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 [...]
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Remembering the Names
USA Today reports that the FBI Field Office in Jackson, Mississippi may soon be named after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman—the three civil rights workers murdered by Klansmen in Neshoba County, MS, June 21, 1964. JACKSON, Miss. — This state, whose civil rights history is marred with negatives, wants to name its new Federal [...]
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 [...]
Lines of Accountability
One of the themes of this blog is the pressing need to look not only at who pulled the trigger in decades old Civil Rights Era murders but also to look more broadly at how institutions, people in positions of power and others in the broader society enabled or encouraged the countless crimes against African [...]
It’s Official: Jerry Mitchell is a (MacArthur) Genius
Congratulations to Jerry Mitchell! A papermaker dedicated to preserving traditional Western and Japanese techniques; a scientist developing theories of global climate change; and a journalist who helps uncover details of unsolved murders from the civil rights era are among the 24 recipients of the $500,000 “genius awards,” to be announced on Tuesday by the John [...]
4 Years After Hurricane Katrina
On August 29, 2005, the eye of Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Waveland, Mississippi, and the western side of the storm grazed New Orleans. Five months after the storm, I visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast. According to a National Hurricane Center report on Katrina, “in many locations, most of the buildings along the coast were [...]
In Death Posey Dodges Murder Charges Once and for All
The Clarion Ledger reports: Billy Wayne Posey, a key suspect in the Ku Klux Klan’s killings of three civil rights workers in 1964 in Mississippi, has died, but Justice Department officials say they’re continuing their investigation of the remaining suspects. The 73-year-old Posey died Thursday of natural causes, according to friends. That leaves four living [...]
Possible Government Accountability for 1964 Racial Murders
Jerry Mitchell reports that US District Judge Tom Lee will allow a lawsuit to go forward that could break new ground on holding Mississippi government accountable for the murders of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The lawsuit has been filed against Franklin County, MS, by Moore’s brother Thomas and Dee’s sister Thelma Collins. [...]
Cold-Case List Omits Many Names
I was honored to be interviewed by Jerry Mitchell for this article that came out in today’s Clarion Ledger. A day after the FBI asked for the public’s assistance in solving 43 unpunished killings in Mississippi during the civil rights era, researchers say they know of at least 18 more slayings that haven’t been included. [...]
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