Fantasy:
For 40 years Philadelphia and Neshoba County have been synonymous with redneck vigilante justice, and we’ve been saddled with the “Mississippi Burning” stereotypes. The role of law enforcement in the murder conspiracy seems to amplify the disdain outside observers feel, a certain breakdown in civility and law and order.
Most decent people here have felt the shame of a crime unpunished and applaud justice.
Before us is an historic opportunity to once and for all set the record straight, to do the right thing by bringing the murder or murders to justice.
("The Trial of the century" (Editorial) The Neshoba Democrat, April 6, 2005)
Experience:
A British journalist was reportedly assaulted last week while talking to a county resident about the upcoming trial of accused murder Edgar Ray Killen, the authorities said. . . .
Officials said Andrew Buncombe, a Washington correspondent for The Independent, stopped at a house on County Road 515 to speak with a resident about the Killen trial when an elderly white male assaulted him with what appeared to be a metal pipe.
Road 515 is the road on which the civil rights workers were murdered and where Killen lives. . . .
Buncombe said he walked into the yard Wednesday at about 2 p.m., and began a conversation about roses that were growing in the yard. When the reporter brought up the murders the man reached for the pipe from the back of a pick-up truck, Buncombe said.
Buncombe suffered a severe blow to his right hand and was hit on the back of one of his legs.
(Kenneth Billings, "Reporter beaten on rural road," The Neshoba Democrat, June 1, 2005)
Analysis:
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.(Bob Dylan, "Only A Pawn In Their Game")
BLOG POSTS
COMMENTS
PODCASTS
Life is twisted…. This past weekend my husband and I drove from Natchez to Philadelphia by way of the Natchez Trace Parkway (with a few extra jogs off the main path). After asking several white residents for directions, and meeting with no success, we asked a black man how to get to “the church” and he gave us a good map. While we were talking about the upcoming trial, he grinned and said that Killen’s brother was actually a “pretty nice guy” who’d introduced him to the woman who later became his wife. But before we left Natchez, after looking for any signs of civil rights markers and giving up, we purchased a local newspaper. The weekend issue (from feature stories to an editorial) focused on the importance of civility and how this was becoming a lost art these days in Natchez. (Like the place was civil in the old days?) Perhaps by coincidence, in the “Society” section appeared an announcement of “manners” classes for kindergarteners through sixth graders at $45 a pop. For learning stuff like why napkins are important, I guess. What could be more uncivil than not using one?
The general suspicion of any and everyone — especially outsiders, Yankees in particular — is a part of “Southern hospitality” that rarely gets mentioned. I’ve seen many people passing through get frustrated with it, but letting it show just makes people here move even slower (cashiers, gas station attendants, et al.) for sheer spite.
I’ve gone around my neighborhood just trying to get opinions for our neighborhood association, and gotten fearful “no, thanks, sorry…” replies followed by a quick door slam. Little old white people are very uneasy about knocks on their doors.
I walk most lunchtimes in downtown Montgomery, and nearly once a week I give directions to the Civil Rights monument, Dr. King’s Dexter Ave. church, etc. My pleasure.