Hungry Blues

You can watch the webcast by clicking here (requires Windows Media Player).

Go here for original link, if you have trouble with the one, above.

[youtube]pZ5gIhSIcMU[/youtube]

While his Bubbe was here visiting this weekend, my 4 year old took her on a tour through his favorite YouTube videos---Pete Seeger, M. Ward, the Beatles ("the rooftop concert, Daddy..."). Next, I'll post the favorite from Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest ("the one where she sings!"), but first you've got to see this one we came across last night. Sister Rosetta Tharp is just amazing...

[youtube]PnIJR3PWTT8[/youtube]

ACTION ALERT

Without any input from New Orleans public housing residents, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has approved plans to demolish thousands of livable public housing apartments in New Orleans.

MA Residents Can Help Make New Orleans Public Housing Residents Heard

Please call Representative Barney Frank today and ask him to guarantee two slots for New Orleans public housing residents to speak at this Tuesday's (Feb. 6) meeting of the House Committee on Financial Services. Representative Frank is Chair of the Financial Services Committee, which has oversight of HUD.

Call Barney Frank now at 202-225-5931 (DC office) or 617-332-3920 (District Office, Newton).

(Make sure you let Frank's staff know if you are his constituents from the 4th Congressional District of MA. In Metro Boston that includes Brookline and Newton.)

On Sunday morning, February 4, fifty New Orleans public housing residents boarded a bus to Washington, DC, where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to New Orleans.

The residents have taken time off from work, made arrangements for childcare and have made other sacrifices in hopes that they will be allowed to speak about their desire and their right to return to their homes. Please take a few minutes out of your day to call Representative Frank and let him know you want the New Orleans public housing residents to speak at the House Financial Services Committee meeting this Tuesday, February 6.

For more information, visit the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network:

• Fact Sheet: http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/30
• Condition of the Projects (includes photos): http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/10
• 4th Congressional District: http:// fairhousingnetwork.org/node/8

PLEASE FORWARD

I received this email from Bill Quigley today. Bill Quigley is one of the lawyers for the public housing residents in New Orleans who have brought a class action suit against HANO and HUD to stop the planned demolitions of their homes. Please consider helping out.

From: bill quigley <duprestars at yahoo dot com>
Date: Jan 31, 2007 11:13 AM
Subject: Raising $ for Meals for Public Housing Residents Going to DC!

Friends:

On Sunday morning, about 50 public housing residents will be boarding a bus to go to DC where they will tell their stories, meet with legislators and publicly advocate for the right of public housing residents to return to NOLA. They will return Wednesday.

The residents have taken time off of work, had to make their own arrangements for child care, and the like. The bus trip and a place to stay will be donated.

But people still need to eat. This is a very long bus ride.

I estimate that people will need at least $50 per person to eat during the trip up and back.

This is a chance for the rest of us who are not going with our sisters and brothers to show our solidarity with them.

Please donate as much as you can to help pay for meals.

I will collect the money and distribute it directly to the residents as they board the bus. Please send or deliver donations (preferably cash or check made out to me) to me at:

Loyola Law Clinic
Room 120 (Law School)
526 Pine St
New Orleans, LA 70118

I will send out an email listing everyone who donated.

Show your support - and pitch in please.

Peace,

Bill Quigley

For more information on the class action suit and the public housing residents' fight for justice, see the justiceforneworleans.org, a website of the Loyola Law Clinic.

(Cross-posted on Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network)

Last week the Neshoba Democrat reported the discovery of a recording of Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign kickoff speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi.

While we wait to find out whether there will be public access to Reagan's speech, it may be informative to peer into the place where Reagan spoke. Melina was at the 2005 Neshoba County Fair, just one month after Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman:

The Neshoba County Fair's most famous role is as a venue for Mississippi political speakers. There are only 2.8 million people in the state, and a lot of the most important ones like to hang out at the Fair in their expensive hovels, so as a result, any Mississippi politician who is seriously stumping for office has to put on his shirtsleeves and take a turn sweating it out at the outdoor podium. It's traditional. Sometimes it's not just Mississippians who show up to pay their dues -- none other than Ronald Reagan kicked off his first presidential campaign at the Neshoba County Fair. This year was not an election year, so the schedulers tried to book current and former elected officials to speak. The turnout was great. There were about four former state governors who showed up, as well as the current one, which made for an astonishing sight....

Before any governors spoke, the state attorney general Jim Hood had spoken - briefly, but intensely. He was the one who made the decision to re-open the case of the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, which had ended only a few weeks before in Neshoba County with the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, a native Neshoban. My boss was very apprehensive that he would not get any support from the audience when he spoke or that he might even be booed.

Well, he was not booed, but there was no standing ovation either. He got a little polite applause when he came up to the podium, but in the noisy outside auditorium, wood-hewn benches under a roof with fair-goers milling all around, you could hear a pin drop when he began to speak. And he didn't mince words. "Aren't you proud of Mississippi?" he started off. "Aren't you proud to be from Neshoba County and proud to know that Mississippi did the right thing?"

The audience seemed, I'd say, maybe a little bit proud. They did clap, a little bit. But many of them sat very, very quietly, thinking who knows what. Overt racism is not in fashion in Mississippi politics. You just get these little crypto-racist moments ... and also this weird overall attitude toward their history: as far as I can tell, the general mentality of white politicians and of many white Mississippians is that they work very hard to believe that there were never any Klan members and lynching-watchers and quiet racists among their parents and friends and family. They kind of like to think that Killen and the other men who murdered the civil rights workers were evil men from a little evil space ship, who made landfall in Neshoba county, did their evil deeds without any knowledge or support from the community, and were either brought to justice or quietly disappeared somewhere (perhaps to their evil home planet) where they are far too far away for the arm of justice to reach. And so, we should put the past behind us. And so, Mississippi and her fair native (non space-ship-based) citizens have nothing to be ashamed of. And so, everything is fine now and equal now. And so, it's not very nice of Attorney General Jim Hood to go on bringing it up, even if he is praising Mississippians for "doing what was right."

Essentially, they're fighting a battle to avoid historical context. Holocaust eduation is mandatory in Mississippi public schools. Civil rights history education is not.

Neshoba County is 20% black, and Mississippi is 36% black. But I only saw about two black families visiting the fair the entire day I was there, and one local said that she thought that *none* of the cabins were owned by black families. But it's not that they're not there --it's that they're not guests, not visitors. Black people maintain the fair grounds. They drive the horses in the harness races that fairgoers bet on.

The current governor was the last to speak. He is this big red-faced guy who, rumor has it, is planning to run for president in 2008.... He gave a cheerful speech about his his successes (after a year and a half in office, he claims, job creation rates are at their highest since 1999) and declared Mississippi to be the safest state in the country for the unborn. He was also the only governor to not mention the trial at all. I guess he thinks it's over and done with, and that everyone should just be looking toward the future.

This long excerpt includes the parts of Melina's account that relate most directly to what I cover here, but there is quite a bit more, and it is all worth reading.

In 1980 Neshoba County's only claim to fame was as the location where a band of Klansmen murdered James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman on June 21, 1964. As noted in the Neshoba Democrat article about the Reagan recording,

Reagan's visit to the Fair was his first public appearance following his nomination with over 30,000 said to be in attendance.

Before the assembled throng, the presidential hopeful declared:

I believe in states' rights. I believe that we've distorted the balance of our government by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to the federal establishment.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson has rightly called this a battle cry, the launching of the Reagan revolution, a coded promise to "roll the clock back to the pre-civil rights days when blacks, minorities and women knew their place."

RELATED

• Learning from the Charles Moore and Henry Dee Murder Case
• Getting the Facts on James Ford Seale
• Neshoba Justice Revue
• Sam Bowers is Dead
• Celebrating the Confederacy in Philadelphia, MS
• Civil Rights Tours Make Good Business
• Cashing in on Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman
• Honest Appraisal
• Progress?
• Products of the Environment

By the Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center*

• How US Attorney obtained its indictment against James Ford Seale
• How MS AG could have obtained more indictments in Neshoba

What may have been the key to US attorney Dunn Lampton proceeding to obtain an indictment against James Ford Seale for the 1964 murders of Henry Dee and Charles Moore?

It might be that the U.S. Attorney told Charles Edwards, one of the other living suspects, that he could either be a witness or a defendant. It has been reported that Charles Edwards has not been indicted and that he could be a witness for the prosecution:

No charges are expected to be brought against Edwards, who has been interviewed by the FBI and presumably could become a witness against Seale. (C-L 1/25/07)

Perhaps if Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Mississippi 8th District Attorney Mark Duncan had used the approach with the other suspects in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, there would have been more indictments and convictions than only Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen.

In fact, Jim Hood and Mark Duncan may have had an easier task than the one US Attorney Lampton has thus far accomplished. Hood and Duncan had the additional leverage of having the weight of the 1967 federal convictions to help persuade some of the suspects to cooperate. They could have pointed out to those suspects how easy it would be to convict them on state charges since the same evidence had been sufficient to convict them on federal charges related to the case.

It is still not too late for Hood and Duncan to use this approach to try to obtain a more full measure of justice in the Neshoba murders case.

Some family members of the victims of the Neshoba murders wanted an attorney from the Jackson, MS US Attorney's office appointed as a special state prosecutor. This approach was successfully used in Birmingham where US Attorney Doug Jones was a special state prosecutor and convictions of the last two living suspects in the Birmingham church bombing case were obtained in 2002. But Hood and Duncan chose not to appoint a special prosecutor.

~
* Full disclosure: I recently joined the board of the ADTJC. ---BG

If you've been watching the mainstream news on last week's indictment of James Ford Seale in connection with the May 1964 Klan murders of two nineteen year old, Black Mississippians, Charles Moore and Henry Dee, you may have come across this interesting tidbit that appeared in the New York Times:

In 2002, Mr. Seale’s son began telling newspaper reporters that his father was dead. But Thomas Moore, the elder brother of Charles Moore, returned to the area with a documentary filmmaker on a trip in 2004 [sic*], and a local resident directed him to the mobile home where Mr. Seale lived. Mr. Seale ran inside and shut the door.

But it wasn't only James Ford Seale's son who was helping his father keep a low profile after the Dee-Moore murder case was re-opened in 2000. Some locals in Meadville, MS and other nearby towns have been speaking up lately, to help set the record straight. Franklin County Sheriff James Newman told the Natchez Democrat's Julie Finley that he thought reports that Seale was considered dead are misleading.

The people of Franklin County knew Seale was alive, he said.

The brother of victim Charles Moore, Thomas, once believed Seale was dead, but residents of Franklin County did not, Newman said.

The other thing locals want to set straight is the false report in many papers that James Ford Seale was a "former sheriff's deputy." Finley reports:

Despite what national and state media are reporting, James Ford Seale was never a commissioned deputy in Franklin County, Sheriff James Newman said....

Newman, sheriff in the county for nearly 25 years, said he checked with the state commissioning board and local records and could find no record of official service by Seale....

The force of this correction, I think, is to keep the murders of Charles Moore and Henry Dee from appearing too much like the 1964 murders of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. In that more widely familiar case, everyone knows that the Klan and the police were essentially the same entity.

I would like to see Sheriff Newman use his access to state and local records to look for more evidence in the Dee-Moore murder case---evidence against James Ford Seale and evidence against the many others involved who have not been charged.

Arthur Littleton, a former mayor of Bude, confirmed Newman’s statements. Littleton was living in Franklin County when Moore and Henry Dee were killed.

“As far as hired by the county, I don’t think that ever happened,” Littleton said. “What kind of happened back at that time was there were some cards the sheriff gave out to individuals. If someone needed a deputy they could call someone with a card.”

Seale may have received such a card, Littleton said.

The cards and the title “honorary deputy” usually went to residents who helped the sheriff get elected, said Mary Lou Webb the longtime publisher of the Franklin Advocate newspaper.

Webb and her husband David bought the paper in the 1962.

“(Honorary deputies) don’t have any official capacity at all,” Webb said.

These folks are setting the record but not setting it straight. Seting it straight would involve wider discussions of sate and local records. It would also involve acknowledging the roles of other community people in the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Dee. For example, there was a David Webb in Meadville, MS who was Publicity Director for Americans for the Preservation of the White Race in 1964 (see item 3 in the linked document). The 1964 segregationist might not be Mary Lou Webb's husband. But without open discussion of the past, we cannot but wonder whether this woman who speaks for Meadville today is married to someone who actively peddled the lies believed by the killers of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.

Littleton and Webb both said they never thought Seale was dead.

“I think his son told the FBI he was dead, but he used to get out and walk around,” Littleton said.

Webb said Seale had been laying low for a while, and it was possible that some people might have thought he died.

“I honestly don’t think the majority of the people did,” she said.

According to Webb, most people in Meadville knew Seale was alive. What else do they know?

James Ford Seale deserves to be prosecuted. It is the absolute least the families and loved ones of Charles Moore and Henry Dee deserve. But by itself, the single prosecution is hardly a path to truth and reconciliation.

~
* The trip by Thomas Moore with David Ridgen and the Jackson Free Press was in July 2005, not in 2004, as stated in the NY Times.

RELATED POSTS

• Belated Justice for Civil Rights Era Crimes
• Mississippi's Dangerous Attention
• 43 Years
• The Face of Henry Hezekiah Dee
• Economy of Souls

Bill Quigley, attorney for New Orleans public housing residents who are bringing a class action suit against the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Housing Authorit of New Orleans (HANO), reports (via email):

Residents in the class action against HANO and HUD are fighting back. Earlier this week, HANO sued 10 residents and others of criminal damage to property, trespass, and vandalism when residents, on Martin Luther King, Jr. day, went through open gates at St. Bernard Housing Development to clean up their homes.

Residents filed papers in court today* that said:

HANO's suggestion that last week's events were a crime rampage is demonstrably false...what actually occurred was a peaceful community clean up of resident apartments by displaced residents, friends and volunteers.

On MLK day, residents were joined by hundreds of volunteers who helped clean up apartments. One of those helping was Robert Elliott, former General Counsel for HUD under President Nixon, who filed a supporting affidavit in the case saying:

DECLARATION OF ROBERT R. ELLIOTT

I, Robert R. Elliott, declare as follows:

1. I reside at 698 Highway 30, Basin, Wyoming 82410.
2. From 1974 to 1977, I served as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development by appointment of President Nixon with the consent of the United States Senate.
3. During my tenure as General Counsel of HUD I oversaw the original implementation of the Community Development Block Grant Program, the Section 8 Housing Program, RESPA and other programs. I also was responsible for the legal implementation of the “operating subsidy” of all conventional public housing.
4. In the course of my duties, I settled a “tenant strike” in a large conventional public housing development in Newark, New Jersey and handled many other public housing issues and litigation.
5. In the course of my duties as General Counsel of HUD I handled about 5,000 civil suits, and among them I settled the Gautreaux suit after the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that the Federal government could be enjoined to relocate into other jurisdictions (in that case from central Chicago into the predominately white Chicago suburbs) minority conventional public housing tenants who had suffered illegal discrimination. The settlement continued to be implemented annually for, to the best of my knowledge about 25 or 30 years. I obtained the approval of the settlement I negotiated with the Chicago plaintiffs, by Philip Buchen, White House Counsel, on behalf of President Gerald Ford.
6. For several years I served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”).
7. For many years I was a member of the Board of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing.
8. I practiced law in housing-related matters for 35 years.
9. In 1980 I served as the transition liaison for President-elect Ronald Reagan with respect to the thrift and savings and loan industry and it’s corresponding secondary mortgage market entity, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) which two other professionals and I had launched in 1969-1971.
10. Because I have been concerned that valuable housing stock in New Orleans would not be preserved and used, given the critical need for housing there, I traveled to New Orleans from January 14 to 17, 2007 and met with various community leaders and civil rights advocates.
11. I accompanied those who assembled outside the St. Bernard housing development on January 15, 2007 (Martin Luther King Day). The initial assembly and march down the public streets was in the presence of the New Orleans Police and housing authority Police, who were friendly and simply observed. The entire process was peaceful, as were the subsequent hours until I left in early evening after dark.
12. I personally observed that present were several automobiles of the Police of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (“HANO”), as well as Police of New Orleans and National Guards (together the “Police/National Guards”). I spoke to members of all three.
13. I was present from about 11 a.m. until about 7 p.m. I had a rental car and at times drove down all the streets through and surrounding the St. Bernard development to see what was going on everywhere. I witnessed exactly what happened.
14. With respect to everything I observed throughout the day on January 15, 2007:
    1. The Police/National Guard at no time asked anyone not to enter the housing.
    2. On one occasions a Police officer of HANO in my presence opened a locked gate to allow entry. The locked gate was at a driveway into the northwest quadrant of the four sections that constitute the St. Bernard housing development.
    3. The St. Bernard development consists of four sections divided by public streets. At 11:30 a.m. I walked the entire permeter of all four sections and found that there were multiple places where pedestrians could enter. Three HANO Police cars continuously drove all of the public streets in and around the St. Bernard development from at least 11 a.m. to about noon and could plainly see the entry points that I observed. Each section had multiple open places in the fence, and some gates were not locked.
    4. I personally observed that the Police/National Guards did not lock up the property. To the best of my knowledge, they did nothing at all to close the open entry points, including openings in the chain link fence.
    5. At no time did any of the Police/National Guards ask anyone to leave.
    6. At no time did any of the Police/National Guards pose any objection to the cleaning out of damp and ruined personal belongings from various apartments.
    7. The tenants and many volunteers cleaned the interiors of some apartments. They unscrewed bolts to remove some window covers for light and ventilation. There was no vandalism. The destroyed personal
    8. property of tenants was placed outside the buildings as trash, in piles.
    9. The Police/National Guards had hand cuffs and the like, and could have made arrests if they had chosen to do so. They to my knowledge never made any arrests. To the best of my knowledge, they never made any attempts to make any arrests, nor did they ever ask any of the tenants and the volunteers helping the tenants to leave at the time of any conversation with any of them.
15. On the next day, Tuesday, January 16, 2007, I returned to St. Bernard for several hours from about 11 am to 2:15 pm. I spoke with many tenants and volunteers. I visited apartments being cleaned out. To my knowledge HANO permitted the tenants on that day to enter the property and be there, and posed no objections to their activity or presence on that day.
16. The tenants were cleaning apartments with volunteers in a very orderly and thoughtful manner, including removal of dirt, mopping, removal of loose floor tiles, removal of damp and damaged or destroyed personal property to the outdoors, opening of windows for ventilation and other cleaning activities. I saw absolutely no illegal activity.
17. I have extensive expertise in the renovation of buildings. I am currently personally carrying out the construction through over a dozen contractors of several million dollars of residential multifamily housing renovations in Washington, D.C.
18. I examined housing units in all of the following four public housing projects: St. Bernard, Lafitte, B.W. Cooper, and C.J. Peete. I found them to be very capable of renovation at far less cost that new construction. I also found them to be capable of being put back in service in a short period of time.
19. The construction using concrete walls in the interior instead of “studs” and drywall means that there is far less renovation required to eliminate mold and create safe, decent and sanitary housing.
20. It is also apparent that due to the strength of construction, the buildings of the four developments withstood the winds of Hurricane Katrina far better than “stick built” homes in the area. Such structures were often
21. structurally wind damaged, and the interiors are much more difficult to reconstruct due to mold behind drywall and under wood floors.
22. It is also apparent that HANO is allowing unnecessary damage to occur to the buildings by leaving them exposed to rain when at very low cost they could be secured pending renovation.

Also filing supporting affidavits were Sr. Helen Prejean, Sr. Lilliane Flavin, Don Everard, and attorney Miles Swanson.

~
*Papers are available on http://www.justiceforneworleans.org / "Residents respond to HANO TRO pleadings."

(Cross-posted on Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network.)

Reputed former Klansman James Ford Seale was arrested today on federal kidnapping charges in connection with the May 2, 1964 Klan abduction and slaying of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The Clarion Ledger's Jerry Mitchell reports:

Asked by The Clarion-Ledger in 2000 if he had anything to do with crime, Seale replied, "I ain't in jail, am I?"

The arrest of the 71-year-old former cropduster marks the 28th arrest from the civil rights era in the United States over the past two decades.

Since 1998, Moore's brother, Thomas, has been pushing for justice in the case.

Upon learning of the arrest, he choked up. "I'm very emotional," he said. "I don't know what to say."

He said he's grateful and thankful the day finally came. "I'm just glad I had something to do with it," he said. "I just hope Charles and Henry Dee know there is justice on the way."

Dee's sister, Mary Byrd, also welcomed the news. "I feel good now," she said. "Yes, indeed."

Mitchell also gives a succinct summary of the murders and the development of the evidence that has led to today's arrest:

The slayings of Dee and Moore are among dozens of killings that plagued this nation during the civil rights movement. The names of 40 martyrs from the movement can be found on the National Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, and nearly half of those killings took place in Mississippi.

Seale was arrested once before in connection with the slayings. That came Nov. 6, 1964, when authorities arrested him and Charles Marcus Edwards on murder charges.

At the time, authorities confronted Seale and told him they knew he and others took Dee and Moore "to some remote place and beat them to death," FBI records say. "You then transported and disposed of their bodies by dropping them in the Mississippi River. You didn't even give them a decent burial. We know you did it. You know you did. The Lord above knows you did it."

"Yes," Seale was quoted as replying, "but I'm not going to admit it. You are going to have to prove it."

When authorities arrested Edwards, he "admitted that he and James Seale picked up Dee and another Negro in vicinity of Meadville and took them to an undisclosed wooded area where they were 'whipped,'" a Nov. 6, 1964, FBI document says. "States victims were alive when he departed the wooded area."

According to FBI documents, Dee and Moore were hitchhiking from Meadville when Klansmen coaxed them into their vehicle by pretending to be law enforcement agents. Deep in the woods, Klansmen repeatedly beat the teens, believing they knew something about a rumor regarding gun-running in Franklin County.

Finally, one of the pair claimed the guns were being hidden in a church, hoping to stop the violence.

It didn't.

Klansmen loaded Dee and Moore into the trunk of a car and hauled them across the Mississippi River. There, Klansmen tied them up and weighted them down with a Jeep motor block before dumping them into the Old River two miles south of King, La.

On July 12, 1964, a fisherman found Moore's body and reported it to authorities.

Two months after the arrests, then-District Attorney Lenox Foreman asked to have the murder charges thrown out, saying further investigation was needed.

FBI agents pressed forward, but many were fearful, including potential witnesses. "This informant advised he would not testify under any circumstances because he is concerned for his life and the lives of his family," a Jan. 12, 1965, FBI document reads.

At the time of the killings, Seale and Edwards worked for International Paper Co.

The FBI said the Klan in those days infiltrated unions at that company and others in Natchez. On Feb. 14, 1964, Alfred Whitley, a black employee at Armstrong Tire Co., was abducted and whipped. Two weeks later, Clinton Walker, a black employee at International Paper, was killed on his way home. His car was riddled with bullets.

In 1965, George Metcalfe, an NAACP leader and Armstrong employee was nearly killed when a bomb exploded his car. Two years later, his friend and fellow employee, Wharlest Jackson, died when his truck exploded.

"The Klan ruled then," Thomas Moore recalled. "There were a lot of things that happened back then."

As years passed, the killings of his brother and his friend were forgotten — like so many others from the civil rights era....

On Jan. 13, 2000, The Clarion-Ledger reported White's killing wasn't the only violence that took place in that forest — so had the beatings of Dee and Moore.

After FBI agents reported they had destroyed their files in the case, The Clarion-Ledger found they weren't destroyed and got copies.

The Clarion-Ledger also tracked down and interviewed Seale, who blamed the newspaper for talk of reprosecution. "You don't have anything better to do but to stir this stuff up," he said.

The FBI reopened the case, only to stall when they believed the FBI's key informant in the case, Ernest Gilbert, was dead.

The Social Security Death Index showed a man of the same name had died in Mississippi in 1999, but the real Gilbert was still alive and living in Clinton, La.

In spring 2000, ABC News producer Harry Phillips tracked him down and got the former Klansman to share his story of a friend's confession to the crime. The FBI then interviewed Gilbert.

Gilbert told The Clarion-Ledger how Seale's brother, Jack, came to him and confessed his involvement in Dee and Moore's killings. "I couldn't live with it," Gilbert said. "I wish I never had been in the Klan. It messed my life up."

But by the end of 2000, authorities let the case grow cold. They still had questions regarding federal jurisdiction and were busy preparing to prosecute Ernest Avants for White's killing.

Federal authorities didn't get interested again in the Dee-Moore killings until July 13, 2005 — a few weeks after jurors convicted Killen in the killings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.

That's when Thomas Moore met with U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton of Jackson, convincing him to have his office take a second look at the case.

Lampton has taken a personal interest in the case, sometimes accompanying FBI agents in their interviews.

No charges are expected against Edwards, who has been interviewed by the FBI and may be a witness against Seale.

One thing left off in Mitchell's chronology is that by 2005 Seale had been thought dead until Canadian Broadcasting Corp. filmmaker David Ridgen and Jackson Free Press Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd discovered that Seale was still living. Ridgen, Ladd and other JFP staff were covering a trip by Thomas Moore through Mississippi in pursuit of justice for his brother, Charles Eddie Moore.

The Clarion Ledger piece has links to a photo gallery and a flash chronology of the Dee-Moore murders, based on the FBI case files. Also seee the JFP's Full Dee-Moore Investigative Package.

UPDATE: And also see today's CBC report.

RELATED

• Belated Justice for Civil Rights Era Crimes
• Mississippi's Dangerous Attention
• Getting the Facts on James Ford Seale
• 43 Years
• The Face of Henry Hezekiah Dee
• Economy of Souls

In the months immediately following Hurricane Katrina, when I first started blogging about Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) and the criminal justice system in New Orleans, I was overwhelmed by the some of the comments I received from people who had survived OPP or from people who were desperately trying to locate their friends and loved ones who had been locked up before the storm.

One of my posts on OPP continues to receive comments, even as recently as this morning, from people who were locked up there. Things do not seem to have gotten any better.

Last March, the Dollars & Sense Magazine Katrina issue (which I guest co-edited) revealed that FEMA was paying OPP over $146,000 per day to maintain prisoners in the kinds of conditions described below. Where are the civil rights and human rights organizations? Why has there been no Congressional investigation? This is beyond appalling.

J. Roos
I was booked and processed at O.P.P. for two misdemeanors on july 8th 2006. My family posted bail as soon as they possible and I was not released until july 12th. The place is very overcrowded and immates do not even have room on the floor. I counted 55 people in a holding area not bigger than a classroom. Thier was no room to move you could not be anywhere without touching at least one person. The conditions are not fit for any human being. People were vomiting because of the smell and heat. The guards treated immates like animals. I believe conditions at O.P.P. should be investagated by the federal government.
Posted on 15-Jul-06 at 3:02 am

Robert Rielly
I just did 11 days in the Oleans Parish Prison… And I tell you a year after the strom that nothing still has changed. I am from NC was in NO working when I was arrest for a charge in NC. After beening in this lock up I can tell you I will never want to go to NO ever again. The gaurds at the prison are abusive and the prison is a inhumane place for anybody to locked up. I am going to file a law suit against the City of New Orleans and the Sheriff of Orleans Parish.
Posted on 15-Jan-07 at 12:38 am

Jim a very PISSED OFF citizen who BELIEVES IN THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
But to stand by and witness the in humaine un-sanitary conditions that were in this place….. 1st cell 300sqft-85men-Toilet overflowing with piss and shit/no water, no place to sit and if you did, well you picture it. Water jug was outside the cell in sight but not in for HOURS. I recieved water after being there from 8am to finally getting a drink at 10:30pm when I was booked ... 85men was last count, they continued putting people in till it was up against the doors ... I know jails not supposed to be the Holiday Inn but animals at the humaine society have better conditions before being sentenced!!!!!! As the extra souls were put in to the cell people were being threated with more charges if they didnt SHUT UP I believe was the term. All types of arrested people were placed in these cells from tresspass, drunk, warrants, gang/bangers, possesion, murder, and probably other assorted instances. I know I heard a woman screaming she wanted an attorney now.... It got worse we were moved about 11pm to a 2 room cell with 3 toilets overflowing with crap and piss, with as many people who were in there and brought in the next morning and placed that were from other floors in the facility, ranging from career criminals to off course us waiting.... this holding tank as well did not have water until later in the day. Food was outside the cell but not brought in we were moved again to somewher else. Even in jail NOT CONVICTED or CONVICTED you HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS. Everyone was treated the same all right,,,,,Lower than the stuff that was in the toilets. The stories I heard in the MEDIA I didnt believe, I do now….
Posted on 21-Jan-07 at 6:46 am

On January 6, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was arrested and charged with murder in the 1964 Klan slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. Six months later, on June 21, 2005, Killen was convicted on lesser charges, three counts of manslaughter.

At the time, Killen was one of ten living suspects in the triple murder case (now he's one of nine).

At the time, "The sheriff said there would be more arrests in the notorious case."

The Neshoba County Grand Jury goes on convening, most recently earlier this month, but there has yet to be another suspect charged in the 1964 triple murder case.

Some say we owe the indictment and conviction of Edgar Ray Killen to the Philadelphia Coalition and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, and we should therefore look to the Coalition and Institute for leadership in pursuing the other suspects. A handbook on racial reconciliation from the William Winter Institute tells it this way:

From April 5th [2004] through the beginning of the summer, the Coalition met weekly at a local church. Institute staff attended each meeting, helping to facilitate and providing logistical support for the group’s plan both to call for justice in a press conference and to host a public ceremony to honor the three young men. The initial meetings simply but profoundly allowed communities [sic] members to talk about the ë64 [sic] events and their emotions and thoughts surrounding that legacy. Many of these individuals spoke publicly for the first time and it was clear that these residents felt a mixture of guilt, anger, sorrow, and hope. The group committed quickly to issuing a public call for justice in the murders and to meeting with the local prosecutor to encourage pursuing the case. As plans for a press conference in May to publicize the call solidified, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church members asked for assistance at their annual memorial service for the workers and the Coalition decided to add a public call for justice, inviting all interested persons and public officials to lend pressure to their plea....

Coalition members worked with city and county officials to secure unanimous statements calling for justice to support their own call and local businesses, through the Community Development Partnership pledged to help raise support and funding for the upcoming community events.

On June 21, 2004, the fortieth anniversary of the murders, the Coalition hosted a public event in the Neshoba County Coliseum, attended by 1500 people, including the governor of the state of Mississippi and three congressmen.... And, as it had done in a press conference on May 26th, the Coalition again issued a challenge to the state of Mississippi to bring murder charges in the case, as well as an apology to the families of the victims, including Dr. Carolyn Goodman and her son David, who were in attendance.

The evening after the event, Coalition members and their families gathered to reflect on the previous day’s proceedings. Its members committed both to continuing pressure on public officials, with a planned invitation to Attorney General Jim Hood, and to sustaining the work of the coalition through one-on-one conversations with fellow community members, appropriate memorials to the three workers, and an educational initiative, to insure that local schoolchildren would learn of the devastating consequences of racism.

In September 2004, the Coalition hosted a dinner for Dr. Goodman and David Goodman and for Attorney General Jim Hood. The group hoped to “put a human face,” on the tragedy, to underscore for the state’s highest prosecutor the toll these murders had taken on family members as well as the community. The WWIRR continued to attend and support these meetings logistically and also began working with a statewide faith-based group, the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference, to offer a reward from an anonymous donor for new information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons involved in the murders. That reward of $100,000 became public in December.

On January 6, 2005, the Coalition’s efforts were rewarded. A local grand jury handed down the first murder indictments in the case....

Reading this history, you'd think investigation and indictment of Edgar Ray Killen came about because of the Institute and Coalition meetings with Attorney General Jim Hood. Yet the story of the investigation begins long before the inception of the either the Institute or the Coalition.

[click to continue…]

The NAACP is calling on the Department of Justice to take the necessary steps to protect African American mayors in Louisiana and to fully investigate a number of recent violent incidents and threats.

Westlake Mayor-elect Gerald Washington's body was found by authorities Dec. 30 near his pickup truck at the old Mossville High School west of town. He was to have taken office two days later. The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office and Calcasieu Coroner's Office ruled Washington's death a suicide. State police took over the investigation after Washington's family questioned the findings, claiming Washington was murdered. He won the election by a wide margin last year.

Two shotgun rounds were fired into the home of Greenwood Mayor Ernest Lampkins on Monday. No one was injured, but the shooting is under investigation by Greenwood Police and the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office. Leslie Thompson, who just took office as Jonesboro's first black mayor, has been receiving death threats at his home by telephone.

Louisiana NAACP President Earnest L. Johnson has caught the tone of recent events quite succinctly. He questions

why local governments have not set up information/tip lines or offered rewards to develop leads in the shootings. He describes the terrorist acts as outright voter intimidation and compares their impact on the community to that felt during the deadly spate of church burnings and bombings experienced in the 1960s and 1990s.

Johnson thinks the incidents are intended as voter intimidation after Black electoral successes, just like in the old days. Also, the shooting into Ernest Lampkins' home was not the first incident that has occurred there:

In December, he found a “for sale” sign in his front yard.

The violent incidents and threats hearken back to the days of night riders and an unfettered Ku Klux Klan---and so does the utter silence of state and federal law enforcement officials.

SURVIVORS VILLAGE

Media contact:
Endesha Juakali / survivorsvillage at gmail dot com / 504.239.2907 or 504.284.6975
Stephanie Mingo / vmingo at bellsouth dot net / 504.529.3171

January 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

New Orleans, LA (January 15, 2007) – With mops and buckets in hand, displaced residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Project will go through the barbed wire fence surrounding their homes to clean and rehabilitate them. On Monday, January 15, Martin Luther King Day, the residents will rally at 12:00pm at Bynum Drugs Store, 3838 St. Bernard Ave, and then enter the property to restore their homes at 12:30.

"Our homes are livable, and we are cleaning them out so that we can live in them," says Sharon Seans Jasper, a St. Bernard resident and organizer." We will not let the city destroy them."

"The residents who will be cleaning their apartments have current leases and therefore have a legal right to enter their homes," says rally organizer Endesha Juakali of Survivors Village. "However, the police may not honor this right. Therefore public housing residents will be evoking the spirit of Dr. King on this Martin Luther King Day."

HANO and HUD plan to demolish over 5000 units of affordable public housing, housing that is desperately needed for families that wish to move back to New Orleans. In a market where rents have increased between 70 and 300 percent since Katrina, inflated rents and the lack of subsidized housing has been a major factor in preventing evacuees from returning to their homes. Finding private landlords that accept housing vouchers is extremely difficult, and finding affordable housing without subsidization is nearly impossible for public housing recipients.

HUD's own cost analysis reveals that their plan to demolish and rebuild will waste taxpayers' money. A recent motion for summary judgment filed in a current suit to reopen the development (available at: http://justiceforneworleans.org) cites HUD documents that show the demolition and redevelopment of public housing "will end up costing over $175 million more than extensively modernizing the developments, and upwards of $450 million more than simply repairing them would cost." The motion also argues that the demolitions have racial implications. "Prior to Katrina over 5,100 African-American families lived in New Orleans' public housing. Nearly 14 months later, only approximately 1,000 have been allowed to return. HANO's actions clearly have disproportionately harmed African-Americans and have lead to the overall decline in the city's African American population since Katrina."

Despite overwhelming support for the re-opening of public housing, HANO and HUD have consistently ignored public opinion and advocated for its demolition. HANO has received a resounding and unquestionable "NO!" to their plans from public housing residents at their recent court-mandated 'resident consultation meeting.' Angry residents accused HANO of "ethnic cleansing," and told them "being poor is not a crime."

~
UPDATE: The blogger from Note From The Book, who is from the St. Bernard neighborhood in New Orleans, was there at yesterday's events. He has two posts about it, here and here.

Book also was blogging during Katrina and in the immediate aftermath. See especially his story of his experiences during Katrina.