On Monday evening, I got a call from my friend Jesse who had been down at Occupy Boston earlier in the day. Mayor Menino and Boston Police were telling the protestors that they could not stay at the second camp they’d started a block away from the original Dewy Square site, on the Rose Kennedy [...]
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Cold Case Reporting
I started this blog in 2004 to write about things like this photo of my father and James Baldwin in Birmingham, AL in 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In time, however, blogging led to investigative journalism about unpunished lynchings and other violence from the civil rights era. In the summer of [...]
HONK! Photo Exhibit in Davis Square
I’m honored to again be one of the photographers exhibiting photos of the HONK! Festival at the Inside/Out Gallery, in the windows outside the Davis Square CVS in Somerville, MA. The photos are on display now through the first weekend in October when the 6th Annual HONK! Festival of activist street bands comes to Somerville [...]
Why Won’t the Justice Department Reopen the Malcolm X Murder Case?
New York Times reporter Shaila Dewan blogged yesterday that the Justice Department has declined to reopen the Malcolm X murder case. “Although the Justice Department recognizes that the murder of Malcolm X was a tragedy, both for his family and for the community he served, we have determined that at this time, the matter does [...]
47th Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service, Conference and Caravan
Today and tomorrow in Neshoba County, MS is the annual memorial for James Chaney, Michael Schewerner, Andrew Goodman, and all civil rights era racial murder victims. I first attended in 2005. It is an important, meaningful event that is also an opportunity to meet and listen to famous Civil Rights Movement veterans and many unsung heroes [...]
Alabama Senate Apologizes to Recy Taylor for 1944 Rape Case
The Alabama Senate joined the state House yesterday in passing a resolution for an official state apology to Recy Taylor, 91, who was raped by seven white men in Abbeville, Ala., in 1944. According to the AP: The Senate gave final approval Thursday on a voice vote to a resolution that expresses “deepest sympathy and deepest [...]
Alabama House Approves Apology for Recy Taylor
The Alabama House made an historic move Tuesday evening towards a state apology to Recy Taylor, 91, who was gang raped by 7 white men in Abbeville, Ala., in 1944. The AP reports: The House on Tuesday approved by an apparent unanimous voice vote a resolution that expresses “deepest sympathies and solemn regrets” to Recy [...]
Recy Taylor Gets a Personal Sorry, But No Apology From Alabama
Yesterday, Abbeville city and Alabama state officials held a press conference at the Henry County Courthouse to express their sympathy for Recy Taylor, 91, a former Abbeville resident who was gang raped there by seven white men in 1944. But the officials made clear the apologies were personal rather than on behalf of the city [...]
Possible Apology to Recy Taylor for Obstruction of Justice in Racist Gang Rape
The Update This morning in an op-ed at the Anniston Star, I reported that an apology to Recy Taylor may be forthcoming soon from the city of Abbeville and Henry County, AL. Last Wednesday, I reported for Colorlines.com that state Rep. Dexter Grimsley, D-Newville, wants Alabama to issue a formal state apology to Recy Taylor, [...]
Recy Taylor’s 67 Year Quest for Justice
My latest is out on Colorlines. Here’s an excerpt: At 91, Recy Taylor May Finally See Alabama Acknowledge Her 1944 Rape Recy Taylor was abducted and raped at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Ala., on Sept. 3, 1944. Her attack, one of uncounted numbers on black women throughout the Jim Crow era in [...]
We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Support for Wisconsin Because Detroit is Burning
If you’re following me on Twitter or Tumblr, you know that I’ve been heavily preoccupied with the situation in Wisconsin. So much is at stake for Wisconsin and the country, and the labor movement legacy runs deep in my veins. But I’d like everyone to take their eyes off Wisconsin for long enough to take [...]
Breaking: Grand Jury Begins Hearing Testimony in Frank Morris Murder Case
Today Stanley Nelson reports: The Concordia Parish Grand Jury began hearing testimony Tuesday concerning the 1964 murder of Ferriday shoe shop owner Frank Morris. Witnesses were seen entering the courthouse to appear before the panel which is looking into the 46-year-old murder. Neither federal nor local authorities would comment on the Grand Jury. The U.S. [...]
Lolita’s Family Photos
Check out this video about my friend Lolita’s quest for her family photographs. (DDFRtv visits Lolita Parker Jr @ Boston from Digital Diaspora Family Reunion on Vimeo.) What the video does not fully explain is that Lolita is herself a professional photographer. Though we’re both from Boston, I met Lolita in Turkey Creek, MS at Derrick [...]
Save the Blacks
This is brilliant coverage of the fight of Turkey Creek, Mississippi African Americans to save their community. Turkey Creek was founded by freed slaves in 1866. Their descendants have been fighting dispossession by developers and environmental racism for years. I interviewed Wyatt Cenac’s guide, Derrick Evans, in January 2006, 6 months after Hurricane Katrina devastated his community with [...]
Charter Schools: What Would Dr. King Say?
As we mark another day of commemoration for the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we may wonder what Dr. King would make of our current state of educational affairs, wherein education is declared by reformers, with no apparent irony, as the civil rights issue for a generation of children whose schools are more [...]
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- St. Petersburg Police Bind Hands And Feet Of 5-Year-Old African-American Girl
- Lynching In Tuskegee —blog this now!!
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- Edgar Ray Killen Says God Will Get You (If You Helped Put Him Away)
