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 [...]
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Investigations Force Feds to Revisit Murders of Civil Rights Era
I’m covering the developments in the Stanley Nelson’s Frank Morris murder investigation at Colorlines today: On Dec. 10, 1964, a 51-year-old, black shoe-shop owner named Frank Morris was burned alive inside his store in Ferriday, La. Morris miraculously survived severe burns to all of the skin on his body, was hospitalized and lived four more [...]
The Takeaway: Federal Initiative Fails to Warm Cold Cases
I appeared on The Takeaway this morning with New York Times reporter Shaila Dewan and Catherine Walker, whose father Clifton was murdered by Klansmen on February 28, 1964. Today’s segment was a follow up to Dewan’s article in yesterday’s Times. //
The FBI’s Slow Race Against Time
As far as I knew, none of the children of Clifton Walker had ever been contacted by FBI agents regarding the February 28, 1964 racial killing of their father, near Woodville, MS. Still, I thought I should confirm this, so a few nights ago I gave a call to Walker’s second daughter Catherine and asked [...]
What the FBI Showed Him
Last weekend, on February 6, Catherine Walker and I were emailing back and forth about our plans to interview people familiar with the unsolved civil rights murder of her father Clifton Walker 46 years ago. Around mid-afternoon we had a breakthrough; Catherine wrote to tell me about her conversation with the son of a possible [...]
John Kerry, MLK and Access to Records
Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend some attention turned to US Senator John Kerry’s (D-MA) renewed effort to open the FBI records of Dr. King. Civil Rights Cold Case reporter Jerry Mitchell reported: U.S. Sen. John Kerry plans to introduce legislation next week that would pave the way for the release of thousands [...]
Civil Rights Cold Case Trailer
Since I first posted about The Civil Rights Cold Case Project, we’ve added the trailer for the documentary mini-series that we are currently developing in partnership with WNET.org and Paperny Films. I’m on there with the Clifton Walker Case a few times, starting at around 00:45.
The Civil Rights Cold Case Project
I am pleased to announce that The Civil Rights Cold Case Project website is now up and running at http://coldcases.org. My previous blog post, about my most recent trip to Mississippi, was cross posted from the Cold Case Project site. The Civil Rights Cold Case Project brings together the power of investigative reporting, narrative writing, [...]
Picking Up the Trail from a 25-Year-Old Tip
In October, I was in Mississippi again, following leads in my investigation of the 1964 murder of Clifton Walker, a black man from Woodville, MS. Driving home from the swing shift at the International Paper plant in Natchez, MS, Walker was ambushed by Klansmen, who stopped his car on a deserted road and blew his [...]
July 4, 1964
July 4, 1964 was the last time Julia Dobbins saw her brother, JoEd Edwards. Eight days later, he went missing. Rumors were that the Klan took away the 21-year-old Black man and murdered him. His mother died in 1990 never having learned what truly happened to her son. July 4, 1964 was the thirteenth day [...]
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