how hard success is becoming. After Jackson was promoted into a "whites-only" job in Natchez, Miss., a bomb with a timer placed underneath his truck exploded, killing him. Last year, FBI agents concluded all of those involved in the bombing are dead.
After nearly three decades of waiting, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of NAACP leader Medgar Evers, saw her late husband's killer convicted in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison. Byron De La Beckwith died in 2001 at 80.
"The issue goes beyond the murderers being brought to justice," she said. "These 'forgotten others' should never be forgotten. They and so many like them were the unsung heroes of the movement. Without them, there would have been no movement."
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