More from the Democracy Now! interview with Ben Chaney (and Carolyn Goodman, mother of Andrew, and Jerry Mitchell, reporter from the Clarion Ledger) by Amy Goodman.
AMY GOODMAN: . . . Ben, can you talk about your feelings, even if there is a conviction in this trial, what that means to you? And who you think is responsible?
BEN CHANEY: You know, I think a whole lot of people are responsible, and unfortunately the state has not, I don't believe, has made a sincere effort to bring these other individuals to justice. You know, I think this concept of having a coordinated effort to look at these cases is a great idea, but I'm looking at what happened in Birmingham and what's happened with the Emmett Till case. The local D.A. in northern Mississippi requested the assistance of the Justice Department. And they took the case on. And that's why the investigation is moving forward. The D.A. in Alabama -- in Birmingham, Alabama, requested the assistance of the Justice Department, and they took the case on. Unfortunately, the D.A. in Mississippi for some particular reason decided that they didn't need the real assistance of the Justice Department, as where a special prosecutor could be appointed. And that information that the Justice Department had could probably have been used, and even though we requested that he make that, that he follow that same procedure, and for that reason, I think that there is a need for some national coordinated effort to look at these cases and use that, and be able to have access to that information.
I think that, you know, I've always believed that if there was a jury, an impartial jury, impaneled anywhere in Mississippi to look at this case, they would convict. And I still believe that, and I think that if the District Attorney or the prosecutors here present the evidence they have aggressively and vigorously, I believe that the jury is going to convict. How do I feel about a conviction? I think that a conviction here is not the end, because there's still individuals in this community where I'm at now who were involved in this case, and they're walking around free and acting as if their lives are still intact, and nothing's happening. So until each individual who participated in this case, and perhaps whether or not there can be some type of investigation to determine the role the State of Mississippi played to prevent a prosecution in the 1960s, so that this would not happen in the future again, I think that -- you know, there's going to be some delight in knowing that one individual has been convicted, if he is. But there's not going to be no closure. You know, the case will still be open.
Could Mark Duncan be a little anxious to controll the flow of evidence lest it lead to more indictments after Killen? There is some back story that suggests this may well be the case.
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It is not unusual at all in Mississippi for the prosecutor to go after just one white person, no matter how many may have been involved in the crime. You don’t want to make too many people mad, afterall. Here’s one example that few people know about; it took place in the small Sunflower Community of Drew, just a few miles away from where Emmett Till was murdered just sixteen years earlier.
Drew High School student, Jo Etha Collier, was murdered on the evening of her graduation in 1971. At approximately 9:45 p.m. on May 25, shortly after the ceremony ended, Collier was talking to friends in front of a small grocery store. As a pickup truck passed by, Collier was hit in the head and killed by gunshots coming from the truck.
It was determined that Collier was shot by Wesley Parks, 25, of Drew in a murder that “seemed to have no motive,” said a sheriff’s deputy, at the time.
Parks, his brother and their nephew, Allen Wilkerson, 19, of Memphis were in the truck and all three were arrested in nearby Cleveland within three hours of the shooting.
A 22-caliber pistol “with one bullet missing” was found in the car along with a 12-gauge Army issue riot gun and a 22-caliber automatic rifle, according to Sovereignty Commission reports.
Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer of nearby Ruleville disagreed over motive, saying that she was “convinced Collier’s death was connected with the current voter registration campaign.”
Going through Aaron Henry’s archives (before Tougaloo College gave them away), I found a long letter he wrote to the district attorney of the three-county region (where the current DA is not being especially cooperative with the Emmett Till investigation).
PROMPTED BY THE murders of Collier and others, Aaron Henry had telegraphed President Nixon to protest the “wave of senseless killing in Mississippi of black citizens by white citizens.”
Henry said it was the “third such killing in less than a week.” “There was no provocation and no words were passed. It’s doubtful that they knew Miss Collier,” Henry told a UPI reporter. “They apparently were out to kill a black, any black.”
All three men were initially charged with murder; but only Wesley Parks was tried. Charges were dropped against the other two men. Parks was sent to prison for five years, but served less than three years of his sentence.(This happens a lot, too.)
This inaction prompted Henry to question George Everett, D.A. for the three-county region. There were potential dangers from Everett’s decision to drop charges, and in a letter to Everett, Henry warned:
Your statement today … really pulls the rug from under those of us in the NAACP who worked so hard to prevent violent retaliation against whites by determined members of the black community. Particularly you have seriously undercut the good will efforts of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer and attorney Cleve McDowell.[McDowell was murdered in Drew in 1997 under very suspicious circumstances.sk]
There are not as many of us in the Black Community as there once were who took a forthright position condemning violence, for whatever the cause.
Now there are many Blacks anxious to engage in the “eye for an eye,” “tooth for a tooth,” type of violence. Putting it another way, “white man for black man” retaliation. When announcements come out such as you issued today, [they] only give reason for those prone toward violence to exercise it.
Those who once had the confidence of the community, on the sides of non-violence, are losing the confidence of the Black citizens of our communities, especially when we were the ones to caution and advise the masses to have confidence in the law or the legal system.
You see, if a jury acquits a man who is tried, and in this case a white man for the murder of a Black citizen, then at least there has been some attempt to secure justice.
But when the District Attorney pronounces that those charged will not be brought to trial, then we are almost back to where we were in the “Dred Scott,” U. S. Supreme Court decision of a hundred years ago, that established that a Black had no rights that whites were bound to respect. Of course this also meant the privilege of a white to take the life of a black with no fear of ever coming to trial, just as your announcement today.
Once the pent up violence that exists in many members of the Black Community begins to explode, then the cry of the white community is going to be a call for “peace.” … You can help us in our position, or render us useless, and those prone toward violence will be in the position of advising our people what steps to take next…. Think it over!
At the time, Aaron Henry, a strong state NAACP leader, was investigating a number of lynchings that were taking place in the Delta and around the state. For some reason, there had been an increase of these activities.
Susan