Reputed Klansman charged in 1964 deaths of black teens
On the morning of May2, 1964, Henry Dee and Charles Moore, both 19, were hitchhiking along U.S. 84 outside Meadville, Mississippi, when a Volkswagen pulled alongside them.
At the wheel was James Ford Seale, a 29-year-old truck driver. According to an FBI informant, this is what happened next:
Seale said he was a "Revenue agent hunting for bootleg whiskey stills," and told the two to get into the car. Seale pulled out a walkie-talkie and told the occupants of a trailing pickup truck, including his cousin, 31-year-old Charles Marcus Edwards, that he was bringing "two Negro boys" to talk with them.
Seale turned onto a forest road and, after traveling some distance, parked.
The Klansmen bound the two friends and began whipping them with beanpoles. Seale asked them over and over who was behind all the "Negro trouble" in Franklin County.
After the beating, the Klansmen loaded the unconscious pair into a car trunk, careful to line it with a tarp to catch the blood.
Driving to the Mississippi River, the white men dragged the barely breathing pair into a boat. Moore was lashed to a Jeep engine block, Dee to some old railroad tracks and wheels, the informant said.
Then the two friends went over the side, and the swirling, muddy water swallowed them alive.
That November, acting on information from a Klan insider, Mississippi state troopers arrested Seale and Edwards on murder charges.
(Seale on the left, Edwards, right)In an interview with FBI agents, Edwards admitted that he and Seale had kidnapped and beaten the two black men. But Edwards said they were alive when he left them.
The agents leaned heavily on Seale.
"We know you did it, you know you did it," an agent said, "The Lord above knows you did it."
"Yes," Seale replied, according to an FBI report, "but I'm not going to admit it. You are going to have to prove it."
At the time, the FBI had its hands full with the so-called "Mississippi Burning" case, the murders of three civil rights workers.
The Dee-Moore prosecution was turned over to local authorities, who promptly threw out all charges.
Seale, now 70, was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy and pleaded not guilty to those charges today, in front of a female, African American judge.
Charles Edwards, 72, has not been charged. People close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity said Edwards was cooperating with authorities.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Simply heartbreaking.
The Washington Post, gives a detailed background of this case, and The Clarion Ledger, Mississippi's leading newspaper, has much info, videos, and a photo gallery on it's front page (not sure how long they'll be on the front page though, you may have to look for the links).
That was 1964. Fast forward to 2007, when we are sooo much smarter.
“Martin Luther King” Party Causes Uproar on Texas Campus
Authorities at Tarleton State University in Stephenville. Tx, said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel.
Photographs posted on social networking Web site Facebook.com showed partygoers wearing Afro wigs and fake gold and silver teeth. One photo showed students "mocking how African-Americans do step shows," Elder said. In another picture, a student is dressed as Aunt Jemima and carries a gun.
Wanda Mercer, the school's vice president of student life, said an investigation was planned into the Jan. 15 party.
More than 400 students attended a university-sponsored forum Wednesday night that Elder described as "a shaky baby step" in bridging a divide between black and white students on the campus, which had about 400 black students out of 7,800 overall last semester.
Elder said he sensed a racial divide at the forum, with black students sitting on one side of the room and whites on the other.
"It was civil, but it also escalated into a shouting match," he said in a telephone interview afterward.
Some of the students shown in the photos apologized, Elder said.
University President Dennis P. McCabe said the photographs were reprehensible.
"I am personally insulted by these photographs and am disappointed that Tarleton students have demonstrated such insensitivity," he said.
It’s sad to say, as much as I’d like to rag on Texas, this could have happened on any college campus in America. Unfortunately, racism and ignorance is alive and well in America, and no state is immune.
I was going to post pictures of these poor, retarded, college kids, but frankly, I didn’t want to have to look at them every time I’m on my site. I would, however, suggest you look at them to see the future leaders of America .
And remember, this party took place to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.
Teach your children well...
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Keep up the good work.
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