Page 4
The Portland
Observer B lack HiStOty M o n th
February 9, 2011
Investigating Civil Rights Era Murders
Activists,
reporters and
the FBI work
cold cases
L ee A . D aniels
W hat kind o f hum an being
could set an o th er m an on fire?
T his w as the question that
Stanley N elson, a reporter for
T he C oncordia Sentinel, a sm all
w eekly n ew spaper in the L ouisi
ana D elta tow n o f Ferriday, says
first spurred him to exhaustively
investigate the 1964 m urder o f a
black D elta businessm an, alleg
edly by the Ku K lux Kian.
N o w , N e ls o n b e lie v e s he
know s the nam e o f the last living
m an w ho took part in the crim e.
He nam ed the m an, now 71 years
old, in a long, gripping story on
the case pu blished last m onth by
the Sentinel.
T he killing o f Frank M orris,
w ho ow ned a shoe repair and
dry goods shop and served both
black and w hite custom ers in
rural Ferriday (M orris is the man
by
Frank Morris, the man in the visor, was murdered in 1964 allegedly by the Ku Klux Kian. A Louisi
ana reporter has uncovered evidence o f the last living man who took part in the crime.
in the visor in the accom panying
photograph), is one o f m ore than
100 ra c e -re la te d m u rd e rs o f
blacks and w hites from the late
1940s to the late 1960s being
exam ined by both the Federal
B ureau o f Investigation and the
C ivil R ights C old C ase Project, a
consortium o f jou rn alists.
www . reed . edu / bhm / index . html
Though Frank M orris’ death prised them . So he w as doused
was brutal, m urder was not the with gasoline and set afire, too.
initial intent o f his killers. Follow
Burned beyond recognition, Mor
ing the Southern w hite-racist “tra ris lingered in agony for four days
dition” o f forcing successful black before dying. During that time he
entrepreneurs out o f business, they was interviewed by the FBI, but
had gone to his shop in the early never identified the criminals.
m orning to bum it dow n, thinking
T he story o f the m u rd er o f
he w ouldn’t be there. But he sur- Frank M orris, like those o f the
o th er cases on the p o ig n an t C old
C ase roster, recalls an era in
A m erican history w hen liberty
and ju stic e for all w as not the
law o f the land, w hen a regim e
o f p rofound cruelty ruled an e n
tire region, and w hen u n sp eak
Events are free and open to the public.
able crim es w ere co m m itted and
respectable people pretended not
to know w ho w as responsible.
T hat era ended. But the im
pact o f m any o f the en o rm o u s
w rongs co m m itted in those d e
cad es continues. F ederal o ffi
cials say that, o v erw h elm in g ly ,
m ost o f the m en and w om en
w ho in fact w ere resp o n sib le for
the C old C ase m urders will never
be indicted o r even nam ed as
suspects because, given the p a s
sage o f tim e, the evidence against
them is now too insubstantial. It
is an assessm en t that brings w ith
it m uch bitterness.
Y et one can still believe that
ev en in these cases the long “arc
o f the m oral u n iverse” M artin
L u th er K ing, Jr. o ften spoke o f
(draw ing on the w ords o f the
1 9 th - c e n tu r y
a b o litio n is t
T h eo d o re Parker) bends tow ard
ju stice.
W hy? T he an sw er lies in the
q u e s tio n th a t h a s c o n su m e d
Stanley N elson - w ho since 2007
has w ritten dozens o f stories on
the case - and m any others. T he
very asking “ W hat kind o f a
hum an being co u ld . ..? ” is a
d eclaratio n o f intent to not let
these crim es - and the stories o f
the lives o f the inn o cen ts —
vanish from the pages o f h isto ry .
Lee A. Daniels is director of
communications fo r the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
and
editor-in-chief
of
TheDefendersOnline.
Reed Celebrates Black History Month 2011
Local Radical’s
Legacy Celebrated
Ethnic Heritage Ensem ble
PERFORMANCE: FEBRUARY 5
7 3 0 P.M ., ELIOT HALL CHAPEL
For more than 30 years, the Ethnic Heritage
Ensemble has carried on the African American
tradition of percussive jazz from a distinctly
Midwest-Chicago perspective. The ensemble
features the talents of three internationally
renowned musicians: Dr. Kahil El’Zabar,
percussionist, composer, and a prolific jazz
innovator; Ernest Dawkins, a premier jazz
saxophonist and composer; and Corey Wilkes,
trumpet, an artist in residence and boart) member with the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
Annette Gordon-Reed
LECTURE: FEBRUARY 19, 7 :3 0 P .M ., KAUL AUDITO RIUM
Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law at New York Law School since 1992 and winner of the 2009 Pulitzer
Prize in History for her book The Hemingses o f Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008), is
recognized as one of our country’ s most distinguished presidential scholars.
M anning M arable
LECTURE: FEBRUARY 2 6 , 7 :3 0 P.M ., KAUL AUDITORIUM
Manning Marable is the M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies
and professor of history and public affairs at Columbia University. He was founding director of African
American Studies at Columbia from 1993 to 2003. Since 2002, he has directed Columbia's Center for
Contemporary Black History.
REED COLLEGE
3 2 0 3 S t WOODSTOCK BLVD. | EVENTS UNE: 5 0 3 /7 7 7 -7 7 5 5
T he radical legacy o f
Pat Parker, a black les
bian-fem inist, poet and
warrior, will be celebrated
during a Black H istory
M onth event at the B read
and R oses C enter, 6834
N .E. G lisan St.
P a rk e r (1 9 4 4 -1 9 8 9 )
w as a co m m u n ity o rg a
nizer, w riter, m other, and
an opponent o f all form s
o f bigotry.
H ear P a rk er’s w ords
and learn about h er c o n
tributions to the m o v e
Pat Parker
m ents fo r social and e co
nom ic ju stic e d uring this special ev en t on W ednesday, Feb. 9 at
p.m .
A S o u th ern -sty le m eal, w ith vegan op tio n w ill be av ailab le «
6:30 p.m . fo r a $6-8 donation. E veryone is w elcom e.