60 Minutes' in-depth investigation into the unsolved Civil Rights-era killing of Louis Allen in Liberty, Mississippi, brought to life how troubling life can still be for many African Americans in the state and their pursuit of justice. From the files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, here are links to files on the Louis Allen case. If you don't know, the MS Sovereignty Commission was the taxpayer-financed arm of the state that spied on people and watched and harassed "agitators" working for racial justice.
In the Allen case, it is likely the perpetrators remain hidden in plain view in Liberty, MS, but I could find no evidence that the state's attorney general, Jim Hood is investigating the case. Instead, I found an article touting his advocacy of a new execution drug. That's Mississippi-style progress.
If Glenn Beck really wanted to honor Martin Luther King’s legacy on August 28, he should have talked about continuing discrimination in Mississippi.
Take this quiz to get caught up with the Magnolia state. What offends you more?
a. A lesbian taking her partner to prom b. Racially segregated proms c. Only allowing class officers to be white d. Schools requiring all-black classrooms e. None bother me. God separated the races for a reason. f. A, B, C and D are equally noxious.
They Are Yearning for the Days of the Old Confederacy
After he defended Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for omitting slavery from his States Confederate remembrance, it turns out that Haley Barbour made the same glaring omission in his State's proclamation. He seemed to go out of his way to purposely leave out any mention of slavery. I suspect they may be doing this to rile up their supporters. Both Governors may be interested in running for President or VP in 2012. This may be red meat for the Conservative Tea Party base.
Yes, there are definitely more important concerns that we should be focused on... and Republicans would probably love it if we were distracted by Barbour's antics. However, these reports, along with the other comments and activities by the Right point to a certain kind of state of mind that I believe should be illuminated. I think it says a lot about how they view the world, what they believe in, and who they really are. Eugene Robinson points this out very nicely in his commentary on the subject.
These kinds of political antics are taking place at the same time that we are hearing reports about segregation in Mississippi schools. Post racial my ass. I'm not even sure what year this is. I had to check the calender, not sure if I had slipped back in time into some other decade. But the calender says 2010. Notice the overriding pattern? There is a larger context to all of this. It pisses me off when apologists for the radical Right discuss these matters in a vacuum.... in separate little pieces, ignoring patterns and the larger context. Facts tell us one thing, but some in the mainstream corporate media suggest that we should ignore what is right in front of our faces. They want us to believe that the sky is pink, and that the earth is flat....that what we are seeing is just a figment of our imagination. It's not just the wider context of current events that they seem to ignore, they also love to ignore historical context, as Eugene Robinson pointed out.
What's even more annoying than all the talk about the loony Tea Party, the radical Right, and their romanticizing of the Confederacy, is the fact that thickheaded American voters are going to put these jackasses into office, certainly at the State and Congressional levels, in November of this year and in 2012, despite these reports, and despite solid recent history that shows their policies failing. This whole thing (the Right's activities over the past decade and their use of propaganda, especially since 2007) says more about the deficiencies of Progressives and their complete lack of an effective media infrastructure, than it says about how crazy the Right is. If you can't effectively mount a defense against such incredibly crazy propaganda and effectively educate the American public (which is in desperate need of good information and deprogramming).... then to me, this may be the more pressing issue. It points to an emergency within the Progressive movement in this Country. If there is no effort to fix it and fix it soon- with a complete revamping of Progressive strategy, infrastructure... and with policies like the Fairness Doctrine - then this Country is going to be in serious trouble. Progressives & Democrats are certainly going to pay a price.
I'm losing more faith in this Country and the World with each passing day.
Ha! It's not an oxymoron. We really do believe in providing University faculty the freedom to tread on difficult, touchy subjects. After all, if we can't discuss contentious subjects on a college campus, where can we?
Well, some Ole Miss students, and one in particular, are upset that the University allows the use of R-rated films in a Modern Language (Spanish) class. The student finds it offensive that a professor would seek to use film as a tool in teaching about culture and the underbelly of society.
Naturally, the commenters are having a field day with this, both pro and con.
Analysis If anything the offended student should thank the prof for being so forthright in the syllabus and the first day of class in telling the students what was in store for them throughout the semester. Second, this student, I believe, has not quite grasped what a liberal arts education is all about. If all you want is a recitation from church, go to a private, religious college. Third, one of the great purposes of higher education is to challenge students and their conventional way of thinking. I fear that we have too many students that cannot tolerate the "different." That, my friends, does not bode well for our future.
In towns like Hollandale, MS hopes are sky-high that Obama will return a sense of economic normalcy to towns like it and hundreds others across the country that are adrift in a new world order that doesn't seem to appreciate what they have to offer.
In Hollandale, unemployment and poverty are twin cousins of evil that keep large swaths of Mississippi economically stagnant. Bush's policies did little to help and if you believe his critics his policies did much to exacerbate Hollandale's problems. Disdain for the poor while currying favor among the rich left the Hollandale's of America adrift.
The key is to council patience and recognize that change won't come like a lightning bolt from the sky, but only after years and years of meaningful investment.
VIDEO UPDATE: Obama Calls Clinton Out on Veep w/ Transcript by Billary Redux [Subscribe] Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 10:44:24 AM PDT
TRANSCRIPT-Barack Obama at Columbus, MS Town Hall [3/10/08]
I respect Senator Clinton. She was a friend of mine before this campaign. She”ll be a friend of mine after this campaign. Because we’re gonna have to unify together to win in November. But I do have to say I was listening to some of the things Senator Clinton said down here in Mississippi over the last couple of days.
So I am gonna have to say a little bit about it.
You know as I understand it. Both Senator Clinton and President Clinton repeatedly talked about how I would be a great Vice President. They kept on saying well you know he would be a fine Vice President. It would be a formidable team with Clinton at the top and Obama in second place.
Now first of all..with all due respect..with all due respect. I have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton. I have won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton. So I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the Vice Presidency to the person who is in first place. I mean. I am just wondering. I am just wondering. If I was in second place I could understand it, but I am in first place right now. So that is point number one.
But there is another. There is a second point. This is an interesting point. I want you guys to follow me on this. President Bill Clinton back in 1992 when he was being asked about his selection for Vice President. He said the only criteria, the most important criteria for Vice President is that that person is ready if I fell out in the first week that he or she would be ready to be the Commander in Chief. That was his criteria.
Now they have been spending the last two, three weeks. Remember with that advertisement with the phone call. Telling everyone.. Getting all of Generals to say well we are not sure he is ready. “I am ready on day one”, “He may not be ready yet” But I don’t understand it. If I’m not ready how is it that you think I should be such a great Vice President. Do you understand that?
See I was trying to explain to somebody a while back.the okidoke. You all know the okidoke. When somebody is trying to bamboozle you, when they are trying to hoodwink you. You.They are trying to hoodwink you.
You can’t say that he is not ready on day one unless he is willing to be your Vice President then he is ready on day one.
So look I just want everybody to be absolutely clear here, okay. I want everyone to be absolutely clear. We are in a tough battle and I don’t presume that I have won this election. Senator Clinton is fighting hard. She is tenacious. I respect her for that. She is working hard to win the nomination. But I want everybody to be absolutely clear.
I am not running for Vice President. I am running for President of the United States of America. I am running for President of the United States of America. I am running to be Commander in Chief. And the reason I am running to be Commander in Chief is because I believe that the most important thing when you answer that phone call at three in the morning is what kind of judgment do you have, not how long you have been in Washington, but what kind of judgment do you have when you are answering that phone.
And I believe that I have shown better judgment than Senator Clinton. I believe I offer a clean break from the policies of George Bush. Because Senator Clinton went along with George Bush on the war in Iraq. Senator Clinton went along with George Bush on her willingness to try to saber rattle when it came to Iran. She has gone along with many of the conventional ways of thinking about foreign policy that have gotten us into trouble. That is what I intend to change when I am President of the United States.
So I don’t want anybody here thinking that I that somehow well you know maybe I can get both. Don’t think that way. You have to make a choice in this election.
Are you gonna go along with the past or are you gonna go towards the future?
Are you gonna do the same old thing or are you gonna try something new?
I am not running for Vice President. I do not believe Senator Clinton is about change because in fact this kind of gamesmanship, talking about me as Vice President, but he maybe he’s not ready for Commander in Chief. That is exactly the kind of double speak, double talk that Washington is very good at. That people who spend a lot of time in Washington have a lot of experience at, but is not gonna solve the problems of the country.
When I saw this in Borders, I knew I had to post it.
In Mississippi, Poor Lag in Hurricane Aid By LESLIE EATON Published: November 16, 2007
GULFPORT, Miss., Nov. 14 — Like the other Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens trying to recover from the storm.
But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state’s insurance system.
Just $167 million, or about 10 percent of the federal money, has been spent on programs dedicated to helping the poor, mostly through a smaller grant program for lower-income homeowners. And while that total will certainly increase, Mississippi has set aside just 23 percent of its $5.5 billion grant money — $1.25 billion — for these programs. About 37 percent of the residents of the state’s coast are low income, according to federal figures.
Mississippi is the only state for which the Bush administration has waived the rule that 50 percent of its Community Development Block Grants be spent on low-income programs, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the program. It is also the only state to ask for such waivers.
State officials, from Gov. Haley Barbour on down, insist that the state does not discriminate by race or income when it hands out aid to storm victims.
“We feel like we have programs in place to address all walks of life,” said Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, which administers the federally financed grant programs.
Any delays in spending money on low-income projects have been caused by the complexity of creating the projects, said Donna Sanford, director of the disaster recovery program for the development authority. The state, Ms. Sanford said, “has done everything that we can to keep it on track and moving as fast as possible to meet the needs of everyone.”
Nonetheless, resentment at being left out of Mississippi’s economic recovery has been stirring in poor communities along the coast, and nowhere more so than in this city, hit hard by Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge, where the state plans to spend $600 million of the federal money to repair and improve its shipping port.
Though the expansion will increase employment here, historically very few port jobs have gone to low-income residents.
Some critics contend that the main interest of state leaders in spending community development dollars is to help big businesses like shipbuilders and casinos and the port.
The state’s spending plan “moves business to the forefront and forgets about the people on the ground,” said Anthony Thompson, pastor at Tabernacle of Faith Ministries, whose spotless church (rebuilt by volunteers) is next to a moldering subsidized housing project that he says has not been touched since the storm.
In his mostly black neighborhood in west Gulfport, Mr. Thompson said, “I see a lot of people waiting on help; I see a lot of houses still damaged.”
State officials say that programs not limited to lower-income residents help them nevertheless.
And while that total will certainly increase, Mississippi has set aside just 23 percent of its $5.5 billion grant money — $1.25 billion — for these programs. About 37 percent of the residents of the state’s coast are low income, according to federal figures.
Despite DNA Test, a Case is Retried By SHAILA DEWAN Published: September 6, 2007
MACON, Miss., Aug. 31 — The scene in the tiny Noxubee County jail on a rainy afternoon has become almost commonplace. Kennedy Brewer, sentenced to death and locked up for 15 years for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old, was released on the strength of a DNA test showing that the semen in the rape kit was not his.
The bail bondswoman snapped a Polaroid.
Mr. Brewer’s sister, Martha, smiled and said, “I ain’t got to mow the lawn no more.”
Back home on Highway 388, two of Mr. Brewer’s nieces sketched out a T-shirt design to read “Welcome Home Kenny.”
But Mr. Brewer is not free and clear. He is only out on bail.
In a move that appears to be novel, prosecutors intend to retry him for the crime.
Virtually no effort has been made to find the man who raped the girl, Christine Jackson, and dumped her body in a creek in Noxubee County, one of the most rural in the state.
This is the first time prosecutors have sought a new capital murder trial after a conviction was overturned by DNA evidence, said Peter Neufeld, director of the Innocence Project, a legal aid group based in New York that has used DNA testing to exonerate the wrongly convicted since 1992. Usually such cases are simply dropped.
But prosecutors are not convinced of the innocence of Mr. Brewer, a black laborer who is mildly retarded. Forrest Allgood, the district attorney who first tried the case, said his theory then was that Mr. Brewer, who was the boyfriend of the victim’s mother, acted alone.
At the trial, Mr. Allgood argued that the couple’s bedroom was “the killing field,” although traces of human blood found there were so small that they could not be tested.
His view has changed.
“I perceive that Kennedy Brewer assisted someone else in the killing of the child,” Mr. Allgood said. “Whether he actually penetrated that child or not functionally doesn’t make any difference if he was aiding, assisting and encouraging in her death.”
Mr. Allgood declined to offer a new theory of what occurred the night Christine disappeared, saying only that Mr. Brewer was the baby sitter that evening and that there was no sign of forced entry at the house.
The defense lawyers, including Mr. Neufeld, say the girl could have been abducted by way of a broken window in the bedroom.
Mr. Brewer is being retried as Mississippi has been trying to reverse a reputation for judicial chicanery that dates from the civil rights era. In that time, vigilante violence often went unpunished, and the state conspired to shield Ku Klux Klan members from the law.
In recent years, high-profile cases from that period have been retried, resulting in convictions.
“The Brewer case illustrates that there are two Mississippi criminal justice systems,” Mr. Neufeld said. “There’s the old system that hasn’t changed at all and the new system that is trying to take the Bill of Rights seriously.”
Modern forensic tools do not appear to carry much weight in Noxubee County. Mr. Allgood said DNA reversals — there have been more than 200 nationwide — did not prove innocence.
Prosecutors often drop such cases only because witnesses are no longer available or evidence has been lost, Mr. Allgood said, but “John Q. Public thinks another innocent man got convicted who would have been killed.”
After the DNA results from the rape here came back in 2002, Mr. Brewer was moved from death row to the county jail, where he stayed for five years. Because Mr. Allgood was still seeking the death penalty, Mr. Brewer was not eligible for bail.
Mr. Allgood tested the DNA found on the girl against that of two men who visited Mr. Brewer at the house the night of Christine’s disappearance. The men were not a match.
He also ran a second test that excluded Mr. Brewer’s male relatives. But he did not run the profile against the state’s DNA database, saying in an interview that no such database exists.
That was a surprise to John M. Allen, the assistant director of the state crime laboratory, who said, “We’ve been up and running on our DNA database for years.”
Mr. Allgood also said he had notified the sheriff’s office of the DNA results. But the sheriff, Albert Walker, said he had not received any official notification and had not reopened the case.
“The case is already solved, far as the murder,” Sheriff Walker said.
Read about the rest of this rairoad job at the link above.
Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.
This is another case of
It's enough to make a Negro turn Black.
The DNA DIDN'T MATCH. PERIOD.
Didn't match him. Didn't match relatives.
DIDN'T MATCH.
They CHOOSE NOT TO RUN IT IN A DATABASE, but are willing to try this MENTALLY DISTURBED MAN FOR MURDER?
I would say unreal, but there's nothing unreal about this farce. If a man's LIFE WEREN'T AT STAKE, it would be almost comical, their obvious DELIBERATE, RACIST incompetence.
"The two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a ‘gentleman's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote ... May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or the Democratic Parties." -- W.E.B. DuBois (1922)
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