Is this particular thread about the issues you raise here?
Posted on 06/11/2005 12:30:54 PM PDT by bourbon
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Hicks. Rednecks. Racists. People who live in this town of 7,300 have heard the epithets slung their way for decades.
And many — black and white — cringe as they anticipate how the world will view their town when reputed Ku Klux Klansman and part-time preacher Edgar Ray Killen goes on trial Monday in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers.
"People make it sound like it's a hick town. It's not," said Bryon Whitley, a white 21-year-old who works in a music store on the downtown square, just across from the red brick Neshoba County Courthouse.
The murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner helped focus the nation's attention on the struggle to register black voters in the segregated South. Chaney was a black Mississippian. Goodman and Schwerner were white Northerners.
They disappeared the night of June 21, 1964, when they were run off an isolated road nine miles south of Philadelphia. They were beaten and shot to death and their bodies were found 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam several miles to the west.
The case became symbolized by photos of the burned hulk of the civil rights workers' station wagon after it was dragged from the swamp where it was ditched after the killings — and of the smirking Klansmen who went on trial in 1967, not on state murder charges but on federal charges of violating the workers' civil rights.
Killen, now 80, is the only person ever indicted on murder charges in the notorious case that was depicted in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning." His indictment in January came more than five years after the investigation was reopened. He walked free in 1967 after one juror reportedly said she couldn't vote to convict a preacher.
Many in Philadelphia, which is 75 percent white and 12 percent black, fear Killen's trial will attract a circus of white-sheeted racists. At least one Georgia Klansman contacted the sheriff months ago to say he wanted to hold a demonstration.
Resident Joann Johnson, who is black, doesn't want the trial to stir up bad feelings. Johnson, now 42, was a toddler when the civil rights workers disappeared.
Strolling on the downtown square one day last week with her daughters, ages 8 and 2, Johnson acknowledged that Philadelphia has its share of racial problems. But she thinks most of the tension is limited to the older generations. Johnson said one of her closest friends is Killen's stepdaughter-in-law.
"My children call her 'Aunt,'" Johnson said.
Jury selection for Killen's trial starts Monday. Summons were issued to more than 400 people. Attorneys say opening arguments could start by Wednesday or Thursday, and the trial itself could last two weeks.
Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon denied a defense motion to delay the trial to give Killen more time to recover from osteoarthritis that was aggravated when both of his legs were broken in a tree-cutting accident in March.
Whitley, the young man who works in the music store, said that while the killings were wrong he sees no point in the state prosecuting anyone now, especially an 80-year-old man.
"Just let the issue die," Whitley said. "They should've done it sooner instead of waiting 'til now."
But others applaud prosecutors for trying to resolve the murder cases. Some are frustrated that it took four decades to reach this point and some don't understand why Killen was the only one indicted.
"If he's guilty, he didn't kill those boys by himself. He had help," said 34-year-old Elizabeth Coburn, who lives just down the street from Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church.
During the Freedom Summer of 1964, the church was a gathering spot for civil rights workers. It has a granite marker for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner.
Because of her friendship with Killen's stepdaughter-in-law, Johnson has mixed feelings. While she wants to see justice done, she said she's praying for her friend — and for her community.
"We have a great town," Johnson said. "I just hope things don't rip us in half."
"Hopefully these murders of 1964 can be finally laid to rest once and for all."
That is my hope, as well.
This has been hanging over them for a very long time.
It's time for justice to be done, and for this story to be relegated to the history books.
I have a lot of faith in the good folks in that area.
"STAND FAST MISSISSIPPIANS !"
"Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southerner apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance."
"Let men not ask what the law requires, but give whatever freedom demands." - Jefferson Davis
With so much time passed, witnesses cannot be relied upon to remember details. There seems to be no bombshell evidence, like DNA, that makes this trial essential for today. It could have easily taken place 20 years ago, or even shortly after the movie. A jury isn't going to find a pet project of activists very sympathetic. It is quite likely that there won't be enough evidence to convict the slime and the only thing worse than him getting off is getting convicted on almost no evidence.
I just hope for the town's sake that the prosecution has an airtight case, otherwise, this will be even worse of a mess than it is now.
Thats an odd post? What do you mean?
just flying the flag sir :^)
Not at all. I agree that they should be investigated and the perps prosecuted. It just goes to show the hugh doublestandard when it come to black racism and black on white crime. White liberals are scared to death to even bring up the topic let alone try and prosecute a black racist for fear of being called racist themselves.
Is this particular thread about the issues you raise here?
[[Is this particular thread about the issues you raise here? ]] This thread is about racism. Racism whether black or white is wrong. White racism is not tolerated (which it shouldnt be) and black racism is excused and swept under the carpet for fear of making blacks look bad. You cannot deny the truth. You may choose not to recognize it but the facts are the facts.
No it isn't. It is about the murders that occurred in Philadelphia, MS, in 1964 and how the townspeople are worried about how this upcoming trial is going to play out.
You will never get an argument from me about the wrongness of racism no matter who practices it. But that is not the subject of this thread. There is a vast history here where threads are hijacked and the points of them get lost by changing the subjects.
mark
As horrid as the crime was, the notion of putting an 80 year old man on trial to salve the collective conscience of die-hard adherents of a culture which we profess to have eliminated, namely that of the plantation slave with no one there who even remembers the events clearly hardly speaks well for justice but speaks reams for revenge.
Mississippi prosecutes an old Klansman and West Virginia elects an old Klansman to the Senate. There surely is a story there somewhere.
I disagree..The young boys were murdered in cold blood and no one was ever tried for it..The families need justice..There is not statute of limitations on murder..The man has had 40 years of living free, a privilege the young men did not get.....I am listening to the trial on Court TV and all I can say is "If not now when?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5082010,00.html
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A former Ku Klux Klansman accused in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers told fellow Klansmen to leave one of the men alone because another KKK unit had been assigned to "eliminate" him, according to testimony read in court Friday.
snip
I am watching this on Court TV...
I'll buy that
Have you bothered to read about the original incident and the trial?
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