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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. //

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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 [...]

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Shock Treatment, Suspicious Blacks and Oscar Grant

I have been trying to wrap my mind around BART police officer Johannes Mehserle’s defense in the shooting death of 22-year-old black man Oscar Grant. Mehserle’s supposed weapon confusion is at the heart of why he was not convicted of voluntary manslaughter, let alone of second degree murder. The underlying logic of the defense seems to [...]

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A Little More Justice in Mississippi

Settlement Reached in Civil Suit Charging Franklin County, MS Role in 1964 KKK Murders On Monday, June 21, Franklin County, Mississippi agreed to a settlement in an historic civil suit with the families of Charles Moore and  Henry Dee, two 19-year-old Black men who were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan [...]

 
icon for podpress  Thomas Moore, phone interview by Ben Greenberg, June 22, 2010 [7:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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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 [...]

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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.

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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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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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. [...]

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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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Barack Obama for the Generations

Our election of Barack Obama to be President of the United States of America has been filling me with overwhelming emotions. As it has been doing for so many people. It has been hard to put any of this into words. For me it begins with my being a child of the Civil Rights Movement. [...]

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Redesign

You may have noticed that Hungry Blues has changed its look. After more than two and a half years with my heavily modified versions of Scott Wallick’s VeryPlainTxt theme, I’ve been feeling the urge to change up the look of my site. When I came across Lucian E. Marin’s Journalist theme a little over a [...]

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