On August 27th, 1955...
....a few months after the murder of Rev. George Lee, fourteen year old Emmitt Till walked into Bryant's Store in Money, Mississippi.
There are conflicting stories about what happened when Till left the store, but he apparently said something (or whistled) at the store owner's wife, Carolyn Bryant. Later that night, Till was kidnapped from his great uncle's house, and taken to a shed where he was beaten, then shot, then dropped into the Tallahatchie River with a fan tied to his neck.
When Till's body was recovered, Till's mother insisted on having an open casket funeral in Chicago, and encouraged photographs of Till's disfigured body, which were published in Jet. Nearly 100,000 people saw Till's body during a four-day public viewing.
in 1957, Bryant's Store closed due to lack of business. In August, 2007, a Mississippi historical marker showing the location of the killing was stolen.
Links/Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#cite_note-12
abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2997393
Joel Sternfeld's "On This Site"
On May 7th, 1955...
...Rev. George Washington Lee, the first black person to register to vote since reconstruction in Humphreys County, Mississippi, was driving down Church St. in Belzoni, a small town in the Delta. Rev. Lee was well-known in the area for his voter initiatives, successfully registering blacks to vote.
As he drove down Church St., Rev. Lee was tailed by men in a convertible. Someone shot out his right rear tire, at which point another car pulled alongside, and Rev. Lee was fatally shot, point-blank in the face. Rev. Lee's Buick hopped a curb and slammed into a house, and the Reverend died on the way to Humphreys County Memorial Hospital.
There were witnesses who saw the fatal shot, but couldn't identify the killers. The FBI investigated, discovered enough evidence to take the case to trial, but the local prosecutor declined, saying a Humphreys County grand jury "probably would not bring an indictment." There seemed to be consensus in Belzoni as to who the killers were, but they were never prosecuted. In death, Rev. Lee's actions helped usher the passage of the Voting Rights Act ten years later, in 1965.
Belzoni is a quiet town in the Mississippi delta. It's catfish country, and they even have their own Catfish Museum and Catfish Festival. It's the kind of place where you can stand in the middle of the road under a darkcloth to make a photograph and no one will pay you any mind.
Links/Sources:
transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/16/cnr.06.html
www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/opinion/19wed1.html
www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-2-2005-82898.asp
www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-8-2005-83510.asp
www.beejae.com/lee.htm
(If you need an .mp4 video (for your phone) of Obama's speech from Philadelphia, right-click and save "A More Perfect Union")
There's a blue house at the end of George Lee St...
...in Belzoni, Missssippi. George Lee St. runs north/south through Belzoni, parallel to Church St., where Rev. Lee was driving when he was murdered by white supremacists in 1955. A small marker, just visible in the left corner, marks a memorial for Rev. Lee, and there's a similar marker on the north end of the street.
This is the carport at Medgar Evers' house...
...in Jackson, MS. Medgar was the field secretary for the NAACP who was assassinated in his carport in 1963. Evers' killer's first two trials ended in mistrials in front of all-white juries, and it took until 1994 to convict the killer of the crime.
"As Medgar came home from an integration meeting with the NAACP carrying T-shirts that had: "Jim Crow Must Go" sprawled across the front, a sniper's bullet dug itself deep into Medgar's back. He stumbled blindly about thirty feet until he finally collapsed. His wife, Myrlie, heard the high-powered rifle's shot, and ran outside to find Medgar lying face-down in the carport, in a pool of blood. Medgar died soon after in the hospital due to the loss of blood and internal injuries."
From www.socyberty.com/History/Medgar-Evers.14017 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgar_Evers
This is Country Road #515...
...in Mississippi. It was called "Rock Cut Road" back in 1964.
On June 21st, 1964, three civil rights workers were booked into the Neshoba County Jail after being arrested for speeding through Philadelphia, Mississippi. The three (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) had driven to Longdale earlier that day to see the remains of a church that had been firebombed by the KKK. The firebombing was apparently targeting Schwerner, who had plans to turn the church into a "Freedom School". Freedom Schools where established during Freedom Summer in the South by a coalition of CORE, SNCC & the NAACP.
The three were released at 10:30 that night and told to leave the county. Just before reaching the county line, their car was overtaken by a group of men that included law enforcement. Their station wagon was forced over to the side of the road. The three were pulled from their vehicle and taken to "Rock Cut Road", where they were beaten and shot.
The killings raised national attention to the Civil Rights struggle in the South. Robert Kennedy got the FBI involved (because Mississippi law enforcement was so slow to respond), and their remains were found a month later. No one has been convicted for their murder, but in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted for manslaughter for his role in recruiting the mob that was involved with the killings.
Through the efforts of volunteer workers (often from out of state, Schwerner and Goodman, who were both from New York), over 100,000 new black voters were registered in Mississippi in two years, and the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
Sources/Links:
Narrative of the case:
www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=3199_0_9_0_C
This weekend, the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson published two new stories about the case:
www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330... www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330...
A timeline of the case:
www.nbc5.com/news/4623060/detail.html
Lawerence Rainey, the Neshoba County Sherrif, chewing Red Man at his conspiracy trial:
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAburning.jpg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_A._Rainey
Map of the incidents that took place on June 21st:
data.tumblr.com/CaNBdaMUe6cnwnujPHAsNpme_500.jpg
People of Philadelphia dedicated to healing the community:
www.neshobajustice.com/
This is the intersection of Arthur St...
...and James E. Chaney Drive in Meridian, Mississippi. In 1964, 21-year old James Chaney, who was born and raised in Meridian, was arrested in Neshoba County with Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both from New York. The three had been involved with the Council of Federated Organizations, a civil rights group that had been active in encouraging African-Americans to register to vote, especially in Mississippi.
On June 21st of '64, the three drove north to Longdale, to see the ruins of a church that had been firebombed. They were pulled over for speeding and booked into jail. Later that evening, they were released and ordered to leave the county. In August of that year, their bodies were found on buried on a farm. Each had been shot. Chaney had been shot multiple times after being beaten.
On the day this photograph was taken, Barack Obama won the Democratic Presidential Primary in Mississippi, nearly forty-five years after Chaney's passing.
Links/Sources:
www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chaney
data.tumblr.com/CaNBdaMUe6cnwnujPHAsNpme_500.jpg
Inspired by a line in Barack Obama's stump speech, Freedom's Cause are photographs showing locations from the Civil Rights movement that helped pave the way for Obama's campaign. These pictures are a side-project of "So Help Me".
