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ACLU Seeks Information on the Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners

While most of the press sleeps and the Department of Justice makes us wonder how what the department has to do with justice, the ACLU is on the case.

ACLU Seeks Information on the Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners

September 28, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]

Locked Prisoners Were Abandoned by Guards When Katrina Struck; More Than 500 Missing

NEW ORLEANS - Citing eyewitness reports of locked prisoners being abandoned to drown in their cells in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the American Civil Liberties Union today demanded access to the relocated prisoners it represents under a longstanding class-action lawsuit over prison conditions.

“It is critically important to discover the truth about whether New Orleans officials left these prisoners to die a nightmare death. If true, they not only abandoned their duty, they abandoned basic human decency,” said Eric Balaban of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “While surrounding parishes managed to get guards and prisoners to safety, Orleans Prison Parish was plunged into chaos. We are asking the court to grant us access to our clients so that we can get to the bottom of this horror.”

Earlier this month, the ACLU filed state and federal Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information about what happened to the prisoners, if dead bodies were disposed of, and what evacuation plans were in place at the time Katrina struck.

In a motion filed today before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the ACLU cites both eyewitness accounts and news reports saying that no evacuation plans were in place and that the sheriff of the prison, Marlin N. Gusman, did not seek state assistance until midnight on August 29, days after other parish prisons had already called for help. The prison is located within miles of the 17th Street Canal Levee, which was breached on August 29, the day the hurricane struck.

The ACLU also cited reports by the New Orleans Times-Picayune that after generators failed and the jail ran out of food, deputies walked off their posts, “tossing their badges down and turning their shirts inside out.”

Further, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, also cited in the ACLU’s legal papers, prisoners housed in one building known as Templeman III reported that as of August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. As the water inside the locked building began to rise, the prisoners frantically signaled people outside the building by setting fire to blankets and shirts and hanging them out of broken windows. The prisoners in this unit were not evacuated until September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level, the report said.

In addition to today’s motion seeking access to its clients, on September 19 the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. Marshals, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Justice, seeking records regarding:

* Deaths that occurred in the prison since August 26, 2005
* The collection and disposition of dead bodies from the prison since August 26, 2005
* Any evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005
* Any documents pertaining to evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005

Further, on September 22, the ACLU also filed a state public records request seeking information about the collection and disposition of dead bodies and any evacuation plans in effect at the time of the hurricane. That request was sent to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, Dr. Frederick P. Cerise of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Richard Stalder, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, and Dr. Frank Minyard, Coroner of the Orleans Parish.

Orleans Parish Prison is the ninth largest in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Under the terms of a longstanding class action lawsuit over prison conditions, the ACLU has acted as counsel for the more than 6,500 OPP prisoners since 1989. In that capacity, the ACLU has sought to enforce court orders regarding the medical and mental health and environmental conditions of the prisoners.

The motion filed today, Hamilton v. Morial, Civ. Action No. 69-2443, is online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19172&c=26

The Sept. 19, 2005 federal FOIA requests are online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19176&c=26

The Sept. 22, 2005 state FOIA requests are online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19174&c=26

The Human Rights Watch report is online at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/22/usdom11773.htm

FOX Unleashes Vile McCarthyite Smear Campaign Against Cindy and the Peace Movement

Headline is from Bob Fertig at Democrats.com. He writes:

In order to trash Cindy, [FOX's John] Gibson called on Ira Stoll, editor of the rightwing New York Sun and author of "Cindy Sheehan's Crowd." Stoll attacked Cindy for working with "extreme groups and individuals":

Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out all have representatives on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war umbrella group. They share that distinction with the Communist Party USA.

Though red-baiting her is no worse than any of the other vile attempts to smear Cindy Sheehan, this particular tactic enrages me in a special way. I've been working on another post that relates to red baiting, not in connection to Cindy Sheehan, but I'm going to talk a little about it now.

In the late 50s the FBI's New York Field Office decided that my father should be investigated for possible inclusion on the Security Index. What was the Security Index? That was the 1950s and 60s version of the Custodial Detention Program (CDP), whose purpose was

to enable the government to make individual decisions as to the dangerousness of enemy aliens and citizens who might be arrested in the event of war.

( Book III of the Final Report of the US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities, 1976)

The Security Index was the new name given the CDP after Attorney General Francis Biddle issued a directive to abolish the program in 1943 because

The evidence used for the purpose of making the classifications was inadequate; the standards applied to the evidence for the purpose of making the classifications were defective; and finally, the notion that it is possible to make a valid determination as to how dangerous a person is in the abstract and without reference to time, environment, and other relevant circumstances, is impractical, unwise, and dangerous. (Ibid.)

The primary basis of the investigation of my father for inclusion in the Security Index was his membership on the executive committee of the Socialist Unity Forum and his attendance at meetings of the Young Socialist Alliance. He had committed no crimes, but he associated with socialists.

What did the investigation entail? Here's a partial list, gleaned from my father's FBI file, released to my family under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts:

• Trips by FBI agents to the NYC Marriage License Bureau and to the NYC Board of Elections to gather data on residences, employment and family
• Reports from a neighbor in my parents' apartment building who was spying for the FBI
• Bogus phone call to my mother from an FBI agent claiming to be a NY County Clerk's Office Representative. In the guise of being interested in empanelling my father for a jury, the agent grilled my mother about my father's place of employment.
• Bogus phone call from an FBI agent to my father's place of employment. Pretending to be an insurance company representative, the agent verified my mother's information about my father's employment.
• Agents who attended political meetings and made leading statements to provoke others in attendance to go on record with views that could make them eligible for further investigation or otherwise "incriminate" them.
• A surprise visit from two Special Agents who started asking questions first and identified themselves second: "After the SAS identified themselves GREENBERG remarked 'No, I have nothing to say to you!' He refused any further approaches to conversation including possibilities for a later appointment."

A significant basis for conducting these invasive and harassing procedures was information about my father's affiliations and activities provided by civilian informants whose information was not necessarily reliable and whose intent was discernibly vindictive.

When we talk about invasions of privacy associated with the Patriot Act it is important to remember what the stated purpose of such practices were in the past: to create "a suspect list of individuals whose arrest might be considered necessary in the event the United States becomes involved in war" ( Book III of the Final Report of the US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities, 1976).

If one qualified for the Security Index, one's name was placed on a special Security Index card. If the FBI found that a subject did not qualify for the Security Index and his or her card should be canceled,

[t]he cancelled Security Index cards on individuals taken off the Index after 1955 were retained in the field offices. This was done because they remained "potential threats and in case of an all-out emergency, their identities should be readily accessible to permit restudy of their cases." These cards would he destroyed only if the subject agreed to become an FBI source or informant or "otherwise indicates complete defection from subversive groups."(Ibid., emphasis added)

The practice of red baiting has had terrible ramifications in the lives of thousands of innocent Americans whose only crime was holding views or having political associations that challenged the status quo. In many cases the only evidence of their crime was unsubstantiated allegations that they held views or had political associations that challenged the status quo.

Please read the rest of Bob Fertig's post and join him in telling Fox to stop smearing Cindy Sheehan and her allies.

Delmar to Bombingham (6) — COMING FORWARD I

On Saturday morning, June 22, 1963, at around 9:00 a.m., A. D. King answered his front door and found Roosevelt Tatum. He was crying and saying he had something in his heart he wanted to tell. Tatum came inside and immediately noticed Paul Greenberg, the only white man among the dozen or more people in the house. Tatum had overcome his fear and wanted to say what he saw. When Tatum explained what he'd seen six weeks earlier, King asked him to talk to the FBI. Tatum agreed and King called the Birmingham FBI office to say that a man was at his home who saw persons responsible for the bombing. (RT-PROSUM, 19; RT-RFC, 1)

When Agents Graybill and McFall arrived at the King residence, they found Tatum there, in the company of A. D. King, Paul Greenberg, and King's secretary. The agents noticed alcohol on Tatum's breath, and he explained that he'd had a couple of drinks for the nerve to tell what he saw. A. D. King explained that Roosevelt Tatum claimed to have seen two Birmingham Policemen in car 49 bomb the King residence. Identifying himself as an employee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Paul Greenberg interjected, wanting to know how soon publicity could be released. One of the agents replied, "the FBI is strictly a fact-finding agency; we are present solely for the purpose of obtaining the facts. Any premature publicity might only tend to jeopardize the investigation." The Kings and Greenberg returned that they expected, in any case, to be present when Tatum would be interviewed. Fearing this would lead to an official interview occurring "in a press conference atmosphere" and that its content would be aired publicly, Special Agent (SA) McFall said that they needed a quiet atmosphere. In order to "properly obtain the facts," they needed to interview Tatum privately, at the FBI office. (AGM-TT-BHTEL, 5; RT-RFC, 1-2)

Tatum agreed to meet privately with FBI agents later the same day and made his second statement to the FBI. On May 12, he had told agents that though he was one of the first witnesses on the scene after the bombs went off, "he was not aware of the cars that were parked in the vicinity and could not describe any of them. . . . [nor did he] observe any suspicious activities on the part of any persons prior to the the time of the explosion." (RT-PROSUM, 12) Now, on June 22, Tatum told them what he really saw. At the end of the interview Tatum consented to be questioned again but with a polygraph. (AGM-TT-BHREPORT, 5)

The FBI documents that are the basis for this narrative have in them several remarkable interactions between parties involved in the Roosevelt Tatum case. One such moment was after Tatum's interview with the Birmingham agents. It is worth quoting the document at length:

Following the interview of Tatum, Reverend Mr. [A. D.] King asked the interviewing Agents their "candid opinion" of Tatum's story and indicated that he believed it to be true. He was advised that the FBI as an investigative agency deals with facts not opinions and that the information provided by Mr. Tatum would be thoroughly checked out.

Reverend Mr. King then stated he had discussed with Assistant Attorney General Marshall the possibility of sending Negro Agents to Birmingham to assist in the bombing investigations. He said that his people are not being treated fairly by city and state police officers and unfortunately do not always distinguish between such officers and FBI Agents. He feels that members of the Negro community might be more inclined to come forward and confide in Negro Agents.

Reverend Mr. King was informed that Agents of this Bureau are assigned investigative duties solely on the basis of the needs of the service and without regard to race or creed. It was further pointed out to him that all Bureau investigations are conducted in an objective and impartial manner regardless of the indentities of the individual Agents who are assigned to to the investigations. He was advised that this was true with regard to to the bombing investigations being conducted by the Bureau in Birmingham. Reverend Mr. King stated that he personally understood this and has great admiration for the Director and the FBI but that many of the less educated Negroes make no distinction between FBI Agents and local police.

In tactfully questioning the validity of his theory that Negroes would come forward to furnish information to Negro Agents, Reverend King was asked how many Negroes had come forward to voluntarily furnish such information to him, it being noted that he was the well known, highly respected and beloved pastor of the Negro community's church and the community's recognized leader. King admitted that Tatum was the only one. He then, in apparent realization of the point being made, rather sheepishly stated he had been in Birmingham only a year and a half and actually does not know members of the Birmingham Negro community too well. It was pointed out that that the failure of Negroes to come forward with information allegedly in their possession would appear to be a deficiency of the Negro community which could best by remedied by by the Negro leaders. It was further pointed out to Reverend Mr. King that he and other Negro leaders could be of great assistance if they would urge members of the Negro community to furnish the Bureau with any pertinent information in their possession. (AGM-MEM1, 2-3)

That night, at 9:18 CST, the Birmingham FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) filed a report to the FBI Director in Washington, DC. The SAC was at some pains to establish the reliability of the police officer who was driving police car number 49, which Tatum alleged to have seen outside the King residence. Though Tatum testified that there were two officers in Car 49 who perpetrated the May 11 bombing, the police officer who drove Car 49 that night had previously said that he was in the car alone. The SAC explained in his teletype that

IN VIEW OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CASE, THE INFORMATION FURNISHED BY TATUM IS BEING PURSUED, BUT FROM ALL INDICATIONS THERE WAS ONLY ONE OFFICER IN CAR FORTYNINE [sic] AND HE HAS MADE A COMPLETE STATEMENT CONCERNING HIS ACTIVITIES.

The SAC concluded with Tatum's consent to be interviewed by polygraph and, noting that there is an agent in Louisville who has given some polygraph exams and is "familiar with the facts," requested permission from the Bureau to approve the same. (AGM-TT-BHREPORT, 4-5)

The next morning, Sunday, June 23, at around 8:00 a.m, Tatum met up on 12th Street with a man known as Skeets. Skeets said that if the FBI came back for more interviews, he wanted to talk with them, too. Skeets said he saw car 49 pull off from the King house before the bomb explosions and then come back around the block again to arrive on the scene in the aftermath of the bombing. (RT-PROSUM, 26)

Reference Key
AGM-MEM1: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FBI file number. Memorandum, Rosen to Belmont, June 26, 1963.
AGM-TT-BHREPORT: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FBI file number. Teletype, SAC Birmingham to Director, June 22, 1963.
AGM-TT-BHTEL: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FB file number. Teletype, SAC, Birmingham to Director, FBI, June 26, 1963.
RT-PROSUM: Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Prosecutive Summary Report. October 23, 1963.
RT-RFC: Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Recommendation for Commendations. SAC, Birmingham to Director, FBI.

From Delmar to Bombingham (5) — THE BOMBING

On Saturday night, May 11, 1963, at around 11:05, Roosevelt Tatum decided to leave the checkers game he was watching outside Foster's Delicatessen. Birmingham Police Car 22 had just driven up at Foster's and he was worried the officers would take him in for being out past 11:00. Tatum walked a few steps up Avenue I to the corner of 12th Street and turned left on 12th, heading towards Avenue H. Other African-Americans walking in the same Ensley neighborhood as Tatum reported more police cars in the area than usual. Some of the area's Black residents said officers in a police car stopped them from entering the neighborhood. (RT, 14-15, 48)

At 820 12th Street, Tatum found Eva Mae Miller on her darkened front porch. She was barely visible, sitting to the side of the wedge of light from her open front door. Tatum greeted her and asked for a match as he came up on the porch. Miller called inside for her daughter to bring out the box of matches. Tatum sat down on the front step, lit up and talked with Miller for a while. (RT, 15; AGM1, 17-19)

From where he sat on the steps, Tatum could see Birmingham Police Car 49 coming down Avenue H from 13th Street towards 12th Street. The patrol car turned left onto 12th Street, cut its headlights and rolled to a stop across the street at 721 12th Street Ensley, the residence of A. D. and Naomi King. From where she sat, behind one of the porch posts, Miller couldn't see the car pull up. Tatum whispered not to move or speak. To the officers he was invisible on the shadowy steps. (RT, 15-16, 24-25; AGM1, 17-19, 20)

From the passenger side, a police officer got out from Car 49, walked around the back of the car and across the Kings' lawn. He seemed to be tossing something near the porch. The officer ran back to the passenger door and got back into Car 49. As the car pulled away the driver tossed something out of his window and onto the Kings' lawn. The officers weren't yet three houses away, when the first bomb exploded. (RTD, 3; RT, 15-16, 24-25)

Tatum bolted upright and ran towards the King residence. Eva Mae Miller fled inside her house. (AGM1, 17-18; RT, 15, 25) Charles Harper, one of the men over at Foster's Delicatessen, came running to the bombing scene and saw a police car driving along the 800 block of 12th Street, though he couldn't say which police car it was. Eva Mae Miller kneeled at her bed in her front room and started praying. After only a few words of prayer, a second explosion. Crossing the intersection of 12th Street and Avenue H, Tatum had just reached the Kings' front lawn. He was blown backwards and landed in the middle of Avenue H. Charles Harper reached the intersection at about the same moment as Tatum and was blown back against the fire plug on the southeast corner of the intersection. He saw Tatum picking himself up off the pavement. (RT, 17-18; AGM1, 20, 17-18, 20)

The smoke and trash in the air made it impossible to see the King residence. People were yelling and running towards the Kings' home. Across the street at Eva Mae Miller's a curtain fell in the room where she was kneeling. A window pane broke in her second room. (AGM1, 22, 27, 17-18)

Before the smoke and dust had settled, Tatum was back on his feet and rushing with renewed urgency towards the King residence. He ran across the lawn to the back of the house. There, at the Kings' back fence, Tatum found A. D. and Naomi King, with their children, trying to get over. Tatum lifted one of the children over the fence and then helped Naomi King climb over. (RT, 16)

Naomi King had been sitting in the living room. A. D. King and their children had been in bed. The second bomb "uprooted a shrub, blew the brick veneer off the house, collapsed the ceiling, and blasted the front door back into the kitchen. It seemed like a miracle that no one was hurt." (DM, 427)

Within five or ten minutes, Car 49 was back on the scene. As before, it came down Avenue H from 13th Street towards 12th Street, turned left onto 12th Street, and pulled up in front of the King residence. Two officers with soft-peaked caps got out and went over to talk with A. D. King. A few minutes later some more police cars arrived, as well as some motorcycle policemen and a paddy wagon. Police Lieutenant Maurice House pulled up, got out of his car and took charge of the situation. He had been assigned to the new civil rights detail about one month earlier. He had a little more credibility with African-Americans in Birmingham, though he still had clear ties to Bull Connor. (RT, 17; DM, 427)

A throng of Ensley's African-Americans were gathered around the bomb scene. Some were saying the police had gotten there awfully quickly and maybe they had something to do with the explosion. Some were throwing bricks, rocks, and bottles. Wyatt Walker arrived on the scene and went outside with A. D. King to calm the crowd. Some of the assembled were singing "We Shall Overcome." King yelled out through a police bullhorn, "Why must you rise up to hurt our cause? You are hurting us, you are not helping." (RT, 53, 17; DM, 427)

The crowd kept getting angry and wanted to fight the police or anybody they could. At one point a county sheriff's car pulled up with four men inside. One got out and was hit on the side of the head with an object. He got back inside the sheriffs car and all four men left the scene. (RT, 17)

Tatum stayed on Avenue H opposite the Kings' house. While Tatum was standing there on Avenue H, he heard another explosion—what turned out to be the bomb at the A. G. Gaston Motel intended for his brother, Martin, who, fortunately, had left Birmingham. Tatum ran over to his house at 1109 Avenue J to see if the St. James Baptist Church, across the street from his address had been bombed. When he saw there hadn't been a bomb there, he went back to the bombing scene at the King residence. (RT, 17-18)

Around 3:30 a.m., after things had quieted down and people weren't throwing things anymore, Tatum went over to Charles Harper's house, in the same block of 12th Street as Eva Mae Miller. Tatum and Harper and his mother and his sister and his brother-in-law all sat on the front porch and talked. Tatum saw Car 49 parked across the street until about 4:00 a.m. It's tires, along with those of several other patrol cars, had been cut. At about daybreak, Tatum returned home and ate. (RT, 18)

Afraid the police would beat or kill him if he said anything about what he saw, Tatum nevertheless felt compelled to return to the bombing scene after he ate. He was at 824 12th Street Ensley, the home of his wife's aunt, Rosie Johnson, at around noon when the FBI came around house to house to interview witnesses. When the agents questioned Tatum, he gave them his account of being the first person on the scene of the bombing. He said that beforehand he'd seen a dark Corvair which others had also mentioned. Tatum said that he saw the Corvair, heading east on 12th Street Ensley, toward Avenue F, pass very near to him and that he had assumed the Corvair passed in front of the King residence. (RT18, RTD, 3)

On that Sunday, Mother's Day, May 12, 1963, the day after A. D. and Naomi King's house was bombed, Tatum had had some urge to tell the FBI agents what he'd really seen. But his wife Lilly Mae Tatum was in the doorway to the house and the street was full of people. It was all too clear that anything he said right then was likely to get back to the police department. (RT, 27)

---------------------------------------------
Reference Key
AGM1: A. G. Gaston Motel. No FBI file number. Witness testimonies in report of SA Robert P. Womak, Birmingham Office, 16 July 1963.
DM: Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.
RT: Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Prosecutive Summary Report, Names And Addresses Of Witnesses And Testimony Of Each.
RTD: Roosevelt Tatum, Deposition. June 27, 1963. Estate of Paul Greenberg.

Images
1. The Kings: A. D., Naomi, Al, Darlene, Alveda, Derek
2. The bombed out residence of A. D. and Naomi King, 721 12th Street Ensley, Birmingham, Alabama

Both images from: The A. D. King Foundation

From the Delmar Archive to Bombingham, Alabama (update)

When I found my second set of FBI documents on Roosevelt Tatum, I saw that they would allow me to fill in some of the narrative of what happened to Roosevelt Tatum after the bombing of A. D. and Naomi King's house. I had intended for my next post in this series to tell some of that story. As I studied the second set of documents and then went back and forth between them and the first set of documents, I began finding more and more of the story of the bombing, dispersed among the details of the two sets of documents.

Chunks of witness testimonies that had been blacked out in the first set of documents, appeared mostly intact in the second set. And, interestingly enough, names that were blacked out in the second set of documents often appear in the first set of documents. Moving back and forth between the two sets of documents allowed me to reconstruct more of what happened on the night of the bombing.

It has been a problem for me, as well as for others who have tried to understand this case, that Tatum's five testimonies and the testimonies of other witnesses all contain many inconsistencies. The inconsistencies became the basis for the FBI to question the veracity of Tatum's claims. I have assumed all along that my father believed Tatum was telling the truth, and held on to the deposition Tatum gave in Emanuel Celler's office for this reason. As I've pieced things together, I have repeatedly asked myself how I might understand the problematic inconsistencies if I start from the assumption that Tatum was, in fact, telling the truth when he said that he witnessed two Birmingham police officers bomb A. D. and Naomi King's house. This assumption, coupled with some analysis of the inconsistencies in Tatum's testimonies, has allowed me to make judgments about what in the conflicting details is true and what is not.

The narrative of what happened to Tatum after the bombing is still in the works, and is crucial for an understanding of his actions and statements. But first I must tell the story of the bombing itself, as I now understand it. So now Part 5 in this series will be my take on what really happened on 12th Street Ensley, Birmingham, Alabama, the night of May 11, 1963.

I hope to post Part 5 within the next few days. In the meantime, I will not make any more predictions about how many more parts there will be in this series or what they will contain. History is too unpredictable.

(From the Delmar Archive to Bombingham, Alabamama, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

Get Those FOIPA Requests Out Now

From Secrecy News:

ISOO REPORTS A 25% RISE IN CLASSIFICATION ACTIVITY

"Allowing information that will not cause damage to national security to remain in the classification system, or to enter the system in the first instance, places all classified information at needless increased risk," said the ISOO report, published this week.

"ISOO has asked all agency heads to closely examine efforts to implement and maintain the security classification system at their agencies... This effort includes ensuring that information that requires protection is properly identified and safeguarded and, equally important, that information not eligible for inclusion in the classification system remains unclassified or is promptly declassified."

Read the rest

via MemoryBlog

More And Yet Still More

Last Thursday I had the honor and the pleasure of receiving an email from Diane McWhorter, author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. As I mentioned in Part 3 of From the Delmar Archive to Bombingham, Alabama, her excellent book contains one of the only published accounts of the Roosevelt Tatum episode which I have been writing about. Her book has been extremely important for me as I try to understand the the Tatum story.

It was gratifying to hear from her that she is eager to see what I write in Part 4 of the series. I explained to her that I've been struggling to find the time to work on Part 4, but that I hoped to post it soon. If you're reading this, you know that Part 4 is now posted. I also explained to her something that I haven't explained in my blog. The previously declassified file on Roosevelt Tatum that I received is not the only set of FBI documents I have on his case. After I received the first file, I appealed the deletions in the file and eventually received some more documents pertaining to the case.

Until recently, I read documents as they arrived and then put them aside, intending to work on them later. Now that I'm really doing this project, I've been getting more organized, but there are a few things that I know I have in my house that have not yet turned up. I knew I had more documents on Roosevelt Tatum, but I wasn't sure where they were. My protocol in starting this blog has been begin with what you've got: the main thing is to get writing.

Of course when Diane McWhorter started asking me questions about my work on Roosevelt Tatum, that got me looking for the additional documents again. I don't think I've found everything, but I did find one small sheaf of pages from the FBI that adds some interesting information to the case. Really, what they add is more narrative. I've given you most of the relevant facts, but now I've got a little more of the story.

But first, tomorrow, I'm planning to bring my computer into the shop. When I get it back I will get working on these new documents, hopefully getting the new post up faster than I did Part 4 of the series. This is also to say that Part 5 will now be based on the new documents. The analysis of Tatum's various statements will have to wait until Part 6. And then, finally, I'll be done with this series. Until I find the rest of the documents.

I'm really itching to get on to some of the other things I've got lined up for blogging. Coming down the pike will be some stuff on the AGVA Salute to Freedom, a benefit concert held at Miles College in Birmingham, to raise money for transportation to the March on Washington. Once I've blogged the concert, it will be time to post a fragment from my dad's never completed autobiographical novel, Long Days Short Nights. And then I've got hundreds of pages of FBI documents on The Greater New York Council for a Sane Nuclear Policy in the years Dad was executive director for that organization.

But first I have to endure being without my beloved Power Book while it's being repaired. Here's hoping the repair will be speedy and effective.

I'll be able to check my email from my wife's computer and do some web surfing during the day when she's at work and her computer is here at home. But it won't be the same.

From the Delmar Archive to Bombingham, Alabama (Part 4)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

On July 3, 1963, Roosevelt Tatum was interviewed another time by FBI Agents in Birmingham, Alabama. In this meeting Tatum signed a statement recanting his previous allegations regarding the role of the Birmingham Police in the bombing of A. D. and Naomi King's home. Here is an excerpt from Tatum's retraction:

I did not see any suspicious persons or suspicious cars that night and I have no knowledge whatever as to who may have been responsible for the explosions at Rev. King's home. . . .

Later, after the explosions, I saw Police Squad Car #49 parked at the King residence. I remember thinking that Car #49 got to the scene mighty soon after the explosion and I also knew Car #49 does not patrol that area. There was some talk later among the people who gathered at the scene that the police sure got there quick and I thought maybe the police had something to do with the explosion. However, I did not see any police car around the King residence before the explosion and I have no knowledge that anyone connected with the Police Dept. was involved in any way.

Some five or six weeks later I got drunk one Saturday, and went to Rev. King's house and told him and some white fellow named Greenberg that I actually saw two police men in Car 49 place something on Rev. King's property just before the explosion. After I told my story, Rev. King or somebody called the FBI, and I told the F.B.I. [sic] the same bunch of lies. The plain truth is I don't know anything whatever as to who may have caused this explosion. I saw no suspicious persons or cars that night and there is absolutely no other information which I can furnish. (Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Prosecutive Summary Report, Names And Addresses Of Witnesses And Testimony Of Each. 52- 53.)

On August 26, 1963, the details concerning Tatum's admitted false testimony were brought before a Federal Grand Jury. Two days later, the Grand Jury returned an indictment, charging that Roosevelt Tatum

did, in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice of the United States of America, knowingly, willfully [sic], and unlawfully make a false statement to a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in that . . . the defendant stated that on the night of May 11, 1963, Birmingham Police Car Number 49, occupied by two police officers placed an explosive charge in front of the residence of A. D. W. King in Birmingham, Alabama; and that one of the police officers placed an explosive charge in front of said residence, when in truth and fact, as the defendant then and there well knew, the aforesaid statement was false. (6)

Tatum was charged with violating Section 1001, Title 18 of the U. S. Code.

September 23, 1963. Tatum's lawyer, Orzell Billingsley, filed a motion to quash the indictment.

September 25, 1963. Tatum entered a plea of not guilty to the charge against him.

November 18, 1963. Tatum's trial at the US District Court, at Birmingham, Alabama. Tatum changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced under Section 4208B, Title 18, US Code. Before sentencing him, the court placed Tatum in the custody of the Attorney General for a 90 day period of observation and study.

March 31, 1964. Roosevelt Tatum appeared for sentencing in US District Court, Birmingham, Alabama. His sentence: one year and one day imprisonment from the date of his original commitment, November 18, 1963.

It turns out that Roosevelt Tatum was charged with false testimony because US Attorney Macon L. Weaver was looking to charge someone with false testimony. A memo dated July 16, 1963, from FBI Special Agent In Charge (SAC) in Birmingham to the FBI Director, reveals that

U. S. Attorney Macon L. Weaver, at Birmingham, has evidenced considerable interest in receiving reports of any individuals in this Division who furnish false information to the Governmentand [sic] is, of course, very much interested in rendering prosecutive opinions in any case where there is a violation of Section 1001, Title 18, U. S. Code. He has specifically requested copies of any reports in connection with the bombing investigation which indicate that witnesses have furnished false information. (Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526.)

Either Weaver requested documents from the FBI because he was hoping to find someone to prosecute, or he knew about the Tatum story and wanted the evidence he needed to bring a case against him. The FBI complied with Weaver's request, but the Justice Dept. also took away his prosecutive authority in "cases of of this type involving a racial situation." In a July 26 memo from Special Agent In Charge, Birmingham to the FBI Director regarding Weaver's request for reports on individuals who furnished false information, the SAC reported that, despite the Department's prohibition, Weaver felt compelled to make known to them his view that Roosevelt Tatum should be prosecuted by the Department.

On August 19, 1963, Justice Clarence W. Allgood, of the US District Court, Northern District of Alabama, approved the Birmingham Board of Education's desegregation plan. The next day, on August 20, at 9:26 p.m., there was another bombing in Birmingham. This time the target was Arthur Shores, an African American civil rights attorney, who lived there. Diane McWhorter describes the scene after the bombing:

When the Reverend Nelson "Fireball" Smith arrived, A. D. King and Charles Billups were already on the top of a police car making pleas for peace. "If you are going to kill someone, kill me," A. D. King shouted at the crowd. "The police are mad; now y'all go on." Detective Maurice House said, "A. D., don't say we're mad, you'll get us all killed." Some officers, expecting as much, had been issued submachine guns. "They stand here with pistols and other magic power," King persisted. "We can't beat them tonight. We are going to win this town regardless of what they do. Stand if you must—stand in love, not violence." A barrage of rocks answered him. A policeman positioned between two parked cars was felled by a flying rock, and Smith's leg was hit. He and King went into Shores's house to attend to a chip fracture on Smith's shinbone, leaving the mob to its momentum. (Carry Me Home, 482)

The next day, on August 21, US Attorney Macon L. Weaver issued a press release:

THE EVENTS OF LAST EVENING, FOLLOWING THE BOMBING OF ATTORNEY ARTHUR SHORES HOME WHEREIN BIRMINGHAM POLICE OFFICERS WERE STONED BY NEGRO MEMBERS OF THE NEGRO COMMUNITY MAKE IT NECESSARY TO MAKE THIS UNPRECEDENTED STATEMENT CONCERNING A CASE UNDER INVESTIGATION.

ON JUNE TWENTYTWO, SIXTYTHREE [sic] A NEGRO MALE WHO RESIDES IN THE VICINITY OF REV. A. D. W. KING/S [SIC] RESIDENCE CONTACTED REV. KING AND JACK GREENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR THE SCLCU [sic], AND GAVE A STATEMENT IN WHICH HE ALLEGES THAT HE SAW TWO OFFICERS OF THE BIRMINGHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT IN A SPECIFIED NUMBERED CAR BOMB THE RESIDENCE OF A. D. W. KING. REV. KING CONTACTED THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION AND ON THE SAME DATE THIS SAME PERSON GAVE A STATEMENT TO THE FBI OF SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME FACTS. HE WAS LATER FLOWN TO WASHINGTON BY THE REV. KING WHERE HE WAS INTERVIEWED IN THE OFFICE OF A PROMINENT NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN. HE WAS INTERVIEWED AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND ALSO BY TWO TOP AGENTS OF THE FBI IN WASHINGTON. DURING ALL OF THESE INTERVIEWS HE GAVE SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME STATEMENT THAT HE SAW TWO BIRMINGHAM POLICE OFFICERS BOMB THE RESIDENCE OF REV. KING. ON JULY THREE, SIXTYTHREE [sic], THE SUBJECT WAS GIVEN A POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION BY A SPECIALLY TRAINED AGENT OF THE FBI AT THE FBI OFFICE IN BIRMINGHAM, ALA., AND AT THE THIRD QUESTION BY THE POLYGRAPH EXAMINER THE SUBJECT ADMITTED THAT HE WAS LYING AND THAT THE ENTIRE STORY WAS SOMETHING THAT HE MADE UP, AND HE GAVE A WRITTEN STATEMENT TO THAT EFFECT. HE WAS ACCOMPANIED BY CLARENCE B. JONES, AN ATTORNEY FROM NEW YORK CITY, AT THE TIME HE TOOK THE POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION. THE STORY THAT WAS ORIGINALLY GIVEN BY THIS PERSON HAS BECOME WELL KNOWN IN THE NEGRO COMMUNITY, BUT THE STATEMENT THAT HE WAS LYING IS NOT KNOWN AT ALL, AND, FOR THAT REASON IT IS FELT THAT THESE FACTS SHOULD BE MADE KNOWN, AND I CALL UPON THE RESPONSIBLE NEGRO LEADERS OF THIS COMMUNITY TO HELP INFORM THE NEGRO CITIZENS THAT THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THE STORY AS ORIGINALLY GIVEN. I FEEL THAT THE ROCKING AND STONING OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT LAST NIGHT WAS A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS FALSEHOOD THAT IS BEING CIRCULATED IN THE NEGRO COMMUNITY.

THE IRRESPONSIBLE ACT OF A PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN IN THE BOMBING OF ATTORNEY ARTHUR SHORES [SIC] HOME LAST EVENING CONSTITUTES AN UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON THE PEACE AND TRANQUILITY OF THIS COMMUNITY, AN ACT CALCULATED TO CAUSE FURTHER RACIAL UNREST.

THE FBI IS WORKING, AS ALWAYS, CLOSELY WITH THE LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT TO BRING TO THE BAR OF JUSTICE THE PERPETRATORS OF THIS CRIME AGAINST SOCIETY. OF MORE IMMEDIATE CONCERN HOWEVER IS THE ANIMOSITY THAT EXEMPLIFIED ITSELF LAST NIGHT WHEN POLICE OFFICERS WERE STONED AS THEY ARRIVED TO INVESTIGATE THE BOMBING. (Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Teletype from SAC, Birmingham to Director, FBI, August 28, 1963. All-caps in original.)

Weaver's audacity in this press release is appalling. Weaver chose to publicize investigative information for a case that was then currently under investigation. His information appears to be based on some of the same documents that I have, which are now declassified but were not then, in 1963. Seems his main information came from Tatum's own statements to the FBI, such as when Tatum referred to my father as a "white man named Greenberg" in his June 22 statement to the Birmingham FBI (see Part 3). Weaver mistook Paul Greenberg for Jack Greenberg, since Jack is the famous Greenberg in the Civil Rights Movement.

The biggest irony in Weaver's statement is that the rock and brick throwing by African-Americans that followed the August 20 bombing of Arthur Shores' home was mild in comparison to the rioting that followed the May 11 bombings of the A. G. Gaston Motel and A. D. and Naomi King's home:

The arrival of the white squad cars [at the Gaston Motel] sent the crowd into a rage. Now the former bystanders hurled bricks and bottles at the officers. Members of the mob shouted "Kill 'em! Kill 'em!" at the policemen, who, waiting for reinforcements, moved back. They did little for nearly an hour. Violent protesters ransacked the twenty-eight block area around the motel. Smashing the windows of patrol cars and fire trucks, the mob vented its pent-up frustration. Innocent travelers caught in the area attracted rocks thrown from the crowd and suffered most of the white injuries. One police officer received several stab wounds. Captain James Lay, a black civil defense worker, saved the life of a white cabbie, W. A. Bowman, who inadvertently drove into the riot and was knifed by black men. They torched his taxi after turning it over. The flickering orange and red flames of the gasoline brightly contrasted with the thick black clouds that billowed above the car. Several Italian-owned grocery stores went up in smoke as rioters attempted to burn all white-owned property in the neighborhood. But the sparks knew no race and quickly spread the fire to black-owned houses. Soon the hot night sky blazed with the intensity of a blast furnace. In addition to the exploitative ghetto groceries, the African Americans looted liquor stores and other businesses. At the height of the riot, some 2,500 black people participated in the violence. (Glenn T. Eskew, But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, 301)

The well-founded perception that members of the Birmingham Police were allied with with the Ku Klux Klan and were involved in terrorism against African-Americans was not a new idea propagated by Roosevelt Tatum. What was new was the violent response of African-Americans to a bombing in Birmingham. Since 1947, more than fifty racial bombings had occurred. Even without clear evidence of Klan involvement, the police corruption was clear: the first person ever convicted in connection with the Birmingham bombings was Roosevelt Tatum.

After the August 20 bombing of the Shores residence, when an African-American crowd once again turned out with bricks and stones to hurl at the police, the time was ripe for Macon Weaver to "render[ ] prosecutive opinions," as he was "very much interested" in doing. It was already old hat for racist whites to assert that African-Americans were the perpetrators of bombings against their own community members. It may be that the racists' aim of undermining the moral authority of non-violent resistance by provoking violence from the African American community may have unleashed something more than was intended. McWhorter quotes vice president of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), Abraham Woods, who said in an oral history that

What I saw at Sixteenth Street, what I saw at the motel, was the forerunner of what happened . . . Later it was "burn, baby, burn." . . . That came later and I saw it coming. I saw it coming. (McWhorter, 437n)

Violent expressions of anger, long stifled by brutish, institutionalized intimidation and Jim Crow, may have made racists fearful in a new way—fearful of violent resistance and of possible outside perceptions that such violence was at worst an even response to what African-Americans had suffered. In a curious way, the national viewing of images of non-violent children and adults being attacked by dogs and blown down with fire hoses may have led to wider identification with the anger expressed in the rioting. Or at least Macon Weaver may have feared that this would be the case. Though the national media published virtually no photographs of the May, 1963 Birmingham riots (McWhorter, 437), Weaver may still have sought to deligitimate African American grievances in order to ease the city back into the status quo that had existed before the civil rights demonstrations.

Project C had come to an anti-climactic end. At the national level, the situation in Birmingham was central in leading John F. Kennedy to draft the civil rights bill which was passed in 1964. The perceived success of the SCLC's work with the ACMHR brought the SCLC new national prominence and prestige and an enormous spike in financial contributions. "Within a month of the ambiguous resolution [of the Birmingham campaign], the SCLC took in more money than it had seen in the previous calendar year" (Eskew, 314). At the local level, however,

[i]n the aftermath of the demonstrations, the police department attempted to return to the status quo of race relations. Police chief Jamie Moore responded to the civil disorders by purchasing "100 riot type (military) 12 gauge pump shotguns" . . . During June and July of 1963, officers reexerted their control over the black community. Yet the brutal response to the protest marches compromised the authority of the police. Through force, policemen kept the poor and desperate elements of the community in line. For black people in Birmingham this force often meant "justifiable homicide." On June 28, a policeman killed Blaine Gordon Jr., a seventeen-year-old black male. On July 6, a detective shot, but did not kill, thirty-three-year-old Johnny Patterson, also black. On August 4, an officer killed James Scott Jr., age thirty-five, another black male. The ease with which policemen shot and killed black men reflected a pathology within Birmingham's law enforcement that contributed to future racial crises. (313-14)

If you read much of Diane McWhorter's Carry Me Home, you see that the ongoing, deadly Police violence against African-Americans in Birmingham was something more than a pathological expression of racism. McWhorter depicts in great detail a sickening web of alliances among police, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Birmingham FBI. "Return to the status quo of race relations" meant a return to a shabby facade of civility that was maintained by the constant threat of violence. Tatum's original allegation, effectively that the Police and the KKK were one, was not the only of its kind. The FBI interviewed, but never investigated the testimony of, a witness who saw the Gaston Motel bombers receive police escort away from the scene of the crime. (McWhorter, 436) There was also another witness, in addition to Tatum, who implicated the police in the bombing of the King residence.

Macon Weaver wanted to use Roosevelt Tatum as an example of what would happen to anyone else who tried to speak truth about the deep corruption of the Birmingham Police. But the timing of Weaver's press release suggests further that he wanted to use the authority of the law to give an air of legitimacy to the most absurd of racist doublespeak. As McWhorter puts it:

The [FBI] was selectively pursuing a cipher who was only alleging a police-Klan conspiracy that its own star informant [Klansman Gary Thomas Rowe Jr.] had already uncovered, and for a crime that the FBI, if it had wanted to establish federal jurisdiction over the Klan, could have slapped on virtually every Klansman it had ever interviewed. (483)

It was a favorite racist assertion that violent crimes against African Americans, such as bombings, were perpetrated by African Americans themselves. Now Weaver was ramping such assertions up a notch by attempting to establish that the race riots were caused not by racist oppression but by lies and rumors spread by an unreliable African American.

Though Weaver could not prosecute the case himself, he got his wish, nonetheless, through his publicity tactics. On August 23, the FBI Director received a memo from SAC, Birmingham, stating that

Ausa [Assistant US Attorney] R. Macey Taylor advised that in view of the public interest in instant case, U. S. District Judge C. W. Allgood will probably present instant case early Monday, next. Federal Grand Jury is meeting in Birmingham on that date. (Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526.)

That same weekend, A. D. King and Roosevelt Tatum held a press conference to counter Weaver's statements. Page 1 of the August 24 edition of The Birmingham News reported that

Tatum said the FBI polygraph experts instructed him to say "no" to every question they asked him. He said they never asked him about what he saw the night of the bombing but only quizzed him concerning his children and unrelated matters.

"The said they were going to show me how the lie detector operated," Tatum said. "I had never seen one before."

The Negro said they asked if he had a baby named "Bronco."

"I started to say yes," the Negro said, "but they had told me to say no, so I did."

Tatum said the two agents questioned him at length, then told him he had lied and that they were going to prosecute him. He said that they told him he would be sentenced to five years in federal prison.

The Negro said he signed a statement admitting he had lied about police bombing King's home because of threats of the FBI.

Tatum said he now wants to take another lie detector test and welcomes a federal grand jury investigation into the matter.

King said there was another Negro named "Skeets" who also saw a police car near his (King's) home the night it was bombed. The Negro preacher said Attorney Clarence Jones of New York, who is now working on the march on Washington, will confer with Birmingham Negro leaders about what to do next within a few days.

On August 26, as stated above, the Federal Grand Jury convened and returned its charges against Roosevelt Tatum.

Roosevelt Tatum's trial was on November 18, 1963. Mark Lane writes

The record reveals that Tatum appeared in Judge Allgood's court [in] the morning . . . His lawyer was excused so that he could try another case that morning with the understanding that he would return to try the Tatum case at 2 o'clock that afternoon. Yet the afternoon session began with Billingsley entering the plea of guilty while Tatum stood silently by.

The lawyer was not present on the day of the sentence and Roosevelt Tatum, standing alone, was sentenced by Judge Allgood to a penitentiary for one year and one day. (Murder in Memphis, 40)

After Tatum made his mysterious change of plea from not guilty to guilty, Judge Allgood addressed him from the bench, saying Tatum's crime "could have resulted in the loss of life and may have . . . " (Birmingham Post Herald, November 19, 1963)

Allgood was probably referring to the death of John Coley on September 4, 1963, the night Arthur Shores' house was bombed a second time, sparking another riot.

Twenty-year-old John Coley, who had hopped a ride to the riot scene with his close friend Eddie Coleman, happened into a barrage of gunfire and collapsed facedown on the ground. Coleman called his friend's name. Coley raised his head and tried to say something but couldn't. . . .

Coley had . . . been hit in the head, though it was the #0 buckshot lodged in his liver that would account for his being dead on arrival at University Hospital. Several officers stationed in Coley's vicinity had been using that size pellet, and for the time being the police were so confident of their right to fire on the rioters that they told the [Birmingham] News's Tom Lankford that they shot Coley when he "burst from a house firing a gun," as if they had not been surrounded by hundreds of eyewitnesses who could contradict them. . . .

What the blacks who had gathered around Coley's corpse noticed was his dead-on resemblance, despite a twenty or so-year age difference, to Fred Shuttlesworth. They had no doubt that Coley was a victim of mistaken identity, that his murder had been another assassination attempt. The police would have to settle for merely kicking Shuttlesworth as he lost his footing and fell. (McWhorter, 499-500)

Towards the end of 1964 Roosevelt Tatum was released from prison. He left Birmingham, where he could not find a job, to look for work in New York City. Before leaving his friends and his family he said that he had told the truth about the bombing of A. D. King's house. His friends say that he insisted that he would keep on telling the truth, whatever the cost.

He died in 1970, at the age of 46. (Lane and Greggory, Murder in Memphis, 40-41)

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photo by Charles Moore

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

From the Delmar Archive to Bombingham, Alabama (Part 3)

My questions about how my dad ended up with Roosevelt Tatum's deposition were not all answered by the FBI file, but outlines of the story did emerge.

On May 11, 1963 at approximately 11:00 PM two bombs exploded on the property of A. D. and Naomi King. Following the explosions, Mr. and Mrs. King and their children fled the house without any injuries. The next day, on May 12, FBI agents made a routine neighborhood investigation. In their report Roosevelt Tatum stated that

he was seated on the porch at 820 12th Street, Ensley, and borrowed a match from EVA MAE MILLER. As he lighted the match to light a cigarette there was an explosion in front of the residence of Reverend KING about 150 feet from where he was seated. He ran toward the explosion after the passing of a few seconds and he had crossed the intersection of 12th Street and Avenue H and had almost reached the curb when a second explosion occurred. This explosion threw him back across the street and to the ground. En route from where he was seated to the intersection, a car passed very near him traveling east on 12th Street and he assumed it had passed in front of the KING residence at about the time of the first explosion. He noted that this car was a small American make car that he believed to be Corvair. He could not be sure of the color, but believed it was dark, possibly black. He did not notice anyone in the car or the number of persons that were in the car. He said he did not see the car after passing it while running toward the intersection. He did not recognize the car as one that he had seen previously.

He stated that he went into the KING house and got one of the small children. Mrs. KING was getting the other children out of the house at the time.

He stated that he was not aware of the cars that were parked in the vicinity and could not describe any of them. He did not observe any suspicious activities on the part of any persons prior to the time of the explosion. He stated that he did recall that Car #22 of the Birmingham Police Department was parked in front of Foster's Delicatessen, located at the corner of Avenue I and 12th Street. (Roosevelt Tatum. FBI HQ-0460048526. Prosecutive Summary Report, Names And Addresses Of Witnesses And Testimony Of Each, 12)

About six weeks later, on June 22, 1963 at around 9:00 AM, Roosevelt Tatum appeared at A. D. and Naomi King's house. By Tatum's own account,

I was crying and I told Rev. King that I had something in my heart and I wanted to tell somebody. . . . I have had this thing on my conscience since the date it happened, and I wanted to tell somebody about it so I would feel better. (19)

Since I first obtained Tatum's FBI file, I've learned that there are, in fact, two published accounts of these events surrounding the bombing of the King residence in Birmingham. The first is in Murder in Memphis: The FBI and the Assassination of Martin Luther King by Mark Lane and Dick Gregory, originally published as Code name Zorro in 1977. Around the time I received Tatum's file in the mail, a new book came out by Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Both books provide valuable original research on these events, but neither book gives voice to Tatum himself. As far as I know the only available recorded accounts of these events that Tatum gave are in the four depositions he made—three to the FBI in Birmingham and in Washington and the additional one he made in Washington that I found among my father's papers. Given the previous unavailability of these statements, I will here reproduce the most fulsome account of what Roosevelt Tatum told A. D. King the morning of June 22—the statement he made to the FBI later the same day:

On the night of May 11, 1963, I was at a place called The Lounge on Avenue C between 17th and 18th Streets in Ensley from about 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. I left there about 10:00 p.m. and walked a short distance to get a Lee Cab. I did not recognize the driver of this cab. He drove me to the the Foster's Delicatessen which is on the corner of 12th Street and Avenue I, Ensley. The delicatessen faces Avenue I. I estimate I was at this place from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. and was standing outside watching two men play checkers. One of the checker players was CHARLES HARPER. The other player is a young boy whose name I do not know, but I do know where he lives and I can point that out to Agents. There were several other men there with me watching the checker game. There must have been five or six of these men, and the only one I can name is a man named ARTHUR. I would estimate that about 11:05 p.m. Birmingham Police car No. 22 drove up in front of Foster's Delicatessen. There were two uniformed policemen in this car. I have seen these men almost every day but I can't call their names. I have been arrested several times and placed in Car 22 by the officers who work the shift from 3:00 to 11:00 p.m., but I do not recall that the officers who were in the car this night have ever arrested me. Car 22 is a four-door white Ford, but I do not know what year model. I would guess that it was a 1962 model.

As Car 22 drove up, I knew they would get me for being out after 11:00, so I left the place. I wish to state that I never did go inside the building which is the Foster's Delicatessen. I stayed out in front where they were playing checkers. After Car 22 arrived I left, walking toward 12th Street looking for a match. On 12th Street I turned toward Avenue H and walked over to the home of EVA MAE MILLER, who lives at 820 12th Street, Ensley. She was sitting on the front porch of her home, and I asked her for a match and sat down on her front porch and talked to her about two minutes. She started crying, saying that the next day was Mother's Day. The reason she was crying was because one of her youngsters had given her a handkerchief as a Mother's Day present and the rest of them had not given her anything. I know EVA MAE has at least three children. I left EVA MAE's porch and walked across 12th Street walking in the direction of Rev. A. D. KING's house. As I was approaching Avenue H, a police car came up Avenue H and turned left on 12th Street. As I saw this car approaching, I looked at the number on the car and it was Police Car No. 49. As I saw the car, I ducked behind a tree to keep from being arrested, as I knew they would pick me up after 11:00 p.m. As I stood behind the tree, I noticed that as the car stopped in front of Rev. KING's house on the far side of 12th Street, the driver of the police car tossed something out toward the house and that it landed near the sidewalk. It seemed to be something which was afire and looked like a firecracker sparkling. I then heard the driver of the car say, "The son of a bitch didn't hit the house." The other officer jumped out of the car on the other side and ran behind the police car toward Rev. KING's house. He crossed the sidewalk in front and passed the burning package that was first thrown out. He then got close to the house and tossed something else toward the house on the righthand [sic] side of the steps. He then ran back to the car, and as he got in the righthand [sic] side of the police car, they took off, and when they got about two houses away, the first bomb exploded.

At that point I left my place behind the tree and ran toward Rev. KING's house. I crossed Avenue H and when I was standing on the corner next to KING's residence, the second bomb went off, knocking me back across Avenue H in the same direction that I had come. I hit in the middle of the street of Avenue H. I did not lie there long but got up and ran toward the back of KING's residence to see if I could help anybody. I ran up to a fence which is back of the KING residence, and as I arrived there, Rev. and Mrs. KING both were coming out of the house with at least two children. Mrs. KING had one child in her arms, and she handed that child to me across the fence. Rev. KING had the other child with him. I do not recall whether he was walking the child or carrying the child. The first I remember after I took the child, I noticed that Rev. KING and his wife were crossing the fence and I helped Mrs. KING over the fence. I then went back across Avenue H on the opposide [sic] side of the street from KING's residence. About that time, which I would say would be between 5 and 10 minutes after the bombing, I noticed Car No. 49 returned to the scene. Both of the officers got out of Car 49 and went up to talk to Rev. KING. A few minutes later several police cars arrived and also motorcycle policemen and a paddy wagon. Some policeman who seemed to be in charge and was in uniform also came up to talk to Rev. KING. He may have been a Sergeant.

By this time, there was a large number of Negro people around and they were getting pretty angry. They wanted to fight the police or anybody they got their hands on. I stayed on Avenue H on the side of the street opposite Rev. KING's house until about 3:00 a.m. that morning. There were a number of Negroes throwing bricks and rocks. After people in the crowd started throwing rocks and bricks, I noticed a county sheriff's car and one of them got out. I saw him get hit on the side of the head with some object. He then got back in the car and all four men in the Sheriff's car left the scene.

I was still standing on the opposite side of the Avenue H at the time I heard another explosion. I ran over to my house at 1109 Avenue J to see if the church which is across the street from me might have been bombed. St. James Baptist Church is located across the street from my home. When I saw that no bomb had gone off, I returned to the scene of the KING residence. I learned the next day that the last explosion I heard was the one which occurred in downtown Birmingham at the Gaston Motel.

I would estimate that Car No. 49 stayed at the scene near the KING residence until about 4:00 a.m. In fact, several police cars remained there because their tires had been cut by Negroes.

After the second explosion and I landed in the street, as I was getting up I noticed that CHARLES HARPER who was playing checkers at Foster's Delicatessen a few minutes before. CHARLES HARPER was also knocked over by the blast as I saw him when I was getting up. I don't know what happened to CHARLES HARPER after I started toward the KING's [sic] to see if I could help anybody. As I saw CHARLES HARPER getting up, I also saw Police Car No. 22 turn right onto 12th Street off of Avenue I and head away from the scene of KING's residence. I did not see car No. 22 again that night and did not see them until about 6:00 a.m. on May 12, 1963. At that time they were patrolling in the vicinity of the KING house.

After I looked after the KING children, I went across to the home of CHARLES HARPER and would estimate this to be about 3:30 a.m. All of the brick throwing and commotion had quieted down by that time. I sat on CHARLES HARPER's front porch and talked to him, his mother, his sister and his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law of CHARLES HARPER is JIMMY WILLIS. We call CHARLES HARPER's mother by the name of "Bunch" and I call CHARLES' sister by the name of "Snook." I was at the CHARLES HARPER's house when they finally got the tires fixed on Car No. 49 and I believe it was driven from the scene about 4:00 a.m. I stated CHARLES' home until daybreak. CHARLES HARPER lives in the same block as EVA MAE MILLER and on the same side of 12th Street. I can point these places out to Agents.

At about daybreak I went to my own home to eat. I never did go to the scene of the Gaston Motel bombing. After I ate, I went back in the vicinity of KING's residence an stayed there most of Sunday. I was interviewed by FBI Agents about noon on Sunday at the home of ROSIE JOHNSON, 824 12th Street, Ensley. I did not tell these Agents about seeing Car No. 49 because I was afraid that policemen would beat me up or probably kill me. I did tell the other Agents that I recalled seeing Car No. 22 parked in front of Foster's Delicatessen at the corner of Avenue I and 12th Street. At the time I was interviewed by FBI Agents, I told them that a car passed very near to me traveling east on 12th Street toward Avenue F, and I assumed that that car had passed in front of the KING residence. There were several people who said something about this car and described it as a Corvair car. I described this car to Agents as a dark American-make compact car, believed to be a dark Corvair, possibly black.

On this date, June 22, 1963, I went to Rev. KING's house at about 9:00 a.m. I was crying and told Rev. KING that I had something in my heart and I wanted to tell somebody. I did tell Rev. KING that the car that did the bombing was Birmingham Police Car No. 49. He told me he would prefer to have me talk to the FBI, and he then called the FBI Office. I don't know what time Rev. KING actually called the FBI Office, but I did wait around his house until the FBI agents arrived. I then went to the FBI Office where I was interviewed by Agents GRAYBILL and MC FALL, and I then dictated this statement to a stenographer in the FBI Office. I have had this thing on my conscience since the date it happened, and I wanted to tell somebody about it so I would feel better.

I cannot describe the officers I saw in Car No. 49, but it is possible I may be able to recognize them if I see them again.

No one has told me to say the things that are in this statement. It is the absolute truth and I would swear it on the Bible. While I was at Rev. KING's home, he did not tell me what to say or talk to me about this thing. There was a white man there named GREENBERG, but he did not talk to me to tell me what to say. I repeat that no one has told me to tell the FBI the things I have said in this statement. I feel sure the officers in Car No. 49 did not see me on that night. (14-19. All-caps in original.)

Three days later, on June 25, 1963, Roosevelt Tatum was in Washington DC, flown there by A. D. King and my father. In Washington, Tatum was interviewed in the office of King's County, NY Congressman Emanuel Celler, a liberal Democrat who played a key role in passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Later the same day, Tatum was interviewed by Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall and by Special Agents assigned to the Civil Rights Section of the General Investigative Division of the FBI.

My father was involved in the leadership of the Liberal Party of New York from around 1955 through the late 1980s. One of his friends from the Liberal Party whom I interviewed a few years ago asserted that the audience with Congressman Celler would have been obtained because of my father's Liberal Party connections. In any event, Celler's office must have been where Tatum gave the deposition I found among my father's papers. For reasons that may already be apparent, I'm speculating that my father and A. D. King brought Roosevelt Tatum to Congressman Celler's office to make an official record of Tatum's allegations outside of the local and federal halls of the Department of Justice. In Part 2 of this series, A. D. King and my father had wanted to avoid having Tatum testify to the FBI behind closed doors. It seems they continued to be concerned that interviews with FBI agents, presumably also behind closed doors, would not be the best conditions for Tatum to testify under. (Look here for an example of why Civil Rights activists may have distrusted the FBI.) I suspect the idea may have been for my father to hold on to the deposition in case it were needed to countermand another version of the story. And herein ends the record of his involvement in this case. What follows is sad and disturbing.

Stay tuned for Part 4.