Unsolved Terrorist Crimes: A Thought Experiment
The reliable Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger has just printed the FBI's list of unsolved hate-crime murders in Mississippi before 1970. (This list omits the Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner case of 1964, though there may still be living suspects on the loose.)
Ask yourself if these crimes would have been left unsolved if they had been committed by the Weather Underground rather than a white supremacist terrorist underground. Ask whether, in that case, cable news channels and radio talk show "comedians," as Keith Olbermann nicely calls them, would be sounding the roll:
The FBI in Mississippi released today the names of 43 people who were possibly victims of unsolved hate crimes in the state during the civil rights era.The federal agency had announced in 2006 that it would identify and closely examine all unsolved hate crimes that resulted in deaths before 1970.
The names are as follows:
LOUIS ALLEN
Date of Death: January 31, 1964
Location: LibertyBENJAMIN BROWN
Date of Death: May 10, 1967
Location: JacksonCHARLES BROWN
Date of Death: June 20, 1957
Location: Yazoo CityJESSIE BROWN
Date of Death: January 13, 1965
Location: WinonaELI BRUMFIELD
Date of Death: October 13, 1961
Location: McCombSILAS CASTON
Date of Death: March 1, 1964
Location: JacksonVINCENT DAHMON
Date of Death: May-July, 1966 (circa James Meredith's March Against Fear)
Location: NatchezWOODROW WILSON DANIELS
Date of Death: June 25, 1958
Location: Yalobusha CountyROMAN DUCKSWORTH
Date of Death: April, 1961 or 1962
Location: TaylorsvillePHELD EVANS
Date of Death: 1964
Location: CantonJ. E. EVANSTON
Date of Death: Unknown; Body discovered December 24, 1955
Location: TallahatchieJASPER GREENWOOD
Date of Death: June 30, 1964
Location: VicksburgJIMMIE GRIFFEN (or GRIFFIN)
Date of Death: September 24, 1965
Location: Near SturgisPAUL GUIHARD
Date of Death: September 30, 1962
Location: OxfordADLENA HAMLETT and BIRDIA KEGLAR
Date of Death: January 11, 1966
Location: SidonLUTHER JACKSON
Date of Death: October, 1959
Location: PhiladelphiaWHARLEST JACKSON
Date of Death: February 27, 1967
Location: NatchezERNEST JELLS
Date of Death: October 20, 1963
Location: ClarksdaleGEORGE LEE
Date of Death: May 7, 1955
Location: BelzoniHERBERT LEE
Date of Death: September 25, 1961
Location: UnknownWILLIAM LEE
Date of Death: February 25, 1965
Location: Rankin CountyGEORGE LOVE
Date of Death: January 7, 1958
Location: RulevilleSYLVESTER MAXWELL
Date of Death: Unknown; Body discovered on January 17, 1963
Location: CantonROBERT MCNAIR
Date of Death: November 6, 1964
Location: PelahatchieCLINTON MELTON
Date of Death: December 3, 1955
Location: TallahatchieBOOKER MIXON
Date of Death: October 12, 1959
Location: ClarksdaleNEIMIAH MONTGOMERY
Date of Death: August 10, 1964
Location: ClevelandSAMUEL O'QUINN
Date of Death: August 14, 1959
Location: CentrevilleHERBERT ORSBY
Date of Death: September 7, 1964
Location: CantonMACK PARKER
Date of Death: April 25, 1959; Body discovered May 4, 1959
Location: Poplarville, Pearl River CountyWILLIAM PRATHER
Date of Death: November 1, 1959
Location: Corinth, Alcorn CountyJOHNNY QUEEN
Date of Death: August 8, 1965
Location: FayetteDONALD RASPBERRY
Date of Death: February, 1965
Location: OkolonaJESSIE SHELBY
Date of Death: January 29, 1956
Location: Yazoo CityOLLIE SHELBY
Date of Death: January 22, 1965
Location: Hinds County Jail, JacksonED SMITH
Date of Death: April 27, 1958
Location: State LineLAMAR SMITH
Date of Death: August 13, 1955
Location: BrookhavenEDDIE STEWART
Date of Death: July 9, 1966
Location: Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi or Crystal Springs, Copiah CountyISAIAH TAYLOR
Date of Death: June 26, 1964
Location: RulevilleFREDDIE THOMAS
Date of Death: August 16, 1965; Body discovered August 19, 1965
Location: BatesvilleSALEAM TRIGGS
Date of Death: January 23, 1965
Location: HattiesburgCLIFTON WALKER
Date of Death: February 28, 1964
Location: Woodville, Wilkinson County or Natchez, Adams County

















Our system of justice is what it is. That it has flaws isn't something I would care to argue against. There is little chance that mankind could ever hope to devise an absolutely equitable system. You probably couldn't even devise such a system on paper, let alone put it into practice. In all of history, not a single person has gone through an entire day without making at least one mistake. Not to mention that some questions just don't have answers. Or at least not ones we are willing to acknowledge.
February 14, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a certain skew of the justice system's mistakes that concerns me here.
February 14, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
That it is skewed is an understatement. Nor do I believe this has anything to do with mistakes. The obvious and intuitive differentiation between a mistake and intent has been lost in the shuffle.
February 14, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I referred to "mistakes" because you did! Obviously the pattern of injustice has a logic.
February 14, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are right. I referred to a mistake. That has to be recognized as a matter of how we have been conditioned to respond to this. We have had our collective mindset altered by the repetitive pronouncement of falsehoods. Damn.
February 14, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Thought Experiment: The current version of the US Department of Justice is looking to, how shall we say, prove Faulkner correct - "the facts and the truth, seldom have anything to do with each other..."
Prosecute a former judge from say, Alabama or Mississippi, who is connected to every prominent family in the area through business and family and people will say it's a stunt by the New Gang to get payback and score media points to settle old vendettas and new, because so-n-so is up for reelection in the 9th District and "they" "know" that...so cut a deal and prosecute this guy but not that guy to keep the peace but not really...
in other words, it's a Faulkner novel, except when it's Robbert Penn Warren...there is no good solution and even the pursuit of justice (the prosecution and punishment of the guilty) will generate a new set of myths in which change is never complete...one step forwards one back...a terrible stasis...but necessary...
So either the New and Improved Justice Department under the New and Improved Attorney General and the New and Improved President, do the right thing, or they square the circles (which they would sincerely define as, doing the right thing) and prove the old military recruiter's slogan to be as timely as ever: "I will never lie to you; but the truth may change..."
Conclusion: They will seek to square as many circles as possible and someone will be thrown off a cliff and there will be betrayals and confidences mistakes and triumphs and it's a terrible and apparently inescapable probability that if one steps back for a moment there is the unnerving sensation that we are all like characters in a novel by Dostoevsky...
I say the guilty should be punished.
But then, I am not the Attorney General nor am I the President.
PAUL GUIHARD
Date of Death: September 30, 1962
Location: Oxford, Miss
February 14, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I understand the flow of events correctly, it was the party of opposition that revitalized for pop political culture the phrase "Culture War" via its proxy, Pat Buchanan, at the 1992 Republican National Convention.
These cold cases are exactly what Buchanan referenced by implication. In my view, Katrina and New Orleans are extensions of the war referenced by Buchanan. They are not being hyperbolic when they say "It's war".
The party of opposition is, has always been, and will always be, a party of violence: metaphorical, verbal, and physical violence.
It is their nature.
February 14, 2009 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Professor Gitlin. I was entirely unaware of this. Given how difficult it is to actually get away with murder, I can only conclude that the perpetrators here have been protected by both a law enforcement system that for too long didn't really care about the victims and, worse, by a society that actively allowed these murders to just blend back in to life.
February 14, 2009 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
What are you getting at here?
I don't understand the thought you're trying to provoke or the statement you're making.
February 14, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
How come we don't have a "Report abuse" button for front page posters. I think we need it for someone like ---
Gitlin -- who has decided that his "hook" -- a list of names long enough to shock readers by its length -- is more important than preserving front page space for other posters.
There's a button called "Read more" and I know Gitlin knows how to use it.
February 14, 2009 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed.
Since the murders were committed in the last century (100 years after the civil war supposedly settled the question) in an attempt to revivify (using local terror; for comparison to the American experience, use Google to search for "acid in the face of Afghan schoolgirls") American separateness, we do not need a recitation of the names of the dead.
Listing the names of the dead in this manner, at this time, is a transparent attempt to inappropriately co-opt the tragedy of American separateness to gain blogosphere cred. Todd Gitlin should probably be ashamed.
[this is the sarcasm NB for those who will need it.]
February 15, 2009 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Monday, February 16, 2009, 17:41 GMT
Thank you, Todd!
February 16, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
ELL-en!
On Valentine's Day?
Show some love!
February 14, 2009 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you serious? Is this why you insist on posting a profile picture that makes people think your big toe got stuck in a blender? You sit around all day and dream of ways Fat White Conservative Republican Racist Americans have poked us all in the fanny?
God TG, lighten up! We're all in the same game here. Hug an independent thinker today.
And for Pete's sake, Smile! Even the legendary Man in Black took the time to joke and laugh. And recognize the common humanity that binds us all.
-MCS
February 14, 2009 9:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
The common humanity that binds us all to the American version of separateness?
Or the common humanity that binds us all to men who are pulled to their death behind a pickup truck in Texas?
Choose one:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/23/dragging.death.03/
JASPER, Texas (CNN) -- A jury found white supremacist John William King guilty Tuesday of capital murder in the brutal killing of a black man (James Byrd Jr.) dragged to death behind a pickup truck.
Byrd's tortured body was torn in two -- the head and right arm severed from the torso -- after he was pulled nearly three miles while tied by his ankles with a 24 1/2-foot logging chain.
You can see a picture of the late Mr. Byrd here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Byrd_Jr.
Finally, it is my irrefutable experience that no one has to "...sit around all day and dream of ways Fat White Conservative Republican Racist Americans have poked us all in the fanny..."; all we have to do is read the news about racist killings in America; 100 miles from the metropolis name Houston, Texas.
Comparisons of the distance from Vienna, Austria to Belgrade, Yugoslavia and Houston to Jasper may contain moral instruction when coupled with contemplation of (tribal?) hate crimes.
As governor, George W. Bush opposed special hate crime legislation; while Rick Perry (a Republican) passed such legislation. The question you can safely ignore is: "why did it take such a brutal fucking murder?" to finally move white politicians to act.
February 15, 2009 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, the question is why you need a special statute to be passed.
You can hem and haw all you want about how "these" or "those" murders aren't prosecuted... and I'll agree with you if the numbers work.
But saying that you need a special law as a result of past injustice? That strikes me as unequal, not equal, and as political sloganeering at best, legislative favoritism at worst.
February 17, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You wrote, you did:
"But saying that you need a special law as a result of past injustice?
As opposed to, for instance, one of these three:
1) an ordinary law as a result of past injustice
2) perhaps: a law as a result of past injustice.
3) even: a law in anticipation of future injustice.
4) but not: a special law in anticipation of future injustice.
5)absolutely forbidden: any law (special, ordinary, or patchouli-scented) in anticipation of future injustice with roots in racist hatred.
February 18, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
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