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Recy Taylor may finally see Alabama acknowledge her 1944 rape
by Ben Greenberg
ColorLines
March 17, 2011

Recy Taylor was abducted and raped at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Ala., on Sept. 3, 1944. Her attack, one of uncounted numbers on black women throughout the Jim Crow era in the South, sparked a national movement for justice and an international outcry, but justice never came. Now, decades later, there may finally be some solace for Taylor, 91, as Alabama state Rep. Dexter...

FBI to reopen investigation into 1965 beating death of minister
by Jerry Mitchell
Clarion-Ledger
March 11, 2011

Forty-six years after a white gang beat to death Unitarian Universalist minister James Reeb in Selma, Ala., the FBI is investigating the case.

Grand Jury convenes to investigate 1964 cold case
by
NPR
Frank Morris Case February 28, 2011

In Concordia Parish, La., a grand jury has begun hearing testimony about an unsolved murder from the civil rights era. That comes less than one month after Stanley Nelson, the editor of the weekly Concordia Sentinel, first named a suspect in the death of Frank Morris, a respected shoe repair owner. And it was Nelson who first reported the grand jury had begun calling witnesses in the 46-year-...

Grand Jury probing Frank Morris murder
by Stanley Nelson
Concordia Sentinel
Frank Morris Case February 09, 2011

The Concordia Parish Grand Jury began hearing testimony Tuesday concerning the 1964 murder of Ferriday shoe shop owner Frank Morris.

Witnesses were seen entering the courthouse to appear before the panel which is looking into the 46-year-old murder.

Neither federal nor local authorities would comment on the Grand Jury.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Louisiana's Western...

Investigations force feds to revisit murders of civil rights era
by Ben Greenberg
ColorLines
Frank Morris Case January 12, 2011

But there were other victims, like Frank Morris, who were targeted for reasons that are less overtly political, and perhaps even more insidious. These are stories in which there seem to be an accumulation of hostilities towards a black male that reach an unpredictable breaking point. Three main things animate the hostilities towards this different class of victim, often occurring in...

Solving a 1964 cold case: The mystery of Frank Morris
by David Ridgen
NPR
Frank Morris Case January 12, 2011

In December 1964, Frank Morris' shoe shop was set ablaze. He died four days later. Like many Southern crimes against blacks in the 1960s, the incident went unsolved. Now, 46 years later, Stanley Nelson, the editor of the Concordia Sentinel newspaper, says he has found information that may implicate a man as a member of a Ku Klux Klan "wrecking crew," which is said by sources Nelson has...

Man implicated in civil rights-era killing of Frank Morris
by Stanley Nelson
Concordia Sentinel
Frank Morris Case January 12, 2011

In 1964, Frank Morris suffered fatal burns from an arson.The FBI launched two investigations into Morris's death in the 1960s, but the case was never solved. In 2007, newspaper editor Stanley Nelson picked up the case. His reporting led him to suspect Arthur Leonard Spencer, a Richland Parish truck driver and former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Midnight Visitors: The short life and troubled times of Rogers Hamilton
by John Fleming
Anniston Star
December 13, 2010

Beatrice Hamilton told Detective Oscar Coley the pickup truck was green, the license plate was yellow and the man who took her son away the night he was killed was white. Coley did not believe her.

FBI investigating former Alabama trooper for another killing
by Jerry Mitchell
Clarion-Ledger
November 22, 2010

The FBI continues to investigate former Alabama trooper James Bonard Fowler for yet another killing, the Montgomery Advertiser is reporting.

Former state trooper, 77, gets six month sentence for civil rights-era slaying
by John Fleming
Anniston Star
November 17, 2010

A former Alabama state trooper pleaded guilty Monday to the shooting death of a man 45 years ago at the height of the civil rights movement.

The trooper, James Bonard Fowler of Black, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree manslaughter. He had been charged with two counts of murder in the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson during a melee in a restaurant in Marion in 1965.

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Authors

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Cases

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Publication

  • Anniston Star
  • Associated Press
  • Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
  • Center for Investigative Reporting
  • Clarion-Ledger
  • ColorLines
  • Concordia Sentinel
  • FBI.gov
  • Guardian UK
  • New York Times

Date

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  • December 2010 (1)
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