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Cashing In On Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman

Now that a year has passed since Edgar Ray Killen was put behind bars for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, Philadelphia, MS is ready to cash in.

In June, 2005, forty-one years after a band of racists murdered the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, MS, James E. Prince III said he was telling his fellow white townspeople that

if they can't be behind the call for justice because it's the right thing to do--and that's first and foremost--then they need to do it 'cause it's good for business.

Another year later, in July 2006, Prince, along with Stanley Dearman, Prince's predecessor as editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, and State Senator Gloria Williamson have launched a public relations campaign to bring a proposed civil rights museum to Philadelphia, MS.

Jeff Edwards, staff reporter for the Neshoba Democrat, writes:

In the coming months, members of the committee [charged with studying the possibility of a museum] will decide on a location and possible funding sources. . . .

"The Killen trial . .  . made more people aware that we needed such a museum. It had a great deal to do with attention on the civil rights era and I suspect Neshoba County will be a lead character at the museum," [Williamson said].

Stanley Dearman, who covered the civil rights murders and subsequent investigation, said a museum would be very important for the state and Neshoba County.

"It's important to preserve that history and have it in one place for scholars and school groups to see," Dearman said.

He hopes Philadelphia will be considered for the museum site, noting the importance it played in the civil rights movement.

"It would be an excellent choice for it," Dearman said. "Neshoba County is on the map as far as the civil rights movement is concerned. It was put on the map by what the Klan did in 1964."

Dearman thinks he can support both a Mississippi civil rights museum and a monument  to the Confederacy, but why does the Klan get to decide where the civil rights museum will go?

The way Prince tells it, Philadelphia has redeemed itself from its own history and is now a light unto the nations, for which a civil rights museum is its just reward:

After 40 years, business and civic leaders here called for justice because it was the right thing. Soon there was a statewide chorus that crossed racial, political and religious lines.

Mr. Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison last year for orchestrating the 1964 murders of James Earl Chaney, Michael H. Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, young men who had been organizing a black voter registration drive.

To the whole world Philadelphia was long a symbol of hatred, yet now has become a symbol of hope and reconciliation.

Though Philadelphia is largely a city of good, God-fearing souls, Prince cannot appeal to devout sentiment for very long without returning to crass promises of earthly rewards.

Such a museum could be another spoke in our tourism-driven economy while telling a story that much of the world wants - and needs - to hear.

The world doesn't want to hear that Mississippi in 2006 is protecting white, racist murderers. Let's tell the world that we're done with racism and make us some cash.

Prince got himself onto the subject of redemption in the first place by mentioning a recent article in the NY Times.

Even the normally critical New York Times observed about us recently that the June 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen was "a redemption for the small town of Philadelphia, Miss."

But this only half true. The full sentence in the NY Times reads:

Mr. Killen’s manslaughter conviction in June 2005 was hailed as a long-awaited victory for the civil rights movement and a redemption for the small town of Philadelphia, Miss., outside of which the killings occurred (emphasis added).

Was hailed as a redemption by whom? Perhaps by Prince but not by the NY Times.

As the saying goes, a half truth is simply a lie.

The NY Times article, which Prince quoted out of context, covered Judge Marcus Gordon's rejection of Edgar Ray Killen's latest request to be released from prison on appeal bond. Before Gordon's decision, when it looked like Killen might get to live the rest of his days as a free man, many of Prince's journalist colleagues thought it important to take a moral stand, decrying the possible outrage. Prince was silent.

My advice to Prince, if he wants to pull off his next PR stunt, is get a little more comfortable saying "Black" and "African American." He managed it once in the first 100 words of his editorial, when he mentioned that Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman "had been organizing a black voter registration drive."  But mentioning Blacks again, 100 words later was a little more than he could handle.

Successfully lobbying for the museum would benefit this entire region of the state as we embrace our rich cultural heritage, from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to the Jewish influence in Meridian and beyond statewide.

Who were those civil rights for again?

James Prince: "This is a real opportunity for East Mississippi."

Whose culture and history are we remembering?

James Prince: "This is a real opportunity for East Mississippi."

Honest Appraisal

1

"In the 1960s, my husband helped the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission de-fund the pioneer Head Start programs in our state," said Courtney Tannehill, the widow of former Neshoba Democrat editor Jack Tannehill, "and he worked to promote the Commission's segregationist agenda to Mississippi industrialists."

"I am here today to acknowledge the truth about my husband's participation in Mississippi's brutal racist regime," Mrs. Tannehill continued in her address to a group of African-American and white community leaders in Philadelphia, MS. "If we cannot tell the truth about our past, we cannot establish the trust necessary for meaningful reconciliation and improved race relations in Neshoba County today, in 2006."

Sadly, I am putting words in Mrs. Tannehill's mouth. Though Courtney Tannehill is a member of the Philadelphia Coalition, the quotation above was an exercise in wishful thinking about what it might look like if the organization were truly engaged in racial reconciliation.

In June 2005, as reporters anticipating the trial of of Edgar Ray Killen streamed into Philadelphia, MS, current editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat and co-chair of the Philadelphia Coalition, James E. Prince III, bragged that

[t]he editor of The Neshoba Democrat is one of the first persons these reporters seek out. They came to talk to Stanley Dearman (still do) and to Jack Tannehill before him.

Since the indictment of Edgar Ray Killen in January there have been so many reporters that I can’t possibly keep track of all the conversations and interviews.

While Jack Tannehill's widow did not ever say the words attributed to her, above, there is indeed evidence that her late husband worked with the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, the state spy agency, to enlist business owners in "solving problems" associated with the Civil Rights Act and to keep Mississippi's Black children undernourished and undereducated.

2

On February 26, 1965, Jack Tannehill wrote a letter on Neshoba Democrat letterhead to Erle Johnston, Director of the State Sovereignty Commission (emphasis added):

Dear Erle:

On behalf of the East Mississsippi Management Club, I want to express our appreciation to for the very timely talk you gave us last Tuesday night. Without exception, every one of the 28 members present said they thoroughly enjoyed the program and learned so much of the Sovereignty Commission's work which they never realized meant so much to them and this state.

Information on the Commission's work and its policies and accomplishments was all new to many of the group. It caused them to realize that the Commission was sincerely interested in helping industrialists, as well as others, without being radical and advocating policies which might be detrimental to our progress.

As you know, this was a meeting of industrial management of east central Mississippi towns and cities at which the members discuss mutual problems in an informal manner. Every thing said and discussed is strictly 'off the record'.

Many of the members asked me to say that they felt now they had a place to get some assistance in solving problems which might arise from pressure groups and the recent enactment of the Civil Rights Act.

In short, those present appreciate the image you have been and are creating for our state. As one put it, "I'll have to change my opinion of the Sovereignty Commission's philosophy since listening to its director talk."

Erle, thanks again, and I hope you will return for this or another type meeting here in the near future.

Yours truly,

Jack [handwritten]

Jack L. Tannehill

cc: Gov. Paul Johnson
State Capital

While I often emphasize the Sovereignty Commission's spying activities, and its direct assistance to White Citizens' Council and the Klan, the Commission was also a public relations agency. The Sovereignty Commission emphasized its "dual function" in an undated informational pamphlet, which I believe was intended for the members of the MS state legislature in 1966:

The Sovereignty Commission has operated a dual function of investigation and indexing subversive groups and individuals operating in the state and also a public relations program to correct false statements about Mississippi and enhance the state's prestige to offset impressions made by a few regrettable incidents of violence. Information about subversives has been exploited on occasion to reduce their effectiveness.

In its public relations function, the Sovereignty Commission cultivated contacts with the editors of many of the major newspapers in Mississippi—including Jack Tannehill at the Neshoba Democrat. The meetings, such as the one organized by Tannehill, above, were far from unusual. Numerous Sovereignty Commission documents detail major industry and business leaders serving in official advisory roles for the public relations activities of the Commission.

3

In fact, the Mississippi agency's two functions frequently overlapped. In 1966, when Mississippi's white power structure pulled out all the stops to cripple existing Head Start programs and redirect federal funds to new organizations that whites could control, the Sovereignty Commission marshaled its cadre of newspaper  editors for the cause.

Some background from Susan Klopfer's book, Where Rebels Roost:

The Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) was one of the country's pioneer Head Start programs, providing poor children with medical care, hot meals and preschool training. Some employment was also provided for several hundred local people who worked as teachers and helpers. So of course it was target for destruction by the planter hegemony. . . .

All of Mississippi's Congressional representatives voted against funding the poverty programs in the first place. The Jackson Daily News compared such programs with those in "Soviet Russia . . . and Hitler's Germany."

Head Start and other poverty programs represented "the most subtle mediums for instilling the acceptance of racial integration and ultimate mongrelization ever perpetrated in this country," the JDN editorialized.

This attitude was shared across the state, as several CDGM workers were shot at by racists; local schools would not rent their buildings and buses to the program; and in one Delta town, Anguilla, plantation  owners would not allow sharecroppers' children to enroll. Klansmen there burned a cross in front of the Head Start center to make their point.

Even though the new educational program was seeing successes, many white state political leaders tried their best to destroy CDGM, charging financial mismanagement. US Senator John C. Stennis was contracted and he demanded that Sargent Shriver, head of the US Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), withhold funds. (548)

And that's where Jack Tannehill and his colleagues came in. On October 7, 1966, Sovereignty Commission Director Erle Johnston wrote a memo to Martin Fraley, Director of the Mississippi state branch of the Office of Economic Opportunity, about a telegram sending campaign to shift funds from CDGM to a new state agency, Mississippi Action for Progress (MAP).

In line with your suggestion, we made contacts on Thursday, October 6, to have a variety of telegrams sent to Sargent Shriver supporting the new Action for Progress committee in Mississippi.

We composed telegrams and read them over the telephone and all were supposed to have been sent by Thursday evening. We made our contacts chiefly in those areas where CDGM had operated headstart [sic] schools.

The contacts were state senator E.K. Collins and thirteen newspaper executives, including Jack Tannehill at the Neshoba Democrat. Johnston indicated that the anti-CDGM telegram sending campaign was suggested by Fraley. Fraley was director of the state arm of the federal agency responsible for administering President Johnson's War on Poverty programs, including Head Start.

Before taking his post as director of the Mississippi Office of Economic Opportunity, Fraley was chairman of the Mississippi parole board. Frank Barber, a well connected political operative, who held high political offices in Mississippi and also worked for infamous racist and Mississippi Senator James Eastland in DC, characterized Fraley as "a man of all work-advisor, strategist, technician, tactician" for Governor Paul Johnson. The governor of Mississippi was, ex-officio, chairman of the Sovereignty Commission.

4

The telegram campaign against CDGM was suggested by the top advisor for the Sovereignty Commission's chairman to the director of the agency, Erle Johnston, who, in turn, asked Jack Tannnehill and his colleagues to participate.

[A]fter two years of investigations, surveillance, firings, audits, press attacks, closures and threats, CDGM died in December 1967. Mississippi Action for Progress or MAP gained control over most of CDGM's funding and projects. (Klopfer, 549)

Klopfer quotes John Dittmer on MAP, saying, "the poverty program in Mississippi had divided the black community into warring factions, often pitting the poor men and women who had become politicized in the early 1960s against the old, traditional, middle-class leadership.

Divide and conquer. Bait and switch. Keep some (less militant) Black people visible in the newly configured MAP-controlled Head Start programs, while obtaining more of all that good federal money for the benefit of white folks. I believe researchers will find some interesting results if they compare how many whites and how many Blacks got Head Start jobs and contracts under CDGM and then under MAP.

There has been some popular debate about whether Jack Tannehill was speaking about the Klan or about civil rights workers when, in an April 9, 1964 editorial, he wrote, "Outsiders who come in here and try to stir up trouble should be dealt with in a manner they won't forget." James E. Prince III, is the only person who has seriously claimed in public that Tannehill was not threatening civil rights workers but rather telling the Klan to get out of Neshoba County.

As usual, I think Prince is full of it, but focusing the historical debate on this one anecdote is a way to avoid the history of white supremacy in Neshoba County and in Mississippi as a whole. Jack Tannehill didn't just incite his readers to perpetrate violence against civil rights workers. He was active in the work of the white power structure to keep resources out of the hands of African Americans. He was also active in the white power structure's public relations campaign to sell to the world a fictional image of Mississippi while Black children starved and white, racist murderers roamed free.

5

"We challenge our fellow citizens to join us in an honest appraisal of the past."

The Philadelphia Coalition
June 21, 2005

RELATED POSTS

• Progress?
• Products of the Environment
• Foreword for Susan Klopfer's Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited (2005)

Mississippi Speak Out

Even the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists have not stooped to the level that you have with personal attacks. Comment all you want on my written record and the facts. But let’s not resort to personal attacks.

James E, Prince III
Email to Ben Greenberg
June 16, 2006

Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were not civil-rights workers. They were Communist Revolutionaries, actively working to undermine and destroy Christian Civilization.

An officer of the White Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi
The Klan-Ledger
Special Neshoba County Fair Edition
August, 1964

We wonder how Supervisor Jake Brown lives so well on his pay. We suspect that his liquor bill is almost as high each month as his salary for supervisor. He  has a girl friend out on Highway 61 South who he spends a great deal of time with. A girl friend like yours must cost a great deal of money, huh Jake?

Other white supremacists
The Mississippi White Caps
February, 1963

Of all my experiences with The Philadelphia Coalition and the successful prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen, I am shocked most at how threatened you and the other ultraliberals are by conservatives who are willing to speak out on matters such as the civil rights murders in Neshoba County. Rather than join us at the table, you resort to smear campaigns to discredit.

Surprisingly, the resistance has not come from within Neshoba County or Mississippi. The resistance has come from the liberal left.

James E. Prince III
Email to Ben Greenberg
June 16, 2006

The public must always be made to feel that we are the ones who are doing work and that those who oppose us are foul traitors, scoundrels and blackguards. This is a life and death struggle. We must strive at all times to break and destroy our enemies, while maintaining good relations with the public.

Constitution of the White Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi
1965

Resistance

James E. Prince III explains the resistance to progress on race relations in Neshoba County, MS this way:

Surprisingly, the resistance has not come from within Neshoba County or Mississippi. The resistance has come from the liberal left.

As someone whom Prince takes as an example of this so-called "liberal left" resistance, I must beg to differ. I wish I could say, in turn, that the problem boils down to Prince, the Neshoba Democrat (his news outlet), and the Philadelphia Coalition (the organization he co-chairs). If that were it, there would not be much work left to do.

Rather, I beg to differ on the assertion that "the resistance has not come from within Neshoba County or Mississippi." While not limited to them, local and state players have been an ample source of resistance to progress and change.

See, for example, the following letter from the Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center's John Gibson to the editors of the Clarion-Ledger, another prominent Mississippi news outlet, based in Jackson. I have noted that the Ledger's response to recent developments in the Edgar Ray Killen case was far superior to that of Prince's Neshoba Democrat. Still, the Ledger did not print Gibson's letter, nor has it publicly pressed Mississippi's Attorney General Jim Hood and Neshoba County's Distric Attorney Mark Duncan on the questions Gibson raises.

From: Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center
To: Ronnie Agnew, Executive Editor, The Clarion-Ledger
Cc: David Hampton, Editorial Director, The Clarion-Ledger
Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger
Date: March 20, 2006
Subject: Neshoba murders: Present all evidence to grand jury

Letter to the editor

It is interesting to note that your newspaper's editorial on the Till case states that "the FBI report should be presented to a local grand jury and, of course, acted upon if there is new information that could result in indictments. More important, the FBI report should be made public to answer any remaining questions." This is appropriate albeit long overdue.

The same is true for the Neshoba murders case. Had the District Attorney and Attorney General presented all important evidence to the local grand jury, perhaps there would have been several more indictments rather than only the indictment of Edgar Killen. The grand jury heard evidence as presented by DA Mark Duncan and AG Jim Hood for only one day or less in January 2005. The transcript of the 1967 federal trial for conspiracy to deny civil rights related to the murders is 3,000 pages long. That trial resulted in the conviction of four men who are still living: Jimmy Arledge, Sam Bowers, Billy Wayne Posey, and Jimmy Snowden. Others still living should have been convicted. It seems that a local grand jury would have readily indicted more people in 2005, if the grand jury had been presented the available evidence.

Why wasn't that evidence presented to the Neshoba grand jury in 2005?

Why isn't that evidence presented now to a grand jury?

Why isn't your newspaper calling for that evidence to be presented to a local grand jury?

Why was only Killen prosecuted?

John Gibson

Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Clarion Ledger, March 20, 2006

Till case Report could begin final resolution

The FBI reportedly has finished its investigation of the Emmett Till case and has turned over its final report to District Attorney Joyce Chiles of Greenville for local action.

It has been more than 50 years since the 14-year-old Till was kidnapped, beaten, shot and thrown into the Tallahatchie River after the young black man was accused of whistling at a white woman. Roy Bryant, the husband of the woman, and his half-brother J.W. Milam, both now deceased, were accused of the crime, but acquitted by an all-white jury. They later admitted it.

The case was reopened in 2004. The FBI says the statute of limitations for federal civil rights laws has expired, but the state could pursue charges.

Despite the difficulty of prosecuting the old case, the FBI report should be presented to a local grand jury and, of course, acted upon if there is new information that could result in indictments. More important, the FBI report should be made public to answer any remaining questions.

The Emmett Till case is one of the most horrendous of the era. This latest effort to bring some justice has been worth it. It now should be left to Mississippi citizens to speak to the evidence.

By The Content of Their Character

The email, below, is the last communication I have received to date from James E Prince III concerning his demands that I remove comments posted here by one of my readers. The back story is in the post immediately preceding this one.

From: James E. Prince III <jprince at neshobademocrat dot com>
To: Benjamin Greenberg <minorjive at gmail dot com>
Date: Jun 16, 2006 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: FalseAndDefamatory


Mr. Greenberg:

The 5th Circuit is so far upholding the rights of bloggers like you to defame and slander, I am advised, although that does not prevent one from attempting to set new legal precedent. So at least for now you win on that count. But still, you are knowingly publishing false and defamatory statements, contradicting your own pledge on your website.

Is this the new liberalism, to knowingly harm another human being for sheer entertainment and attention?

I have in good faith asked you to remove statements by “Suzy Sharino” that are false and defamatory and clearly a very personal attack by a former disgruntled employee posing as a woman. No such person has ever worked for me nor do I know “her.”

Of all my experiences with The Philadelphia Coalition and the successful prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen, I am shocked most at how threatened you and the other ultraliberals are by conservatives who are willing to speak out on matters such as the civil rights murders in Neshoba County. Rather than join us at the table, you resort to smear campaigns to discredit.

Surprisingly, the resistance has not come from within Neshoba County or Mississippi. The resistance has come from the liberal left. (That’s the book in me.)

Even the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists have not stooped to the level that you have with personal attacks. Comment all you want on my written record and the facts. But let’s not resort to personal attacks.

From the outset what motivated me most in organizing the Coalition was justice along with peace and reconciliation that I have come to realize flows only from a regenerated heart. People like you make reconciliation difficult to achieve with your divisiveness and petty blog practices that serve no useful purpose other than to tear down. But in a Google age, you rule.

You are committing murder with the tongue and are no better than the band of thugs who took the lives of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.

You are a disgrace to your father’s name.

Sincerely,

Jim Prince

--
James E. Prince III
Editor and Publisher
The Neshoba Democrat
P.O. Box 30
Philadelphia, MS 39350
601-656-4000
FAX 601-656-6379
jprince at neshobademocrat dot com

Update on James Prince's Legal Threats Against Me

Early last month I posted an exchange of emails between myself and James E. Prince III, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat and co-chair of the Philadelphia Coalition.

Last February, a person who identifies herself as Suzy Sharino, and who claims to be a former reporter for Prince, left a comment on HungryBlues, which enraged Mr. Prince. Sharino's comment was made in response to this post. There and elsewhere (more), I am critical of Prince and the Philadelphia Coalition, which has charged itself with "establishing a perpetual structure that will foster racial harmony and reconciliation" in Neshoba County, MS.

Prince claimed that Sharino's comments are false and defamatory. For that reason, Prince demanded that I remove them from my blog. Prince was unclear in those initial emails, which specific statements by Sharino were false and defamatory; instead, he insisted I remove the entirety of Sharino's comment and made vague threats about contacting his lawyer.

In my last email message to Prince, I explained that neither bloggers nor their ISPs are liable for comments left by third parties, like Suzy Sharino. I concluded by saying:

If you have a specific request to make of me, please make it with the appropriate rationale, so I can consider it. Be advised, however, that since the statements that you mention were made be [sic] a third party, retractions are purely a matter of my discretion. Your threats have no sway with me. You are of course welcome to make a comment on my blog to rebut any of Suzy Sharino's statements.

That was on June 4 in the afternoon. That evening, Prince wrote to me again, making specific denials by asserting that:

Among other things, my grandfather was never in the Citizens Counsel, I certainly didn’t embezzle funds from the Coalition and give them to Haley Barbour and I have never sexually harassed an employee.

Prince also denied that anyone named Suzy Sharino ever worked for him. He made an insinuation about Sharino's real identity and then amplified his previous legal threats:

You may smugly hide hide behind the “third party” assertion but it’s my reputation and I believe that I will ultimately prevail in having this post removed if we have to go all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

I can’t print statements in my newspapers that are knowingly false without consequences. I would not mind making a point with someone as arrogant as you and who clearly possesses such a reckless disregard for the truth. The First Amendment is not a license to mount a slanderous attack on anyone as you have allowed.

I did not respond to this, but on on June 5, Prince sent me two separate email messages that included what he believed to be evidence that he did not sexually harass a former employee, as Sharino had claimed. I did not consider Prince's evidence to be conclusive. To avoid acting or speaking impulsively, however, I took no further action and did not respond to Prince.

Having heard nothing further from me, Prince wrote to me again on June 16, saying that he is backing down from his legal threats for now. He then launched into a vicious attack, saying, among other things that I am "no better than the band of thugs who took the lives of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney."

I did not want to respond to Prince in kind, so again I remained silent.

I have at this point decided on two courses of action.

1. The one allegation by Suzy Sharino that Prince addressed substantively was that Prince sexually harassed a former employee. Therefore, as a courtesy, I am deleting that portion Suzy Sharino's comment.
2. I am publishing in its entirety Prince's last message to me. I believe it will say more than I ever can about the character of James E. Prince III.

A Small Measure of Justice

Killen will stay in jail
By Jerry Mitchelll
Clarion Ledger

PHILADELPHIA — Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon concluded today that Edgar Ray Killen should remain in prison while he appeals his conviction for organizing the Klansmen who killed James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner on June 21, 1964.

“I’m not sure I have the authority” to grant an appeal bond, Gordon said at a hearing here Friday on Killen’s request to get out of jail. He noted that the state Supreme Court had rejected on a technicality the appeal of his decision to rescind an earlier appeal bond and that Killen’s lawyers had not refiled an appeal.

But Gordon added, even if he had the authority, there is “no evidence presented today” that would compel him to release Killen.

It is a sad irony to have to keep advocating for the right thing to happen in just this very small corner of the vast map of injustices in Mississippi. Still I am glad Killen will continue to do a little more of the time he deserves. He will not live long enough to adequately suffer appropriate consequences for his actions.

Progress?

A year ago, on June 21, 2005, at the Neshoba County Courthouse, in Philadelphia, MS, former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

According to James E. Prince III, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, the Killen conviction announced "a new dawn in Mississippi, one in which the chains of cynicism and racism have been broken and we are free, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!"

A year later, on July 1, 2006, a statue of a Confederate soldier, a monument to racism and slavery, was returned to the Neshoba County Courthouse lawn.

The monument was damaged in a storm in 1990, but the Neshoba County Monument Restoration Committee raised $13,500 necessary to restore  the monument, first placed on the courthouse lawn in 1912.

Last year, following the Killen conviction, Stanley Dearman, past editor of the Neshoba Democrat and current member of the Philadelphia Coalition, stated, "There's some sort of cosmic justice working somewhere."

This year, Dearman was listed as one of the members of the Neshoba County Monument Restoration Committee. Did he help raise the $13,500 to restore the Confederate soldier to its place in front of the courthouse where Killen was convicted of manslaughter (but not murder)?

Tomorrow, Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen's attorneys will argue yet again for an appeal bond, based on Killen's deteriorating health. If they are successful, Killen may be able to spend the rest of his days yet again a free man.

Today, in a column in Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion Ledger, Gary Pettus said that if Killen is released it will be "a final victory for Mississippi's dark side."

Yesterday, the Neshoba Democrat, which is based in Philadelphia, MS, published an an article by Debbie Burt Myers, mostly rehearsing the arguments of Killen's defense. The article does not quote anyone stating what would be wrong with releasing Killen. The Neshoba Democrat has not, to my knowledge, published any coluumn or editorial demanding justice regarding tomorrow's appeal by Killen's lawyers.

The Neshoba Democrat is prominently linked at the bottom of the Philadelphia Coalition's website. James E. Prince III, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, is also co-chair of the Philadelphia Coalition, a multi-racial organization, which states its mission is "to seek the truth, to insure justice for all, and to nurture reconciliation."

Yesterday's edition Neshoba Democrat also included an article by David Sanders putting "in context" Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign speech at the Neshoba County Fair, in which Reagan said,

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.

Sanders' idea of context is to quote opinions that "Nothing about Ronald Reagan ever suggested — nothing in his policies, nothing in his background — that race was made an issue." Earl Ofari Hutchinson would beg to differ, as would I.

A year ago, the Philadelphia Coalition declared, "Others responsible for this crime must be brought to justice as well."

A year later, I received an email from the Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center, asking:

What happened to the Philadelphia Coalition's commitment to bring others to justice in addition to Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen in the Neshoba murders case of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner?

Did a commitment to the pursuit of a full measure of truth and justice on the part of the Philadelphia Coalition ever exist?

In addition to Edgar Ray Killen, there was sufficient evidence to arrest and/or indict on federal charges related to the murders the following men in the 1960s, all still living:

Jimmy Arledge - presently living, Meridian, MS

Sam Bowers - presently living, Central MS Correctional Facility

Olen Burrage - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - presently living, Meridian, MS

Tommy Horne - presently living, Meridian, MS

Billy Wayne Posey - presently living, Meridian, MS

Jimmy Snowden - presently living, Hickory, MS

Jimmy Lee Townsend - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

Richard Willis - presently living, Noxapater, MS

Progress?

A year ago, on June 21, 2005, at the Neshoba County Courthouse, in Philadelphia, MS, former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

According to James E. Prince III, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, the Killen conviction announced "a new dawn in Mississippi, one in which the chains of cynicism and racism have been broken and we are free, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!"

A year later, on July 1, 2006, a statue of a Confederate soldier, a monument to racism and slavery, was returned to the Neshoba County Courthouse lawn.

The monument was damaged in a storm in 1990, but the Neshoba County Monument Restoration Committee raised $13,500 necessary to restore  the monument, first placed on the courthouse lawn in 1912.

Last year, following the Killen conviction, Stanley Dearman, past editor of the Neshoba Democrat and current member of the Philadelphia Coalition, stated, "There's some sort of cosmic justice working somewhere."

This year, Dearman was listed as one of the members of the Neshoba County Monument Restoration Committee. Did he help raise the $13,500 to restore the Confederate soldier to its place in front of the courthouse where Killen was convicted of manslaughter (but not murder)?

Tomorrow, Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen's attorneys will argue yet again for an appeal bond, based on Killen's deteriorating health. If they are successful, Killen may be able to spend the rest of his days yet again a free man.

Today, in a column in Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion Ledger, Gary Pettus said that if Killen is released it will be "a final victory for Mississippi's dark side."

Yesterday, the Neshoba Democrat, which is based in Philadelphia, MS, published an an article by Debbie Burt Myers, mostly rehearsing the arguments of Killen's defense. The article does not quote anyone stating what would be wrong with releasing Killen. The Neshoba Democrat has not, to my knowledge, published any coluumn or editorial demanding justice regarding tomorrow's appeal by Killen's lawyers.

The Neshoba Democrat is prominently linked at the bottom of the Philadelphia Coalition's website. James E. Prince III, editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, is also co-chair of the Philadelphia Coalition, a multi-racial organization, which states its mission is "to seek the truth, to insure justice for all, and to nurture reconciliation."

Yesterday's edition Neshoba Democrat also included an article by David Sanders putting "in context" Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign speech at the Neshoba County Fair, in which Reagan said,

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.

Sanders' idea of context is to quote opinions that "Nothing about Ronald Reagan ever suggested — nothing in his policies, nothing in his background — that race was made an issue." Earl Ofari Hutchinson would beg to differ, as would I.

A year ago, the Philadelphia Coalition declared, "Others responsible for this crime must be brought to justice as well."

A year later, I received an email from the Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center, asking:

What happened to the Philadelphia Coalition's commitment to bring others to justice in addition to Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen in the Neshoba murders case of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner?

Did a commitment to the pursuit of a full measure of truth and justice on the part of the Philadelphia Coalition ever exist?

In addition to Edgar Ray Killen, there was sufficient evidence to arrest and/or indict on federal charges related to the murders the following men in the 1960s, all still living:

Jimmy Arledge - presently living, Meridian, MS

Sam Bowers - presently living, Central MS Correctional Facility

Olen Burrage - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - presently living, Meridian, MS

Tommy Horne - presently living, Meridian, MS

Billy Wayne Posey - presently living, Meridian, MS

Jimmy Snowden - presently living, Hickory, MS

Jimmy Lee Townsend - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

Richard Willis - presently living, Noxapater, MS

Shades of Atrios and Luskin

James E. Prince III, Editor and Publisher of the Mississippi newspaper and online news source, the Neshoba Democrat, wrote an email message to me last night, at 11:19 p.m., which referenced this HungryBlues entry, which I posted last July, and said:

Mr. Greenberg:

The post by Jonathan David Jackson is false and defamatory and I ask that you remove it immediately.

Jim Prince

--
James E. Prince III
Editor and Publisher
The Neshoba Democrat
    P.O. Box 30
Philadelphia, MS 39350
601-656-4000
FAX 601-656-6379
jprince@neshobademocrat.com

Confused by this request, I wrote the following message back to Mr. Prince:

Dear Mr. Prince,

What part of Jonathan David Jackson's comment on my blog do you consider false and defamatory? Here is what he wrote, in full, in response to the post you reference:

    I love the clear, careful reasoning as you build this case against a closet (or not so closet) bigot and expose the true complexity of these issues. I also admire the primary source documents that you post on the site. This essay is definitely one of your most insightful.

    Posted by: Jonathan David Jackson | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 05:15 PM

Ben Greenberg

This morning James E.  Prince III replied with a clarification and a threat of legal action:

I’m speaking of the comments below apparently by Suzy Sharino then. It’s actually difficult to tell who made these slanderous comments. But they need to be gone. I don’t think either one of us wants to get my lawyers involved.

Jim Prince

Earlier this afternoon, I answered with this email:

Dear Mr. Prince,

I am surprised that you, as editor and publisher of a newspaper, would write an demand letter that is so vague. I would have assumed that you know the mechanics of demanding retractions for specific statements.

It would be less surprising to me, perhaps, if you are unaware that neither bloggers nor their ISPs are libel [sic] for comments left by third parties, such as Suzy Sharino.

If you have a specific request to make of me, please make it with the appropriate rationale, so I can consider it. Be advised, however, that since the statements that you mention were made be [sic] a third party, retractions are purely a matter of my discretion. Your threats have no sway with me. You are of course welcome to make a comment  on my blog to rebut any of Suzy Sharino's statements.

Ben Greenberg

One Year Later & Only Killen Prosecuted

By the Arkansas Delta Peace And Justice Center

Philadelphia, Mississippi
Civil Rights Murders Case

One year ago on January 6, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was indicted on state murder charges. He was convicted on three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005.

None of the many others who were complicit in the murders of the three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, have been indicted by the state of Mississippi.

Why only Killen prosecuted?

Ten people who faced federal conspiracy to deny civil rights or other charges in the 1960s related to the murders of the three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi are still living.

But only Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen finally faced state charges.

Why only Killen?

What about the others?

Jimmy Arledge - presently living, Meridian, MS

Sam Bowers - presently living, Central MS Correctional Facility

Olen Burrage - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - presently living, Meridian, MS

Tommy Horne - presently living, Meridian, MS

Billy Wayne Posey - presently living, Meridian, MS

Jimmy Snowden - presently living, Hickory, MS

Jimmy Lee Townsend - presently living, Philadelphia, MS

Richard Willis - presently living, Noxapater, MS

Adopt A Racist Boor For Martin Luther King Day

I really have not kept up on what CORE does these days, but now I am utterly disinclined to try. For Martin Luther King Day 2006, CORE is honoring Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour—panderer to white supremacists who wears the confederate flag on his lapel with pride.

“We have invited Gov. Barbour as a representative of all of the great people of Mississippi in recognition of the state’s progress in race relations after the successful prosecution of the 1964 murders of CORE volunteers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner,” said CORE national spokesman Niger Innis.

“America looks upon Philadelphia, Mississippi’s bi-racial jury holding Edgar Ray Killen responsible for those murders as a shining example of the progress our nation has achieved since the Civil Rights era.”

In observance of the King federal holiday, CORE hosts an annual Ambassadorial Reception and Awards Dinner in New York City. This event has grown to become one of the largest events in the country honoring Dr. King with more than 2,000 people from all walks of life attending each year.

This year’s 21st annual black tie event will be held at the New York Sheraton Hotel and Towers at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2006.

If you're relatively new to HungryBlues, you may not know that I have a somewhat different view of the significance of the Edgar Ray Killen trial.

The article is from the Jim Prince edited Neshoba Democrat, so not only do we get the drivel, above, we get a whole lot more about Barbour's "historic" role in supporting the "call to justice" of the Philadelphia Coalition, which Prince co-chairs.

The indictment of the ex-Ku Klux Klan leader in January followed a community-wide call for justice which the governor and other elected officials embraced here in June 2004 at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the slayings.

At the commemoration the governor said it was a complicit sin to ignore evil....

Gov. Barbour was in Philadelphia and joined in the call for justice at the event which drew about 1,800.

“We know that when evil is done it is a complicit sin to ignore it, to pretend it didn’t happen even if it happened 40 years ago. You have to face up to your problems before you can solve them,” Barbour said at the time.

One year later, on June 21, 2005, a Neshoba County jury found Edgar Ray Killen guilty of three counts of manslaughter in connection with the murders.

Let's just say that neither Barbour's appearance at nor the Philadelphia Coalition's role in the memorial were universally appreciated.

Past honorees have included Laura Bush and Rudolph Giuliani. How many people remember that Giuliani's 1993 mayoral campaign ran a full-blown, racist voter suppression operation to get him elected? I guess Barbour will be in good company.

I'll be even a little more blunt. Haley Barbour refuses to disavow his affiliations with the neo-confederate movement and its powerful Mississippi mouthpiece, the Council of Conservative Citizens—the same organization that under a different name (White Citizens Council) fostered the environment in which a gang of klansmen, including law enforcement, could beat and shoot to death James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman—and so many others—with total impunity. A few nice sounding words on the podium of a farcical memorial don't change anything. As Katrina Survivor Leah Hodges said before the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, "If I put a dress on a pig, a pig is still a pig."

See also: The “Shakedown Gang”: Roy Innis and the New Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Author Applauds New Possibilities for Solving Civil Rights "Cold Cases"

Regarding this news, Susan Klopfer has put out this press release:

September 17, 2005 -- Sixties voting rights advocate Birdia Keglar was murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen on her way home to Charleston, Mississippi after meeting with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Jackson.

Keglar's January 11, 1966 death and the murders of her best friend and then her youngest son have never been resolved or even investigated by law enforcement agencies - local, state or federal.

Susan Orr-Klopfer, author of a new book on civil rights in the Mississippi Delta, believes these three "cold case" murders should get the immediate attention of a new Unsolved Crimes Section of the Justice Department.

Under a measure approved Thursday by the U.S. Senate, the new office would target such pre-1970 racially motivated homicides that remain unsolved because of lax state and federal prosecution at the time they occurred.

The bill was inspired by recent efforts to reopen the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American youngster who was murdered in 1955 while visiting relatives in the Delta.

"Young Till’s crime was whistling at a white woman while inside a small grocery store. For this, he was lynched and the men who admitted committing the crime went free.

"Birdia Keglar’s crime, 11 years later, was to advocate for voting rights. She and her friend Adlena Hamlett were driving home from Jackson after meeting with Senator Robert F. Kennedy to talk over civil rights issues. But their car was stopped in a small Delta town where they were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Klansmen.

"Very likely, the Klansmen who killed Keglar and Hamlett were also highway patrolmen. Both women’s bodies were mutilated – both were decapitated and Hamlett’s arms were cleanly severed from her body," Klopfer said.

"Their deaths were attributed to a car wreck by officials. But the car disappeared along with Keglar’s briefcase and witnesses were threatened with murder if they did not remain quiet."

Three months later, after Keglar’s youngest son went to Washington D.C. trying to learn what happened to his mother, he was murdered.

"James Keglar was knocked unconscious and burned alive in his house. This happened hours after he was released from a Clarksdale, Mississippi jail on a bogus charge. He was expecting help from the FBI but it never came, according to his brother."

Klopfer’s book, "Where Rebels Roost, Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited," details these Mississippi Delta murders and dozens of others, including the lynching of young Till.

The book contains newly discovered information on several other Mississippi civil rights murders including "strong evidence that civil rights leader Medgar Evers was not murdered by Byron de la Beckwith who was finally convicted for the crime, but by a friend of Beckwith’s, another member of the Klan who was Beckwith’s superior," Klopfer said.

Klopfer lived in the Mississippi Delta in employee housing on the prison grounds of Parchman Penitentiary for two years while she researched and wrote her 680-page book that contains over 1,400 footnotes as well as names and information regarding nearly 1,000 black people who were lynched in the state – "a small representation of the racial murders and lynching that have taken place in Mississippi," Klopfer said.

Senator Jim Talent, R-Mo., sponsored Thursday’s legislation with Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. The Senate voted by unanimous consent to add the measure to an appropriations bill that is expected to pass the Senate this week, according to Associated Press reports. The bill was introduced by Talent and Dodd in July after a Mississippi court sentenced former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen to 60 years in jail for the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964.

"There are 13 Klansmen mentioned in the book who are known to the FBI and still living in Mississippi who helped murder Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Robert Goodman. Yet no one has been prosecuted except for Preacher Killen who was not at the murder scene. Maybe some progress will finally come about because of this Senate bill," Klopfer said.

Klopfer said she feels closest to the Keglar and Hamlett murders, however. "These were two older, established Mississippi black women – Adlena Hamlett was 77-years-old and was a well-respected teacher for many years.

"Birdia Keglar was a business woman who was trying to start a local chapter of the NAACP. She was the first black person in her county to vote since Reconstruction following the Civil War. She was earlier represented in federal court by John Doar of the U.S. Department of Justice and was Doar’s first voting rights test case when he came into Mississippi after the election of President John F. Kennedy."

One of Adlena Hamlett’s granddaughters in August told Klopfer about going with Hamlett to the courthouse square as a child to request a ballot.

"Nina Zachery said the clerk tore up the ballot and ordered their departure. But Zachery’s grandmother said not to worry because she – Nina – would be able to vote one day, and that was all that mattered. Hamlett and Keglar were later hanged in effigy at the Tallahatchie Courthuse and were strongly warned by Klansmen to stop their voting rights activities."

Klopfer is the first journalist to write about Keglar and Hamlett. "I learned about this story from a nurse at Parchman whose wife was a relative of Mrs. Keglar. Very little was known about them and it took the entire two years to piece this story together – it was very complicated with numerous entanglements that reached from the Delta to Washington, D.C."

Klopfer also asserts it was significant that Sen. Edward Kennedy led off the questioning of Chief Justice nominee John Roberts on his Senate confirmation hearing this past week.

"Sen. Kennedy reminded Roberts that people died for the right to vote. Sen. Kennedy is concerned about reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act – and opposition to equal voting rights and other civil rights supplied the motives for all of the murders listed in this book."

Klopfer left Mississippi at the end of August and said she added newly discovered information to the book even as she was packing to leave.

# # #

Coffee Drinking Old School Mississippi Racists

For those who haven't read lots of primary documents and history books on the subject, here's a good example of the way they used to put it—and still do.

Your so-called civil rights workers who were killed were nothing but northeastern carpetbaggers, infiltrated by communists, down here to stir up trouble.

(Jimmie L. Morgan, age 70, Aug 29, 2005, Amory, MS)

Accessories Before The Fact

In my last post, the Arkansas Delta Peace And Justice Center noted that under Mississippi law

every person who knew a decision had been made and/or a plan had been developed to murder Michael Schwerner is as criminally complicit as the one(s) who actually fired the shot(s).

Anyone following the Edgar Ray Killen trial might notice mentions of some of the many persons who are criminally complicit in this way. Just the other day, when the Clarion Ledger reported on Attorney General Jim Hood's response to Killen's release on appeal bond (via the Arkansas Delta Peace And Justice Center), Jerry Mitchell noted that

Five days before the killings, former Klansman Delmar Dennis testified in a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen led a gathering of more than 75 Klansmen in Neshoba County. "Edgar Ray Killen asked for volunteers" to go to the all-black Mount Zion church because civil rights workers might be there, Dennis testified. Klansmen returned with bloody knuckles, he said.

In June, shortly before the 2005 trial, Mitchell summarized Dennis' testimony in more detail:

Killen swore him into the Klan in March 1964 at Cash Salvage Store in Meridian, testified Dennis, a Klansman-turned-FBI informant. "He said there would be things that the Klan would need to do and would do and among those would be the burning crosses, people would need to be beaten and occasionally there would have to be elimination."

"What did he mean by elimination?" asked John Doar, the former Justice Department official who prosecuted the case with U.S. Attorney Robert Hauberg.

"He meant killing a person. He explained that any project that was carried out by the Klan had to be approved by the Klan."

Dennis said elimination "had to be approved by the state." By the state, he explained, he meant Sam Bowers.

In Klan meetings twice in the spring of 1964, Schwerner's name arose with Klansmen saying they wanted to eliminate him, Dennis testified.

He testified Killen, who was running the meeting, said that project "had already been approved by the state officers of the Klan and had been made a part of their program."

At a June 16 Klan meeting, Killen called to order the more than 75 Klansmen gathered, Dennis said.

When one mentioned seeing a heavily guarded meeting at the all-black Mount Zion church, "Killen asked if the group thought that anything should be done about it, and some person in the group suggested that there probably were civil rights workers in the church or it would not have been heavily guarded, and it was agreed that something would be done," Dennis testified. "Edgar Ray Killen asked for volunteers."

The armed group returned an hour later, Dennis said. "Wayne Roberts had blood on his hands or knuckles, and he told me he got this when he was beating a n-----."

Dennis said Bowers said Judge Cox "would probably make them take those bodies back and put them where they got them, that they had found the bodies on an illegal search warrant. ... On another occasion shortly after that meeting he said that he was pleased with that job that it was the first time that Christians had planned and carried out the execution of Jews." (Emphasis added.)

You can read the full transcript of the 1967 Delmar Dennis testimony here.

~
Photo
James E. Jordan (right) and the Rev. Delmar Dennis (left) leave the federal court in Meridian under heavy guard Oct. 13, 1967, after testifying in the trial of 18 white men charged with conspiracy in the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Jordan and Dennis both testified against other fellow Klansmen in the trial that ended with seven convictions. (Clarion Ledger File Photo/The Associated Press)

Are hundreds of individuals criminally complicit in the Neshoba murders case?

By the Arkansas Delta Peace And Justice Center

It may be so according to the legal interpretation of former Mississippi District Attorney, Commissioner of Public Safety, Assistant Attorney General, and Chancery Judge W.O. Dillard.

Judge Dillard states in his book Clearburning (1993) on page 280:

There is one other legal principle that should be kept in mind under the law in Mississippi. That is, as explained in the Bill Smith decision, one of the Dahmer cases, a conspirator in Mississippi becomes an accessory before the fact and is tried and punished the same as the principal...

Under this legal principle as described by Judge Dillard, every person who knew a decision had been made and/or a plan had been developed to murder Michael Schwerner is as criminally complicit as the one(s) who actually fired the shot(s). It has been documented that at least scores of individuals had knowledge of the decision to murder Michael Schwerner prior to the act being committed. It may have been many more than scores of individuals, perhaps hundreds, had knowledge.

Appeal bond up to judge, expert says

After Killen was convicted on June 21, his attorneys announced they would appeal the conviction and seek an appeal bond for the Klansman's release. On June 25, Jerry Mitchell published an article in the Clarion Ledger, reporting on the analysis of Aaron Condon, professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

"It's pretty much up to the judge," said Aaron Condon . . .

"It's one of those lengthy statutes full of sound and fury and signifying nothing," Condon said.

If Gordon does grant an appeal bond, it would mark the first given in a prosecution since 1994 involving killings from the civil rights era.

Murder convictions have resulted in most of those cases, making those defendants ineligible since they were sentenced to life.

In a 1999 trial involving the 1970 killing of Rainey Pool, a one-armed sharecropper beaten by a white mob and thrown in the river, a jury convicted three men of manslaughter, and a fourth pleaded guilty to the charge. Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis denied appeal bonds in that case.

If Killen had been convicted of murder, he would not be eligible for an appeal bond. In fact, according to Professor Condon,

Because Gordon sentenced Killen . . . to the maximum 60 years . . . the judge may treat Killen's case as if it were a murder conviction.

Under state law, appeal bonds are denied to those sentenced to death or life, or to those convicted of felony child abuse.

Another reason why Judge Gordon didn't have to allow the appeal bond and another reason to be enraged that AG Hood and DA Duncan did not do their jobs as prosecutors.

We're Still Waiting For Our Appeal Bond

Via C.W. Roberson of Mississippi Political.

By Marshall Ramsay at the Clarion Ledger.

White Supremacists Come Out On Top: Edgar Ray Killen Free On $600,000 Bond

"The release raises the possibility that Mr. Killen, 80 and in poor health, will die a free man after serving barely six weeks of his sentence," writes New York Times reporter Shaila Dewan.

Dewan continues with Judge Gordon's rationale and Rita Schwerner Bender's incisive response, which gets to the crux of the matter:

Judge Marcus Gordon of Circuit Court, who gave Mr. Killen the maximum possible sentence, said in court that he had little choice but to set bond while Mr. Killen appealed his conviction. Judge Gordon said the state had not proved that Mr. Killen, who uses a wheelchair, was a flight risk or threat.

"It's not a matter of what I feel, it's a matter of the law," Judge Gordon said.
Rita Bender, wife of Mr. Schwerner, said the judge had not considered the danger to the community in the broader sense.

"To me this indicates a lack of understanding the seriousness of, and conveying the seriousness of, crimes of racial violence," Ms. Bender said by telephone from Seattle, where she lives.

Mr. Killen's release, she said, increases "the risk of violence by people who get the message once again that there is no control over them" (emphasis added).

Ms. Bender's critique is further supported by experts who say

Mississippi law is not crystal clear on when a judge has to grant bail. The law says a person convicted of any felony other than child abuse, sexual battery of a minor or a crime in which a death sentence or life imprisonment is imposed is entitled to be released on bail pending appeal if the convict shows that he is not a flight risk or a danger.

The statute also says the convict is entitled to release "within the discretion of a judicial officer," and "only when the peculiar circumstances of the case render it proper."

District Attorney Mark Duncan made the literal minded argument that Killen himself is a physical threat, though disabled and elderly.

On Friday, the prosecution called two jailers who testified about a remark Killen made.

When asked by jailers whether he had any suicidal thoughts, the part-time preacher told them, "I'll kill you before I kill myself,' " Neshoba County jailer Kenny Spencer testified.

Fellow jailer Willie Baxter corroborated his account, and both testified they believed the remark was a threat.

Asked about the remark, Killen replied, "I didn't make the comment."

But if he did, he said, "It'd have to be joking. I don't do those things."

If Killen did level a threat, it wouldn't be the first time. In 1975, a Newton County jury convicted him of making a threat over the telephone.

Duncan introduced Killen's indictment and conviction to show Killen poses a threat. He quoted from Killen's threat: "That son of a b---- will be dead by 8 o'clock. ... I like revenge."

After that conviction in 1975, Killen called and threatened the jury foreman, according to a Newton County official.

Duncan argued Killen has shown a pattern of behavior throughout the years of threats and inciting violence.

Reader Ann Williams, member of the Mississippi Democratic Club, wrote in to alert me that, according to Jackson, Mississippi's WLBT TV,

[n]o one with the Attorney General's office was in Gordon's courtroom Friday, but the office issued a statement saying, "We are in the process of looking at our options and considering filing a request with the appellate court for extraordinary relief."

"I find that quite troubling and curious. He was there for the trial and media attention," Ann Writes. Though it may not have been procedurally necessary for Hood's office to be represented in the courtroom, it definitely behooved him to attend. This is the same Attorney General who declared in his closing statement at the trial that he was in court on his daughter's second birthday because

this is where justice is done. . . .

I wanted to be here myself, I didn't want to have any regrets. That I did my duty to the victims and their families.

While the international news media was in Philadelphia for the trial, Hood made personal sacrifices because of his commitment to seeing justice done. Now the press corps is gone and so is Hood's sense of "duty to the victims and their families."

At the bond hearing, Killen spent a lot of time complaining about his discomfort in prison.

Mr. Killen took the stand, complaining of a lack of medical care since he entered the Central Mississippi prison in Pearl, though he acknowledged that he had been seen by doctors.

"They checked me through the line like a cattle auction," he said. "I'm very unhappy with the treatment I've received. . . ."

Mr. Killen said he had to bribe a convict to obtain a pillow.

"I can barely sleep," he said. "I still don't understand how I could lie in severe pain for 24 hours and no one even brings me an aspirin. I'm not a drug addict."

My heart really goes out to the poor, old, grandfatherly Klansman. Though I am not moved, Killen may have meant his moaning and groaning to pull at Judge Gordon's heart strings. Remember, before Killen knew Marcus Gordon in his professional capacities as prosecutor and then judge, Gordon knew Killen in his capacity as preacher:

Gordon grew up in Union, the youngest of three sons born to Benton and Flossie Gordon. His dad was a barber, his mom a factory worker.

He lost both parents within 24 hours, in 1965. His mom died of a brain hemorrhage. While he and his brothers were picking out her gravesite, Benton Gordon died of congestive heart failure.

Killen, a preacher, presided over the funerals (emphasis added).

It might just have broke Judge Gordon's heart to hear his dear, family preacher, there for them in their time of need, complain about the hardships of prison life.

At the 41st Annual Chaney, Schwerner, Goodman Memorial, held on on the land of civil rights pioneers Cornelius and Mable Steele, Bernice Sims, who was one of the last people to see the three civil rights workers alive, asked, "why don't the families of the killers ever get the spotlight? Why don't we know who they are?" This time around we know who some of them are:

The Neshoba County circuit clerk's office said the following helped Killen post bond: his brother, Bobby, Frank Richardson, Ray and Jean Hamil and Henry and Marcia Bassett. Henry Bassett testified Friday he didn't believe Killen posed a danger to flee or a threat to the community.

Several dozen friends and family packed one side of the courtroom to Killen and warmly greeted him after the judge gave him bond. Asked what he thought of Killen's release, Henry Bassett replied, "I'm not the judge. We have an almighty judge. I'm going to go with God's laws."

These are the people who have $600,000 on hand to keep white, racist murderers out of prison. Of course these folks are just the tip of the iceberg—the white power structure that generally keeps white, racist murders out of prison, free of charge.

A Few More Mississippi News Items

• Ky. man says '60s suspect sold him guns

Prosecutors told reporters less than an hour after a jury recently convicted Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter in the trio's killings the only two triggermen in the case, Wayne Roberts and James Jordan, are dead.

But the work of world-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and Mississippi state forensic pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne has revealed the possibility of additional gunmen.

• '64 confession kept from Killen jury - Clarion Ledger reporter Jerry Mitchell raises some more questions about the conduct of the prosecution in Mississippi v. Edgar Ray Killen.

Killen's lead counsel, Mitch Moran of Carthage, said he wanted to let the jury know the whole story, and that's why he tried to introduce the 1964 confession of Horace Doyle Barnette, who took part in the trio's killings.

In the 1967 federal conspiracy trial, an FBI agent read Barnette's statement into the record when Barnette refused to testify. But jurors only heard the names of Barnette and James Jordan, who pleaded guilty, in the statement. For the names of the others Barnette identified as being involved, a "blank" was substituted. The trial ended with the convictions of seven, the acquittals of eight and the mistrials of three, including Killen.

Moran explained: "I just felt like the jury had a right to know it all."

Although Killen could have been implicated by Barnette's statement, Moran said the statement shows Billy Wayne Posey, convicted in the 1967 federal trial, played a major role, but wasn't indicted by the state, while Killen played a minor role and was indicted by the state.

When Moran sought to introduce the confession in Killen's trial through the FBI agent's 1967 testimony, prosecutors objected.

When Moran said he'd be happy to fill in all the blanks so jurors could hear the names of all involved, prosecutors still objected.

• Killen jurors outline verdict

Timeline of jurors in the Edgar Ray Killen trial:

June 20: 2:48 p.m.:
Deliberations begin
Mid-afternoon: First vote: — 6 guilty, 6 not guilty of murder
5:32 p.m.: Jurors dismissed before second vote

June 21:
8:32 a.m.: Second vote: 7 guilty, 5 not guilty of murder
Mid-morning: Third vote:— 11-1, guilty of manslaughter
11:10 a.m: Final vote: 12-0, guilty of manslaughter

• Killen juror: Critics wrong about jury's actions - Killen juror goes on the record.

We found Killen guilty of manslaughter because that's what the evidence supported. . . .

We focused on what was presented in the courtroom, not what we'd heard over the last 41 years, and not what we either assumed or wished to be true.

• Will KKK fade into history?

The Mississippi White Knights is the strongest of the state's Klan chapters. Others listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center are: Bayou Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Fulton and Richton (its post office box is in Kiln), Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Lucedale and Robinsonville, and Orion Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Star.

One Mississippi Klan group that didn't make the list because of inactivity is Royal Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan headed by Jordan Gollub of Jackson.

"We haven't had a march since 2001," he said. "We had a march in Biloxi and a march in Carthage. It made you feel good that day, but I don't think it changes the political atmosphere. It doesn't put Bennie Thompson (the state's lone African-American congressman) out of office."

He recalled the last telephone conversation he had with one-time Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who headed the largest and most violent Klan organization in the 1960s, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.

"Bowers said, 'I don't think the KKK is the way to go in the present day,'" Gollub said, explaining that organizations such as the Council of Conservative Citizens may be more successful now (emphasis added).

After trial, Bender challenges Barbour (II)

This part is