Scott Sisters ask Haley Barbour to Issue Pardon #mississippi #southernjustice

A civil rights tour is "a gold mine waiting to happen," said Terry Watkins, sales manager for the Silver Star Hotel and Casino. "Every time I have a tour group to come to the casino, they want to know about what we have on the civil rights movement. Where is the church? "If we could find the car...someone would know about the car..."

Save the Blacks #mississippi #gulfcoast #dailyshow #brilliant

Ten years after his father's death, Byron De La Beckwith Jr. is sharing secrets, saying those behind NAACP leader Medgar Evers' assassination belonged to the Citizens' Council.

USA Today: NAACP contests suicide as cause of hanged man's death #mississippi #JermaineCarter

oops that’s cc: @digby56 Haley Barbour’s Raid on Historical Memory / #racism #mississippi

Editor's note: In the 1960s, Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers headed the nation's most violent white supremacist group, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.

Now The Clarion-Ledger has obtained access to the late Klan leader's secret writings.

Here are the last words of a Klan wizard.

re: a case I was investigating this summer: Two cops on leave after suspect's #taser death #mississippi

RT @coldcaseproject: AP: Years later, #Mississippi still lacks civil rights museum

I’ll be at this Discussion w/Thomas Moore and Thelma Collins today #coldcases #deemoore #mississippi

TWO YEARS AFTER THE STORM: THE STATE OF KATRINA HOUSING RECOVERY ON THE MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST (PDF)

Media coverage of Hurricane Katrina raises questions about accurate representation and the resultant costs in human suffering. This article elucidates some of the documented facts related to Hurricane Katrina, its comparison to 9/11, and clarifies misconceptions of the initial relief effort and impact on those impacted by the Hurricane.

I question the media’s approach to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the exclusion of other affected areas, and examine the effect this had on the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s recovery and rebuilding effort. As a mental health professional and building contractor, I was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for one year after the storm and was heavily involved in the recovery effort. I was witness to the efforts made by communities and volunteers from all over the world, as well as the efforts from the federal and local governments. This article is intended to bring to light the well-documented history surrounding the regions most directly affected by the events of August 29, 2005.

For Buford Posey, a white man raised in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the Second World War had a civilizing influence. "When I was coming up in Mississippi I never knew it was against the law to kill a black man," he says. "I learned that when I went in the Army. I was 17 years old. When they told me, I thought they were joking."

For several decades Posey's assumption about the relative value of black life was effectively borne out by the state's judiciary. Among others, the murders of 14-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till, in Money in 1955; the state's NAACP chairman Medgar Evers, in Jackson in 1963; the three young civil rights workers--James Chaney (21), Andrew Goodman (20) and Michael Schwerner (24)--in Philadelphia in 1964; and civil rights supporter Vernon Dahmer, in Hattiesburg in 1966 all went unpunished.

The first section of the new documentary NESHOBA: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM, from filmmakers Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano, is so gut-wrenchingly sorrowful that it's an oddly mixed blessing when, as the movie prog-
resses, it becomes both easier to take and less effective. This may have more to do with the way in which events have played themselves out over the 46 years since the original murders around which the film is organized than with the skill of the filmmakers themselves. Still, had Dickoff and Pagano been able to maintain the passion and immediacy of their first third, they might have ended up with one of the most powerful, ground-breaking documentaries of modern times. (Or perhaps one so upsetting that viewers would squirm and head for an early exit.)

In 1964 when she was only 17, Micki Dickoff asked her father if she could go to Mississippi to work with the volunteers  of  Freedom Summer, registering black voters. Her father, a Mississippi native, refused to allow her to go. His was the only Jewish family in a small Mississippi town, and he feared what she would find there. Not long after, his worst fears were confirmed when three of the volunteers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by local Klansmen, all of them deputy sheriffs of Neshoba County. 

MONTEREY — The biggest moment in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s life has nothing to do with politics.

It wasn’t even the births of his children or marrying his wife that topped the list.

“When I was asked what the single most important moment in my life was during a debate, I smiled to myself,” Jindal told the full sanctuary at Lismore Baptist Church in Monterey. “I didn’t even have to think about it. It was the moment I found Jesus Christ. I should change that to say the moment He found me, because I was the one that was lost.”

NATCHEZ — Denise Ford and Wharlest Jackson Jr. say they will never forget their father’s ultimate sacrifice, and the Miss-Lou community shouldn’t either.

Wharlest Jackson Sr., 36, died on Feb. 27, 1967, when a planted bomb exploded in his Chevy pickup. Jackson, a black man, had recently been promoted at the Armstrong Tire Factory to a job that had been traditionally done by whites.

Jackson’s killers were never found.

Forty-three years later, Jackson is hailed as a civil rights hero who pushed for economic equality through faith and hard work. Ford and Wharlest Jr. want to honor their father’s legacy by placing a marker at the site of bombing on Minor Street, and are soliciting donations from the community.

New on Hungry Blues: The FBI's Slow Race Against Time #coldcase #mississippi #justice

On Hungry Blues: Coroner Calls Death of #Mississippi Man Homicide, Attributed Solely to #Taser /cc @villager

A Little More #Justice in #Mississippi /my reporting on the historic Franklin Cnty civil suit #coldcase

COCODRIE, La. — Oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico unabated Saturday, and officials conveyed little hope that the flow could be contained soon, forcing towns along the Gulf Coast to brace for what is increasingly understood to be an imminent environmental disaster.

The spill, emanating from a pipe 50 miles offshore and 5,000 feet underwater, was creeping into Louisiana’s fragile coastal wetlands as strong winds and rough waters hampered cleanup efforts. Officials said the oil could hit the shores of Mississippi and Alabama as soon as Monday.

WELLESLEY, Mass.— As a key leader in the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, Robert Moses focused on registering southern sharecroppers to vote. Today, he aims to assure the right to learn algebra — arguing that mathematics literacy in today’s information age is as important to citizenship as registering to vote in 1960s Mississippi.

“The first to highlight access to algebra as a gateway to equal opportunity, civil rights leader Robert Moses has had a huge impact on American education,” said Barbara Beatty, professor and chair of the Department of Education at Wellesley College. “Through his groundbreaking work, he has raised awareness of math and technology literacy for all students as the key to citizenship in the 21st century.”

Moses will talk about the need for high quality mathematics education during a lecture, “The Right to Learn: The Long Campaign for Civil Rights and Education Equity,” Tuesday, March 16, at 4:30 pm in Collins Cinema on the Wellesley College campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, formed in 1938, is charged with the responsibility of enforcing traffic laws on state and federal highways. Mississippi's state troopers must be prepared to assist local law enforcement agencies and to respond to statewide emergencies at the request of the governor. The officers of the patrol exemplify the agency's motto of Courtesy, Service and Safety. The mission of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol is to:
Encourage and promote the safe operation of vehicles on Mississippi's state and federal highways;
Enforce traffic laws and other applicable laws in a fair, impartial and courteous manner;
Function as guardians of public safety in a professional capacity;
Assist other law enforcement and criminal justice agencies; and
Enhance the public esteem for law enforcement by precept and example of each member of the department.

In February 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enacted an initiative to identify and closely examine all unsolved hate crimes resulting in death that occurred prior to 1970. A review of cold case civil rights matters that met the above criteria was conducted and, with the help of our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, as well as community leaders and civic organizations, numerous cases of unsolved violent crimes from the Civil Rights era are now being thoroughly examined and reinvestigated.
 
The Jackson Division of the FBI, which covers the state of Mississippi, was assigned 43 such cases. We are actively assessing each one to determine whether any new information can be developed which will help resolve these matters or lead to the identification and prosecution of responsible individuals if evidence indicates a crime was committed. While it is realized not every case will be resolved and, in some cases, the perpetrators may no longer be alive or there may be no federal prosecutorial jurisdiction, the Jackson Division is aggressively moving forward in investigating these cases while utilizing the updated analytical and forensic tools available to law enforcement today.
 
The names of the following deceased individuals represent the possible unsolved hate crime casesoccurring during the Civil Rights era which were received by the FBI’s Jackson Division:
 

This past weekend, the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) held its annual conference at the Cabot Lodge on the campus of Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. The “surprise guest,” Mississippi State Sen. Lydia Chassaniol (R-14th District), was introduced by emcee Bill Lord — the CCC’s field director who is known for his racist “Martin Luther Coon” jokes — as “the right hand to the Governor [Haley Barbour].” Lord also identified Chassaniol as a “member” of the CCC chapter in Carroll County, one of a handful of Central Mississippi counties she represents.

Four men still living whose murderous crime in 1964 underscored to a shocked nation and world the evil the regime of legalized racism in the American South fostered.

As if we need more proof, it seems the RGA has elevated Haley Barbour to lead the old guard. Far be it from me to make judgments about anyone's affiliations yet it does amuse me when people claim the high road while using the backs of others to get there.

The FBI is currently seeking information and next of kin for more than 100 unsolved civil rights murders that occurred prior to 1969. These cases are being reexamined as a result of the Civil Rights-era Cold Case Initiative, a joint effort with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, as well as community leaders and civic organizations. A partial listing of these cold cases is presented below.

Philadelphia, MS elects first black mayor in runoff

And not for one of the reasons I already knew to expect—that the material was classified, that the file concerned a living person, or that no file existed to begin with. Judging by the FBI's final response letter, there might have been a file on my subject, a long-deceased Mississippi lawyer name John R. Poole. But if there was, it got shredded.

For four years, Katrina survivors have been living in these toxic boxes. But there's more to this story than mere indifference or even incompetence - there was a concerted effort to push poor people out of the area after Katrina:

All of Pearlington was submerged during Hurricane Katrina, a circumstance created by its close proximity to the Gulf and the river while sitting directly underneath the eye of the storm. Every building flooded and the community had an estimated average st

Decades after the event, this programme follows the case of 79-year-old Edgar Ray Killen (pictured), the alleged perpetrator of the attacks, as he finally stands trial. With access to both the prosecutors a

The system, from slavery to violently enforced segregation to today's nuanced discrimination, remains without a national apology, no truth commission, no real sign that the nation is fully ready to understand its past. One Klansman is now behind bars. Ame

A boy named Isaiah Polk went off one day to see what he could see. He scaled a chain-link fence at the back of his tired FEMA trailer park, where fetid water gathers, and escaped into woods declared off-limits by his mother after reports of poisonous snak

Thomas Moore, a retired Army Command Sargeant Major, and former Meadville, MS, resident, traveled to Syracuse, N.Y., to consult with Syracuse University Law College faculty and students who are working on the Frank Morris murder investigation.

Retired Navy diver James Bladh testified Wednesday that his team found a human skull, railroad rails and other objects in a Mississippi River backwater in October 1964, nearly six months after two black teenagers disappeared.

Roland Mitchell, a deputy sheriff for Madison Parish, La., at the time of the killings, testified that he was among those who went out on what's known as the old Mississippi River near Tallulah, La., on July 12, 1964, when the lower torso of a human body

Edwards said there was a rumor in the small town of Meadville that Dee was part of a conspiracy to bring weapons into Southwest Mississippi for the beginning of a race riot. At a weekly KKK meeting, or as the Klansmen referred to it as the “Bunkley Hunt

Self-taught legal expert Alvin Sykes is on a quest to get long-unpursued suspects into court before it's too late.

Three new condominium developments are open and at least 30 others are proposed or under construction along Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

He addressed his remarks to the families of Dee and Moore: “I can’t undo what was done ... years ago. I ask you for forgiveness for my part in this.”

Before Charles Marcus Edwards testified, defendant James Ford Seale rocked back and forth vigorously in a maroon leather chair. But as Edwards described the events leading to the teenagers' 1964 deaths, Seale sat still and stared at his cousin, a Baptist

Fannie Lee Chaney, “grandmother” of the Mississippi civil rights movement, was honored on Saturday as funeral services were held at First Union Baptist Church in Meridian. Mother to James Earl Chaney, one of three civil-rights workers killed in the

Dee and Charles Moore were not troublemakers, their families say. They were just two 19-year-olds - friends from school in Franklin County and from Mount Olive Baptist Church in the tiny Kirby Community - who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong

New Orleans — More than 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, many communities in Mississippi and Louisiana are still haggling with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over how much money the government will reimburse them for debris removal and infr

New Orleans trails Gulf Coast communities in hurricane recovery because of a failure of local leadership and a lack of affordable housing, a report issued by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

HANCOCK COUNTY - A plan to move debris that could have generated millions of federal dollars to the county school district instead will soon make four local men millionaires.

The response to Mississippi's housing needs after Hurricane Katrina wasn't fast enough, state and local officials told a U.S. House subcommittee Saturday.

This paper provides a selective review of two aspects of urban policy in the U.S. – federal policy providing housing subsidies for lower income households, and federal support for urban redevelopment and physical renewal.

Stephen D. Shaffer, Mississippi State University