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I Want Justice, Too
by Donna Ladd
July 20, 2005
Photos by Kate Medley
Family photos courtesy of Thomas Moore
Additional reporting by
Natalie Irby and Thabi Moyo
(Click on photos to enlarge)
Finding James Ford Seale Alive: A Timeline
See full JFP Dee-Moore archive here.
The Jackson Free Press teamed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to follow an Army vet and Mississippi native on his journey back home, looking for justice for his little brother who was killed by the Klan in 1964. This is his story.
Charles Moore hitchhiked often. Growing up in the 1950s and '60s in rural Southwest Mississippi, near the lethargic town of Meadville, the young black man had not enjoyed the amenities that many white teenagers had. His mama, Mazie, had never owned a car. They did not have running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, gas, a TV; they lived in a three-room shotgun house out in Franklin County, about 32 miles east of Natchez, where he shared a room with his brother, Thomas, one year older. You could see the daylight through the wooden slats.
Mazie slept in the other room and spent much of her free time in the tiny, damp kitchen, cooking biscuits and fatback, butterbeans, fried chicken and her famous potato salad. The boys picked blackberries and huckleberries for her jellies; they had hogs and chickens for meat and eggs. She would make a big batch of pickled pork sausages at one time; her boys dug them out of a big Mason jar with their fingers. The mother may have bought many of their groceries on her $20 credit account at Hollinger Grocery Store, but she always put three meals a day, home-cooked, on their small table for her boys.
Most days, Tom and Nub, as most everybody called Charles, took biscuits and fatback in greasy paper bags for lunch, first at the small black school in Meadville, which didn't have running water, either, and after 1963 at the Lillie May Bryant School, which was the consolidated black school for all of Franklin County. There they sat together most days and ate their biscuits.
"You seeing one, you seeing two," Thomas Moore says now. "We were poor, but we had everything we needed." He remembers his mother buying each of them five pairs of pants each school year, a few shirts and a new pair of shoes. "It was up to us to keep them clean." Nub, the neater one of the two, did a better job, pressing his clothes with a smoothing iron heated by the fire, polishing his shoes. It paid off—he was voted Best Dressed, as well as Most Intelligent, of his senior class. He was also president of his freshman, sophomore and senior classes (defeating Thomas for the post in the 12th grade; his big brother, in the same grade, became his vice president).
Mazie had a strong work ethic. People had thought her husband, Charlie, had lots of money; he had, after all, graduated high school and then worked as a logger. But he also had a gambling problem. When he died on March 27, 1948, at age 50, he didn't leave the family much to live on; they had to rely on welfare—$12 a month—and the $10 a month she made cleaning the house of the local welfare director, a white man. She also took in white folks' laundry that she and the boys would scrub in iron wash pots filled with scalding hot water.
But, somehow, it was enough. "We had a good Christmas always," Thomas says. "We'd each get six apples, six oranges, a paper-cap pistol. During the county fair, we'd get $5 for the whole week." To get to work or to visit their cousins and friends in nearby Bude, or to go to Natchez, the brothers would hitch rides, mostly from white folks who could afford cars.
Mazie made about $300 a year, but it was supplemented by money her two sons brought in plowing gardens for their Uncle Joe Buckles (bringing him $75 to $100 a day for five to 10 fields, then taking home about $2.50 each) and moving sand for the new golf course for whites in Franklin County.
They believed in working hard so they could have more someday; both boys dreamed of building their mama a brick house with running water and electric lights. Her goal was to send them both to college so they could have their piece of the American dream.
"She taught us how to be somebody," Thomas says of his mother, who only completed the sixth grade. "She taught us our ABCs and multiplication tables before we went to school. She was proud of her two boys."
MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
When we first meet Thomas, he is standing in the spot where his brother was last seen alive by anyone but Klansmen. It is July 8, 2005, and large, but sporadic raindrops are starting to drop on Main Street in Meadville as Hurricane Dennis starts to threaten the Gulf Coast. The street is peaceful on a Friday afternoon, except for the thunder claps that sound like gunshots.
"This is where we always hitchhiked from,"says Thomas, now a hulking, muscular man of 62, who has lived in Colorado Springs with his wife, Mae, and son, Jeffrey, since he retired from the Army in 1994 after 30 years of service. We are standing across Main from Napa Auto Supply, in front of the old Dillon's service station.
Thomas says that, in those days, hitchhiking wasn't considered scary; they had to do it to get around. But they did have a plan in case something went wrong: one would sit in the back seat, the other in the front. If a ride turned dangerous, one could grab the steering wheel, the other could choke the driver from behind. Or, if they were riding in the back of a pick-up truck, they planned to jump out into water as they went over a bridge.
The boys didn't have this plan because they sensed real danger from local whites, however. They hadn't even really heard about the Civil Rights Movement. They had to eat at the back of the Meadville Café, sit upstairs in the movie theater. Their people couldn't vote, and they studied from a history book with a rebel flag on the cover. But segregation was what they grew up knowing. "All our political knowledge was very limited. We didn't have TV; we didn't even get the Natchez Democrat," Thomas says.
Her sons didn't fear white men, but Mazie always knew there could be trouble. They may not have heard about Freedom Rides, but all mothers of black boys knew about the Emmett Till case up in Money, Miss., in 1955 where a Chicago mama lost her 14-year-old boy after he supposedly whistled at a white man's wife.
"Don't you be out there messing around with them white women," Mazie would tell Tom and Nub.
"She had a protective mentality," Thomas remembers.
So did Thomas. Because Nub was more studious and a bit smaller, the older brother always watched out for the young one. "Charles Moore would have made a Ph.D," he says. "I was the fighter; I protected him at school."
The boys liked it that way. They both played football at Lillie Bryant; Tom intentionally flunked out a year, he says now, in order to play football long enough to try to get a college scholarship. That meant that the brothers went to senior year together.
But, as no scholarship was in the offing, Tom decided to wait a year to go to college, and work in New Orleans instead, so that Nub could go ahead and to go Alcorn State, up in Lorman.
On his application, Charles said he wanted to be a schoolteacher: "I like helping people to learn," he typed.
He had recently read Margaret Walker Alexander's "For My People," Charles Darwin's "Origin of a Species" and John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage." The latter was his favorite: "It had so much to do with the struggle of an individual in his development, and struggle impressed me greatly," he wrote on his application.
So in the fall of 1963, Nub went to Alcorn—and, very shortly thereafter, Tom was drafted into the Army and reported to Fort Polk in Louisiana for training.
CONDUCT UNBECOMING
At Alcorn, Charles' grades were erratic—the first year, his transcript shows, he made a B in zoology and an F in algebra. He was enjoying his new social life—and learning to speak up for himself in the world. He had an A in "student adjustment."
His second semester there, though, he spoke too loudly. After Charles joined a student protest about the poor quality of the cafeteria food, Alcorn President J.D. Boyd suspended him for "conduct on the campus unbecoming a student." By all accounts, that was his only brush ever with politics.
Charles went back home and seemed to go a bit adrift, coming back to eat home cooking and hang out with his cousins in Bude. The night of May 1, 1964, he told Mazie he was going over there with cousin Evis Bell to a party. He planned to stay the night at Evis' house.
The next day, Mazie passed the hitching spot in front of Dillon's gas station—the spot across from today's Napa Auto—and saw Charles trying to thumb. He was there with fellow Lillie Bryant alum Henry Dee, a dapper 19-year-old with a James-Brown-esque conk, who had moved to Chicago and was back home visiting.
Mazie had gotten a ride to the doctor and figured she would pick them up when she came back by there. That Saturday was the last time Mazie saw her boy alive.
Fellow Klansmen would later tell the FBI that when James Ford Seale, a 29-year-old truck driver from Meadville, drove by in his Volkswagen and saw the two boys, he got in his head that they were "part of the agitation that was going on in Mississippi, especially since one of them had recently come down from Chicago." He told the man driving with him, reportedly Charles Marcus Edwards, who worked at International Paper in Natchez, to get out of the car and follow him in his pick-up; he went back to the boys, who did not thumb him for a ride. He pulled over anyway and told them to get into the car, that he was a Federal Revenue agent. As he started driving west on Highway 84, toward Natchez, the boys became suspicious, and one asked him to pull over.
"(The boy) was told by James Seale that he could not as there were some more agents that he wanted the two Negroes to talk to," a Klansman later told the FBI. Seale reportedly used his walkie-talkie, official like, to call the men in the pickup truck to tell them he had two Negroes he wanted them to talk to. He then turned off 84 into the Homochitto National Forest. When he stopped, Charles and Henry got out just as the pickup pulled up. Seale got out with his carbine in his hand "and got the drop on the two Negroes."
The Klansmen—all members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, very active in and around Natchez then—tied the two boys to a tree and began severely beating them both with bean sticks.
"KLANSMAN, I WANT YOU"
After meeting Thomas Moore in Meadville, we drive the route the VW would have followed to take his brother and his friend into Homochitto. FBI records do not show exactly where the boys were taken, so we pick a spot in the woods thick with oaks, pines and low dead bushes recently burned. The raindrops, few and far between, seem as big as quarters. The cicadas are providing a dramatic soundtrack.
After we park, Thomas walks ahead of us, carrying a long, thin tree limb with four stems of leaves shooting off one end. It's probably 7 feet long. At first, I think he's carrying it as a walking stick, but then he walks up to a tree.
"This is a stick similar to a bean stick, the same size. People used bean sticks to stake beans, string beans, butterbeans, to stake tomatoes," Thomas Moore says. He starts swinging it like a baseball bat into the tree, with the force of all his 210 pounds.
Whack, whack, whack. The blows, which leave welts on the trunk of the Magnolia tree he picked, sound like a basketball thunking hard on a court. "These sticks had a lot of flexibility for beating someone tied to a tree," Thomas adds.
"Imagine a person, tied to a tree, a rope tied around their waist," he says between whacks. "They were trying to get them to confess to something that had no value." Whack. "They did confess to stop the bleeding." By now, all the leaves are gone, and the stick is at least a foot shorter.
As they unleashed all their strength on the boys, the Klansmen told Charles and Henry they knew they were Black Muslims trying to start an insurrection. They wanted to know who was leading the "Negro problems" in Franklin County. One of them finally told them the name of a black preacher in Roxie, to get them to stop.
When the Klansmen tired of swinging, the young men were hanging there by the waist, nearly lifeless, covered with blood. The Klansmen then had to decide what to do with them. According to FBI files, Seale's father Clyde, of Meadville, got to a telephone and called another son, Jack Seale, over in Natchez.
"KIWU!" Clyde said. The word "Kiwu" stands for "Klansman, I want you" in the KKK handbook.
Jack Seale reportedly responded to the cry for help by getting his buddy Ernest Parker, then a Natchez businessman, to bring his red Ford car to the forest and help load up the two men, who were nearly dead. They put Charles and Henry on a plastic tarp to keep bloodstains from getting into the trunk. They then drove some 100 miles to the Ole River—the Mississippi backwater near Tallulah, La., six miles from Vicksburg—to a boat landing belonging to Parker, according to FBI files.
There they took the men out into the water in a boat owned by Ernest Parker and his brother Lee, tied one of them to an old Jeep block and the other to a weighted chain, and pushed them overboard. They talked about shooting them first, being that they were still breathing, but "Seale replied that he did not want to shoot them because it would have gotten blood all over the boat," according to an FBI informant.
The bodies of Charles Moore and Henry Dee would not be found for over two months. As the families worried, rumor had it that they had run off somewhere. Meanwhile, in the white community, at least the white Klan community, word spread about the murders, with one tale being that Dee had "peeped" at Edwards' wife. The men involved started to get nervous because they worried that the bodies would float to the surface somehow. James Seale, in particular, told buddies that he was scared because he had put the tape on the men's wrists; he worried that his fingerprints would turn up, according to FBI reports.
On July 12 and 13, Navy divers looking for the bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner found the torsos of Charles and Henry; they were identified by personal effects including a belt buckle that Thomas Moore had given his brother.
ANYWHERE IN GLORY
It is dusk by the time we get to the cemetery back behind Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church where Charles Moore used to be a substitute Sunday School teacher. It is on a dirt road near Kirby, right off Seale Road N.W., across a cattle guard, encircled by a barb-wire fence. The rain has stopped, the sky is pinkish-gray, and the cicadas have followed us.
Thomas is quiet as he strides to the back right corner of the cemetery. He slows down as he approaches his family plot; his shoulders slump as he bends over graves that are starting to cave in a bit to look at his brother's tombstone. Its condition takes him back, and he seems surprised at an inscription he hasn't read in years. It is handwritten into a block of concrete, like a child scrawling their initials into a wet sidewalk. The word "born" is crumbling away:
Cherlie Eddie Moor
B______ Aug. 10, 1944
Beried July 1964
Darling, we will miss you
Anywhere in Glory Is All Right
It is the only time we will see Thomas seem embarrassed. "I got to get a new tombstone," he says, adding, "A local guy did this. He didn't spell his name right." The grave is surrounded by family names: Moore, Buckles, Cameron; his mother and father lie at the head of Charles' grave.
Standing under a huge oak tree, Thomas describes coming home from camp after his commander tells him that part of his brother's body has been found. Once he got here, no one would say anything about the murder. No one.
The body was interred at West Funeral Home in Natchez, the black one. The service was small with some community people, relatives, a few classmates. Mazie asked Thomas to wear his khaki Army uniform, and to walk in front of the casket as it was moved in and out of the church.
"It was sad," Thomas says. "Didn't nobody talk about the murder. The preacher didn't talk or say anything about the violent act, or anything like that."
That day began many years of sadness and pain for the Moore family. "When I walked out of this cemetery, that's when the anger started building," Thomas says. He remembers wanting to take his 30-30 Winchester, hunt down the Klansmen and exact revenge. But his mother told him no, that he needed to go make somebody out of himself instead. He would survive, she said.
Still, Thomas regrets the code of silence about the murders that developed between him and his mother and family members starting in July 1964. "People didn't talk about it at all. It was fear, shock; they didn't want to get involved maybe," he says. They also knew how unlikely it was to get justice for the murders of two black men by a gang of white ones.
"I drank a little then"—he doesn't now at all—"and I was trying to get drunk a lot. Mama would sit on the porch crying, saying, "I wish he'd walk through that door." I knew it was going to be the death of her."
The mother who "thought she had raised two ideal boys," as Thomas says now, would live another 12 years, though, get her driver's license, drive a truck Thomas helped her buy, keep cooking and going to church and cleaning houses. But she did die young, in her sleep on April 30, 1977. She was 65.
"I remember Mama crying, but we never talked about it," Thomas says. "Maybe the two of us should have talked."
Instead, Thomas went out into the world with his sweetheart from Roxie by his side, became a command sergeant major, spent 30 years in the U.S. Army, went to Korea, Vietnam, was respected, successful, a good father, then a counselor of troubled kids as a civilian—all far from the state where his brother was simply plucked off the map, no one seeming to care.
"I had a great Army career; I did it all," he says.
Along the way, Thomas picked up two bachelor's degrees, one in social science and another in social work. On his second degree, he had "Charles Eddie Moore" inscribed on it instead of his own name.
"I dedicated it to him," Thomas says as the cicadas sing.
'A STORY NEVER TOLD'
The truth is, a few people did care about the murders of Henry Dee and Charles Moore—and tried to get justice for their deaths.
"Dee-Moore was a major case for the FBI," says Bill Williams, who was an FBI agent brought to Natchez in 1964 to help deal with the growing rifts between the KKK—or "Kluckers," as the FBI called them—and the civil rights workers starting to show up in greater numbers. "The case was barely open when I got there."
"Natchez had actually become a focal point for racial, anti-civil rights activity for the state and would be for several years," says Williams by phone from Oregon, where he is now retired and talks to student groups about the history of the KKK in America. "Our main focus was to stop the violence."
Williams remembers "huge activity" in Franklin County, and calls the race wars in the area "a story never told." Along with FBI agent and Natchez native Clarence Prospere, Williams worked for several years to try to keep Natchez from exploding into an all-out race war. He remembers Police Chief J.T. Robinson putting the city under martial law for two weeks to try to keep the peace. "That little experience took a lot out of us," he says now.
At any given time then, there were upward of 100 FBI agents in and around Natchez, Williams says. A good number of them were trying to crack the Dee-Moore case, even as national media crowded into Neshoba due to the disappearance of the three civil rights workers, two of them white. "Dahmer and Neshoba County cases got the headlines."
(Vernon Dahmer was the Hattiesburg businessman killed by the Klan in 1966 for his civil rights work.)
The FBI investigation of the Dee-Moore case yielded more than 1,000 pages of files, including informant accounts. About a month after the men's torsos were found in the river, a Klan informant started filling the FBI in on what happened that night; they then searched the Mississippi River again working with U.S. Navy divers in the vicinity of Davis Island. A Nov. 3, 1964, FBI memorandum reported: "On 10/31/64, a skull, some bones, two shirts and large pieces of metal were found in the same area by Navy divers." Then on Nov. 2, divers recovered a Jeep engine block and two small steel wheels tied together with a chain.
"The chain on the engine block and the chain on the other items each had a loop sufficiently large enough to go around a body," Agent R. H. Jevons wrote.
The FBI then turned over what seemed to be a wealth of evidence to then-District Attorney Lenox Forman in Natchez, who promised to put it before the grand jury. On Nov. 6, the FBI and local authorities arrested James Ford Seale, 29, and Charles Marcus Edwards, 31, both of Meadville, for "willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and with malice aforethought killing the two Negroes on or about May 2, 1964," as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote in a letter to Bill Moyers, then special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, the same day.
Both men confessed to the crime, according to the FBI, with Edwards admitting that he had been to Klan meetings. Another informant told the FBI that Seale and his wife ran a "Rod and Gun Club" in Natchez in Meadville that was a front for the KKK.
"The arrests of Edwards and Seale resulted from extensive FBI investigation," Hoover concluded. "This is another example of the FBI's close cooperation with Mississippi authorities in bringing to justice individuals responsible for racial violence in Mississippi." The two men were released on a $5,000 bond each, with a hearing set for Jan. 11, 1965.
Hoover's declaration of justice was premature, however. A Jan. 12, 1965, FBI memo stated that the D.A. had discussed the case with Franklin County Sheriff Wayne Hutto, Assistant Attorney General Garland Lyle, and Mississippi Highway Patrol Investigators Charles Snodgrass and Gwyn Cole, and had then decided to drop the charges against Seale and Edwards.
Forman said that the case was "greatly prejudiced" toward the defendants because they "put out the story" in Meadville that, after their arrest, they had been "brutally mistreated" and denied medication by the Mississippi State Highway Patrol. Forman called the stories "dilatory tactics," but believed that such accusations would cause the charges to be dismissed at the initial hearing. He said that if more evidence were developed, he would present the case to the grand jury later, possibly as soon as August 1965.
That never happened. Edwards, Seale and other Klansmen continued living their lives in the Natchez area, many to their deaths. Some, however, are still alive.
'I WANT JUSTICE, TOO'
Thomas Moore did not spend the last 41 years looking for justice. He followed Mazie's suggestion and didn't stir up trouble for more than 30 years.
His campaign began in December 1998 after he heard that James Byrd had been dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. From Colorado, he wrote a letter to District Attorney Ronnie Harper asking him to look into his brother's murder. He agreed. Media around the country, including Newsday, "20-20" and Jerry Mitchell of The Clarion-Ledger, began to poke around the case again. In particular, Mitchell's Jan. 14, 2000, report that the murders occurred on federal land spurred the FBI to take a fresh look. "I'm just thrilled to death. I'm going home to tell my son," Thomas told Mitchell then.
But, again, justice was delayed. Despite a small spate of media reports, the case again languished, taking a backseat to more high-profile cases such as the Neshoba murders. Talking to the media at the Killen trial last month, Rita Schwerner Bender, the wife of Klan victim Michael Schwerner, pointed out that the bodies of two black men were found in the Mississippi River during the search for her husband in 1964—but it attracted little attention, and still doesn't. "You're here, you're interested in this trial as the most important trial of the Civil Rights Movement because two of the men are white," she said outside the courthouse. "You're still doing what was done in 1964."
When Thomas came back this month, he was in for a surprise. He had read media reports, and been told directly by reporters, that only one of the primary suspects in the murders was still alive: Charles Marcus Edwards. But while in Natchez, we learned—he from community people and from D.A. Harper; the JFP team from a former Klansman we interviewed—that the other primary suspect, James Ford Seale, is also still alive and lives in Roxie, near the intersection of Highways of 84/98 and 33 in a Winnebago-type trailer on land believed to belong to his brother.
This came as a shock to Moore when he confirmed the news on July 9, albeit a welcome shock. "When we left Colorado," he said this week in the JFP offices, "we had a plan as to what we wanted to do. But when we entered Franklin County and found out that James Ford Seale was still alive, it sprang out like a tree. It gave me more energy to go out in the community and talk to people."
And talk he did. We watched Thomas tell his brother's story to anyone who would listen: a white forest ranger at Homochitto National Forest; workers at bars where we recapped long days of reporting; friends and family he hadn't seen in years; strangers on the street black and white; and the audience of the Charles Evers radio show, as our crew all crammed into the tiny studio in West Jackson in between visits to Franklin County.
"Everything I've touched, everyone I've talked to, has given me encouragement," Thomas said.
One of the more touching exchanges took place on a porch on Maple Street, near downtown Natchez on a humid Sunday afternoon.
TIMING JUST RIGHT
To get to the home of Henry Hezekiah Dee's big sister, you go north on Canal Street from downtown, drive past the Natchez Democrat office, turn right on Madison, make a quick left on Maple. Mrs. Mary Byrd, who was 25 when her brother was killed, lives down the street a piece under a huge Magnolia tree. We gather on her front porch for her first meeting with the brother of Charles Moore.
Mrs. Byrd, a delicate woman of 63 with bright red fingernails, seems rather surprised at the sudden attention to her brother's case; in the 41 years since the murders, she has never been approached by the media or an investigator or a civil rights leader, other than some attorney in Georgia she remembers wanting her to travel over there years back to talk about it. She couldn't afford it.
As Thomas describes what he remembers about her little brother—that he was very dapper dresser with dark, smooth skin, hair processed straight and "tied back like a woman's" when it needed a re-conk—Mrs. Byrd nods and smiles a lot. When Thomas mentions that a lot of white people, then, didn't want justice in the case, she responds, "That's the way they are, some of them."
Mrs. Byrd says she is happy that something might finally be done about the case. "It's better for it to come on out. Better to come out, than stay in." She says she had followed the Killen trial in the newspapers. "That man was in that wheelchair," she says, "but they carried him on up in there," she says as her neighbors gather on their porches, watching to see what is up on Mrs. Byrd's porch.
Henry Dee's sister shrugs when she is asked why she thinks no one—including the daily newspaper two-tenths of a mile from her front door—has ever tried to talk to her about her brother's death. "They don't never say nothing," she says. "It makes you feel bad. They never, never say nothing. They�re right down there (she pointed); you can see the back side of the building; the front is on Canal. They ain't said a word."
Actually, the daily newspaper has mentioned the case over the years, but sparingly and with little detail. Looking through bound stacks of old papers in their archive room, we examine the editorial space on the day after the FBI announced it was re-opening the case in 2000. The column was entitled, "Start off your day with good thoughts," and said nothing about the case.
However, thanks to Thomas Moore's efforts, that is changing. The paper got wind of his visit and ran a long front-page story about him last Sunday, July 17, accompanied by a powerful editorial: "But the timing may be just right now to find convictions, especially in the Dee and Moore case. "Communities have changed in the years since those tragic deaths. People who might once have been afraid to come forward with information may be longing to find justice, too. We urge anyone who might have more information to come forward now. Time is running out."
THE SHADOW OF DEATH
Probably the best news Thomas heard during his trip home came while he was sitting in U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton's office in Jackson. After Thomas and filmmaker David Ridgen, who also documented Thomas' journey, called Lampton to inquire about the status of the case, he got on the phone to the FBI headquarters in Washington. By the time Thomas arrived at his office on Wednesday, July 13, he had great news.
Lampton told Thomas he would lead an effort to re-investigate the case, as well as that of 37-year-old Wharlest Jackson, killed by a bomb in Natchez after being promoted into a "whites-only" job. He said the case still had federal jurisdiction even though the men did not die in the forest, being that the Klansmen started the job there.
�He told me that when this big trial (Oliver Diaz bribery trial) ended, he would form this team of the agencies involved. He wants to satisfy me, and he wants to satisfy himself that if there is anything he can do, he would do it," Thomas says in the 930 Blues Café later that night after leaving the Evers show. "I believe the man. I believe him."
It doesn't hurt that it turned out that Lampton and Thomas were members of the same U.S. Army unit, the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry, when they were training to go to the Persian Gulf. Lampton was a colonel. "He respected my rank as a command sergeant major," Thomas says. "He knows the authority and power my commission invested in me. It's kind of like old soldiers taking care of each other. He's a fine gentleman."
Bolstered by Lampton's pledge, Thomas decides to return to Franklin County to leave his mark before boarding a plane back home to Colorado Springs on July 17. Sunday morning, he shows up at Roxie First Baptist Church dressed in a new gray suit to talk to his people. Before the service, he tells Rev. Carl Johnson that he called one of the main suspects and left a message on his voicemail:I jus "t want you to be able to tell me face to face, man to man, on neutral ground, how and why your name is listed all over these reports."
(Reached at his home, Edwards refused to talk to the Jackson Free Press.)
Rev. Johnson introduces Thomas to the congregation as light peeks in through blue, pink and yellow stained-glass windows. "I saw the heaviness on his own heart as he came and talked with me on the outside before the service. And I want him to feel the relief we feel and how we get relief through the grace of God," Johnson says.
Thomas steps up: "Now, you may ask, 'well, why are you doing it now? Why are you coming back to seek justice?'" he says. "I served this country for 30 years and 15 days. ... I have the right to be here. Because I am going to hold Franklin County and the state of Mississippi accountable for the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Dee. And I have no fear. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I have no fear."
"Amen!" "Amen, brother!" "Amen."
Thomas calls for the community to rise up with him, to do what the Philadelphia Coalition did: "If they can do it in Neshoba County, they can do it here."
After the service, Thomas and several men—including his nephew Michael Webster, Finnis Weathersby and Mac Littleton—take two signs and erect them on the side of the road in front of Seale's and Edwards' homes. After they pound the first—"In Memory of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore ... Rest In Peace and JUSTICE"—into the ground in front of Seale's house, the men put their hands on top of each other's, huddle style, and Webster says a prayer.
Thomas Moore then talks directly to his brother: "I spoke at the church you were baptized in. It kind of brings it all together. Rest in peace, my brother. I will fight for justice until the day I die. I want you to know that, OK?"
In front of Edwards' house on Rand Lane S.W. near Meadville, Thomas speaks to Charles once again: "Rest in peace, brother. We'll see you on the higher ground."
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Links to the JFP's slate of stories about the Dee-Moore murders:
July 20, 2005 - I Want Justice, Too
July 27, 2005 - A Dream Deferred
Oct. 26, 2005 - Editor's Note: Damned If We Don't
Oct. 26, 2005 Evolution of a Man
Oct. 26, 2005 - Dear Meadville: Thomas Moore Tries to Wake Up His Hometown
Oct. 26, 2005 - Daddy, Get Up
Oct. 27, 2005 - Franklin County Advocate Editorial and Thomas Moore Response
Dec. 7, 2005 - Just Rewards
Also: Read the JFP team's coverage of and blog about the Edgar Ray Killen trial here. The JFP's JusticeBlog (an archive of civil-rights-related coverage) is available here.
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Photos, from top:
1. Family photo of Charles Moore.
2. Family photo of Charles and Thomas Moore, standing in front of Thomas' first car he got while working in New Orleans right after high school. He brought it home and let a friend drive it, who blew out the engine. He now wishes he had figured how to get it fixed and let his brother drive it while he was at Army training; if so, perhaps Charles wouldn't have been hitchhiking on May 2, 1964.
3. The crumbling tombstone of Charles Moore.
4. Klansmen beat Charles Moore and Henry Dee nearly to death in Homochitto National Forest, then drove them to the Mississippi River and sank their bodies while they were still breathing.
5. Thomas Moore prays at Roxie First Baptist Church on Sunday, July 17, before asking the congregation to join his quest for justice.
6. Thomas Moore (left) joined Charles Evers in his radio studio Wednesday, July 13, to call for justice for his brother's death.
7. Mrs. Mary Byrd, Henry Dee's older sister, had never been approached by the media. She lives near downtown Natchez, two-tenths of a mile from the daily newspaper office.
8. Thomas Moore and several men from First Roxie, including his nephew Michael Webster, erect a sign in front of where suspect James Ford Seale is believed to live. They pray once the sign is erected.
_____________
The Jackson Free Press got involved with the Charles Moore/Henry Dee case weeks before the Edgar Ray Killen trial, after David Ridgen, a documentarian for Canadian Broadcasting Corp., asked how we were covering the Killen trial. We both wanted to look at cases that had not been prosecuted, and Ridgen had been researching and coordinating documentary production for the CBC on the Dee/Moore case since August 2004. We agreed to work together to investigate the story and follow Thomas Moore's journey for justice. The JFP started researching this case during the Edgar Ray Killen trial and, subsequently, joined David and Thomas Moore in Meadville starting on July 8 to report on Thomas' visit to the Meadville-Natchez area and to Jackson, as well as do independent reporting in the area. Thomas left Mississippi to return to Colorado Springs on July 18. David's documentary will air on CBC in the near future.
JFP Reporting Team on the Dee-Moore case:
JFP editor Donna Ladd led our team that followed Thomas Moore on his quest for justice, and wrote the cover story this issue. The Neshoba County native graduated from Mississippi State and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Kate Medley is a Jackson native who graduated from the University of Montana. She worked as a photojournalist for two years before recently beginning a Master's in Southern Studies at Ole Miss. She photographed the cover and cover story.
Jackson native Natalie Irby is a graduate of Jackson Prep and Ole Miss. She is a researcher and writer on civil rights issues and helped report the case of Henry Dee and Charles Moore this issue. She now divides her time between Nashville and Jackson.
Photo intern Thabi Moyo graduated from Howard University in 2004. She is an aspiring filmmaker and lives in Madison. She grew up in Jackson. As part of the Dee-Moore reporting team, Thabi taped interviews about the case for CBC television.
Special thanks to David Ridgen of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. who helped faciliate Thomas Moore's visit back to Mississippi, driving with him from Colorado Springs to Mississippi to document his journey. We salute him for helping a diverse group of native Mississippians tell our own stories.
(Originally published July 20, 2005; this story was originally posted at 9 a.m. on July 20, 2005, but moved to the top of the Web site on Jan. 24, 2007, after it was announced that the feds had charged James Ford Seale. Any use of material from this story must be directly attributed to the Jackson Free Press.)
COMMENTS
posted by L.W. on 07/19/05 at 10:13 PM
posted by Tom Head on 07/19/05 at 11:30 PM
Donna, is there any way I could work with Thomas to get Charles a new headstone? I've set many because I have participated in several headstone dedications. Since Thomas is so far away, I would like to volunteer to do this. Maybe there are JFP-ers out there who would like to help with the purchase? I spent my summers in west Lincoln county and east Franklin county as a child. I know this area and would like to help Thomas and his family with this.
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 08:42 AM
Steph, I got tears reading your post. I will call Thomas now and tell him that our readers would like to take up a collection for a new headstone. What an amazing idea and a lovely step. In fact, we might even get started passing the hat tonight at the M.A.P. Coalition gathering.
I did tell Thomas, though, standing at the gravesite that it's a beautiful headstone despite the mistakes and condition. It needs to go in a museum somewhere. Kate got a great photo of it that's not in the paper today, but Thabi is putting up a gallery of Kate's photos, so it will be in there. I'll post a link as soon as the gallery is live.
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 10:42 AM
Donna, I will be at the M.A.P. gathering tonight. I want to meet Kamikaze and the other M.A.P. officers and let him know that my offer to assist with a conceptual plan/info packet for the studio/artists' center is solid.
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 10:59 AM
I just talked to Thomas, Steph, and he said he would be honored for the young people of Mississippi to take up a collection for a monument to his brother. He said he would e-mail you directly about it at the address you have linked there. Let's definitely get started passting the hat tonight at Hal & Mal's. I think it's a beautiful step.
We should also think of a way of honoring Henry Dee in a similar way. Thomas, David, Kate and I went looking for his grave, but did not find it, yet (although we were promptly lost on dirt roads for an hour getting back!). So I'll give you details on his gravesite when I have them.
Also, Thomas is looking for people here in Mississippi who would like to join is coalition list. He's going to set up an e-mail list so he can stay in touch with everyone about developments and such. Perhaps we should set up a way for people to sign up online -- or at least do a similar petition as we did calling for the prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen last fall. Let me talk to the JFP tech gods about doing that.
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 11:00 AM
I will give some money to this, too. Let me know where to send it. I will also help in other ways but I can't give public details. Great story. I had heard of the murders before but didn't know any details.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/20/05 at 12:49 PM
Thank you for doing this research, thank you for the eloquent coverage of the story, (You did GOOD, Donna) and I'm looking forward to the pictures. Also praying for more action from the law, and thrilled that some action may be imminent in more places than one.
Anybody else see the Jerry Mitchell piece about the guns in the Goodman, Chaney & Schwerner case?
posted by C.W. on 07/20/05 at 01:29 PM
Donna, anyone wanting to donate can email me through the link here, and I will reply with my address. I would like to keep a record of the donors for Thomas' sake. They could also donate through you and JFP.
In the meantime, I will begin doing pricing research on monument companies in the Brookhaven area.
It'd be cool to get any details as to Henry Dees' gravesite location. I love dirt road ridin' and have been doing it in that area my whole life. Maybe I could find it.
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 02:02 PM
Thanks, Steph. I wonder if there is a way to set up an account so the checks could be made out to a fund. How does that work? And all the donors should get receipts. You might pick up one of those little receipt books for tonight for any cash we pull in that someone wants a receipt for.
A black-owned monument company might be nice, and there could be someone Thomas knows on that front. I'll definitely get you guys talking directly about this.
Mrs. Byrd said Henry is buried in Hunt Cemetary. I plan to look for it next time I go to the area; however, go for it meantime and keep us posted.
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 02:09 PM
The school in this story reminded me of my little elementary school, Hinze - where we had no running water or cafeteria and the bathrooms were on the outside. We brought our sacked lunches and ate outside. I still love my little school that is still standing to this day. I even go by and walk the ground sometimes just to rejoice over old times. Sometimes I even find some of my boyhood friends there doing the same thing.
The mother in this story was an outstanding woman. I don't remember getting this many pairs of pants, apples or oranges. Perhaps it was because there were 10 or more of us.
There was a similar school in or near Philadelphia, Mississippi. I think it was near Mt. Zion. I went to Neshoba County in 1979 to investigate the title or deed to that school. The land deed records weren't clear and had so many missing portions that I eventually gave up in my effort to help the rightful owners repossess that land and building. In my pursuit of this, I visited the home of Bud Cole and his wife. I took a good look at Mr. Cole and could see the physical injuries he suffered to his head and limbs that dreadful evening at the hands of the Klan. He still was unafraid and willing to help me. Needless to say, this encounter had a grave effect on me. I realized how lucky I was not to be born earlier, and that I had an obligation to take advantage of a new day that only great suffering, sacrifuce and pain had brought about. Most of all, I realized that my opportunity was a direct result of great physical and mental pain of so many who never personally gained a single thing.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/20/05 at 02:16 PM
Steph, do you have a PayPal account? That would be an easy way to donate and keep track of who donated.
posted by L.W. on 07/20/05 at 02:17 PM
Actually, I do have a PayPal account. It's been dormant for awhile, but it's still there. It is listed under the same email address link shown here.
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 02:40 PM
Hey all, I just had a long phone message from Thomas. He just read the story online and is very happy with it, and especially with all of your comments under it, offering help, donations, etc. I'm giving Steph his number so they can coordinate the memorial/tombstone. He is very touched by all of you wanting to be involved and encourages you to join his coalition. I haven't told him, yet, that someone here volunteered to set up a list serv for him, free of charge, if he's interested. (Thomas, are you reading?)
And bear in mind that he and his family are watching this from Colorado Springs, so feel free to post messages directly to them here.
(Note: I'm tweaking the story above slightly to reflect the fact that Charles was in Meadville the whole time after he was suspended; he didn't go to New Orleans looking for work then. Also, he met up with Henry Dee in at the party in Bude, Thomas believes; they didn't go there together as I originally said. But they were together the next day hitching in Meadville when they were picked up, as stated.)
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 03:40 PM
All, I just upgraded my PayPal account to accept all major forms of payment. It is listed under my email address link shown here. Even though I never use this account for anything else, please put something like "Moore/Dee Headstone Fund" in the subject line, just in case.
Donna, PayPal tech gurus have emailed me a way to put a donation button on a website to take them directly to my account. Would that be something you would be interested in putting on your website?
Also, in the event that this project collects too much money, we probably should be thinking of another good cause that any excess money would go to. Maybe one of Thomas' choosing?
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 03:45 PM
OK, Thomas just called again, and we talked this time. He is REALLY excited about everyone wanting to help. He really, really wants to emphasize that he wants everything that is done to honor Charles and his family to also be done for the Dee family. I am giving his cell phone number to Steph, and he gave me permission to set up an account to collect money for a memorial. So Steph and I will discuss that tonight. We need a high-tech way and a low-tech to do that, I think: pass hat, Paypay, bank account, whatever it takes.
He said he and his son (who is now a social worker in Colorado Springs) will get set up tonight so they can post here as well, and he's going to post his son's e-mail address, so y'all can communicate directly with him. But also feel free to post messages from Mississippi and beyond here for him as well.
Cheers, friends.
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 04:09 PM
Thank you, LW. The first contributor to the Moore/Dee Headstone Fund! I'm REALLY stoked now!!!
Peace, Love, Respect, and Harmony...
posted by Steph on 07/20/05 at 04:20 PM
God Bless You Thomas for enduring this loss with class, morality, patience, and apparently a reasoned anger and response. Mississippi was a closed society wrapped in depraved fear, hatred, and the idea of white supremacy forever. I have often wondered what I woud have done had I losted a love one under these circumstances, knew who did it, and knew the State of Mississippi and Mississippians wouldn't do anything about it. Many of my friends and I have had discussions about this. Some of us speculated that we would have sought personal revenge although we knew we would have caused more pain to our love ones and others. Luckily, we didn't have to face the situation, and we're sorry that you had to.
Needless to say, you have handled the situation in a Godly, divine, legal and humane way. Even today, I often wonder whether the hearts and minds of the average Mississippians have truly changed and overcomed the astounding dumbness of the past. Though most Mississippians will now adhere to, and follow, the law, state and federal; I worry that there is still this longing for the days of old past. For example, there was this great turnout to keep the rebel flag as the state flag. The flag wouldn't bother me if I felt assured it was saved for a reason other than racism.
Lots of people have moved back to Mississippi in the last 10 years or so. You would be amazed at some of the black success stories now running rampant in this state, unlike in the past. I think (at least hope) that, now, we can go to any place of entertainment, public accomodation, school or job and not be judged or prohibited from entrance based on race. A new day is truly dawning. Come on back home, we need you.
Good luck, and I'm thankful that your story finally came to life to so many others of us. Thanks to Donna and the others, too.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/20/05 at 04:27 PM
Just got finished reading this amazing story. Great reporting and great writing! I hope this inspires many more journalists to do this kind of work. I'm very moved by the tombstone project. I will be blogging this over at HungryBlues. I would like to post one of those high tech paypal buttons in my sidebar; who knows, maybe it will catch on. In the meantime I will post the info on how to donate and direct people over here to read the whole article and the discussion.
Steph, could you send the info for how to put up the button to the email address attached to my name at the bottom of this comment?
posted by Ben G. on 07/20/05 at 04:38 PM
Wonderful work, Donna. Journalism lives. Please do more. This is what Mississippi needs now, more than ever.
Susan Klopfer
posted by Susan Klopfer on 07/20/05 at 05:40 PM
Boy, look what's getting started here. Just look! I'm so proud of you all!
Ray, that was a good piece of writing you did, too. I know that a lot of folks are moving back to Mississippi, we're going to have to have a homecoming party sooner or later.
I remember that some of the old flag folks were saying that we didn't need to change the flag, we need to change some hearts. Obviously we've got some good hearts here, and I contend that when we finish changing enough of those other hearts, we won't have to worry about the flag (it'll grow legs and walk away).
posted by C.W. on 07/20/05 at 07:38 PM
Got a post up touting this story and including the paypal button (it worked, Steph). Now I've just got to get the button into my sidebar... I'll leave it up as long as the collection is going.
posted by Ben G. on 07/20/05 at 10:08 PM
Thomas e-mailed a message for all of you tonight:
I can not express the honor and respect that I have for the person you mention to me that wants to collect money for a new head stone for Charles Eddie Moore. I am grateful and I encourage anyone who wishes to help in anyway get in touch with the person there or you. Or they can contact me at Once again thanks to all who wants to see justice brought about in this case. Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Dee deserve that.
Also, Steph and I started collecting money tonight at the M.A.P. Coalition -- we passed a bowl and people threw in whatever they could. So we're on our way.
posted by ladd on 07/20/05 at 11:38 PM
Ray: You would be amazed at some of the black success stories now running rampant in this state, unlike in the past.
Philip: LW and I talked about this on this thread, with some census bureau numbers to boot.
posted by Philip on 07/21/05 at 06:03 AM
C.W., the occasion necessitated taking the time to write a decent piece. I shall be back to normal real soon. By the way, my old teachers used to tell me that I had the ability to do lots of great things but lack of desire and too little focus and dedication would probably prevent them all. I hope I have proved them mostly wrong.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/21/05 at 08:07 AM
I called Peoples Funeral Home, a black funeral home located here in Jackson at 886 N. Farish Street. They have some tombstones or monuments for sale. The person I talked to said they didn't know specifically of any black monument companies. Talking to them, or going by there, might be a good start. The phone number is 601-969-3040. She said their prices ranged from about $250 - $500 bucks.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/21/05 at 08:58 AM
Just returned to Toronto today after dropping off Thomas James Moore at the Montgomery, AL airport. What a trip! 12,000 kilometres, eating (and sleeping) together in a van crammed with equipment. I had started looking for Thomas in August of 2004 after returning from Neshoba county. CBC had just made a one hour doc there about the potential for a Killen trial. Nobody answered the telephone number I had been given for Thomas for months. Natchez-based DA Ronnie Harper was some help in tracking him down, but slooooowwwww. Finally, I resorted to FedExing a letter to the address I guessed was that of Thomas in Colorado Springs. He called me back the next day. We started talking back and forth in earnest and the Killen trial began to unfold. Then it seemed like we were suddenly in the van driving south and eating boiled peanuts.
We started the trip by visiting the travelling Vietnam memorial in Colorado Springs and ended about 14 days later at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery - interestingly, both were designed by the same woman, Maya Lin.
I am very excited and inspired to see the responses to Thomas's journey in this blog. Each day that goes by in this process continues to be better than the one before.
Thanks very much to Donna Ladd and the staff at the JFP for their coverage of Thomas's trip and for offering this forum for reader feedback and participation in Thomas's quest.
As part of my follow-up, I'm helping Thomas to compile a list of all the potential coalition members we met during our drives across the back roads and main streets of Franklin County. It looks like there's a list quickly developing in the Jackson area as well. I know of at least two other listservs that might want to become involved here too. You probably know of more. Once I have the Franklin County list as complete as it can be, perhaps a "marrying" of lists could occur so that everyone that wants to be involved is on the same page? The issue of internet access for many of the Franklin county members will also have to be worked out. Maybe phone trees, local radio, handouts could be used.
Thomas will likely be returning to Franklin County in the Fall. He wants to organize an omnibus meeting of all current supporters and potential supporters. At that time, the CBC documentary will be at a screenable stage and I would like to show it as part of this meeting. I'd also like to film the meeting itself to help complete the documentary.
With regards to the location of the Hunt graveyard (and the Moore graveyard), I'd suggest an email to Thomas would be the best place to start.
If anyone needs to contact me, here's my email and phone number :
416 529 0183
Thanks!
d.
posted by David Ridgen on 07/21/05 at 09:19 PM
Welcome back home, David! And thanks for updating everybody on more of the story from your end. We figured that part is your story to tell as you're ready. ;-)
Needless to say, this experience was invigorating and inspiring for us all. And David is right: everyone who wants to get involved in this quest for justice should get involved. We will all work together to make the forum as inclusive as possible. And ideas are welcome, especially from right here in the state.
Now that David has surfaced, I want to take the opportunity to really thank him publicly both for contacting the JFP in the first place and for being so open about allowing us to participate in a project he already felt deeply about and had started work on. I was feeling very strongly when he called that the JFP team needed to not only cover the Killen trial, but to take on a "what's next in Mississippi" project. The Moore-Dee case was the ideal way to do that.
It resulted in a great coalition, even if it did involve a few chiggers along the way. ;-)
And, of course, it will be very exciting to see David's documentary screened here in the state, and it will be an opportunity for others to meet Thomas, who is a very, very special person. I, personally, hope he can bring his family this time, although I hope to meet them in a few weeks when I'm in Colorado.
Cheers, David and Thomas. Let's keep this train movin'.
posted by ladd on 07/21/05 at 09:46 PM
Hopefully, when Thomas (and family?) returns, we will have the headstones in place and a small memorial service can take place.
posted by Steph on 07/22/05 at 09:04 AM
That would be lovely. What a way to welcome them with open arms.
Steph, I also contact info for other Dee family members. Let's put our heads together on finding out where that grave is.
posted by ladd on 07/22/05 at 09:09 AM
Great thought, Steph, you just keep on perking! It would be my first trip to that area, but I've always wanted to go visit that end of the state, and I don't think I would be able to miss this.
A memorial service would also provide a wonderful time to build support and consensus for the coalition that Mr. Moore wants to start and help motivate people to join in the effort.
I think Mr. Ridgen has the listserv nailed down and he and Mr. Moore are going to discuss whether it should be local or statewide. If statewide, I'll start collecting a list from here to add to the names they have collected.
posted by C.W. on 07/22/05 at 09:14 AM
Oh, I spoke with Thomas for perhaps a half hour yesterday afternoon. He is so overwhelmed with the love that he has been shown here. He told me that his relatives in Franklin County report that flowers, cards, and wreaths are being placed on the sign he posted at the location where Henry and Charles were picked up. This train is really gaining momentum!
posted by Steph on 07/22/05 at 09:53 AM
He told me that his relatives in Franklin County report that flowers, cards, and wreaths are being placed on the sign he posted at the location where Henry and Charles were picked up. This train is really gaining momentum!
Oh, wow. Thanks, Steph.
posted by ladd on 07/22/05 at 10:04 AM
From GOP website quoting the C-L from July 7:
Momentum is building to create a cold cases unit in the Justice Department, and U. S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott are among those cosponsoring the legislation.
Cochran and Lott drew criticism recently for not cosponsoring a Senate resolution that apologized for the Senate's failure to enact anti-lynching legislation.
Youngblood said Cochran and Lott did not sponsor that resolution but are sponsoring the new Justice Department unit because "this pertains to the here and now and what can be done here and now. Unless somebody's got a time machine, you can't go back and change those things. . . . This is action that can be taken in 2005 to help authorities go forward when there's evidence out there. "
Thomas Moore, a retired Army command sergeant major who now counsels troubled youths in Colorado Springs, Colo. , hopes the unit can help resurrect the case involving the Klan's 1964 killings of his brother, Charles Eddie Moore, and Henry Hezekiah Dee in Meadville.
Moore plans to meet next week with District Attorney Ronnie Harper of Natchez about the case. "I think we're going to get a lot of help," he said. "It's strictly a justice thing, not revenge.
posted by Steph on 07/22/05 at 01:24 PM
crap!! operator error abounds!!
http://www.gopsenators.com/newsdesk/article.aspx?ID=378
I guess y'all can copy and paste.
posted by Steph on 07/22/05 at 01:27 PM
The Associated Press just put out their follow-up to this story; note that they called yesterday and bought photos from Kate for the story. ;-)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_on_re_us/reopened_cases
posted by ladd on 07/22/05 at 02:00 PM
Excite is also linking to the AP story on its index page right now. That page displays several of Kate's photos that aren't used in our story, including this one of Thomas with the bean stick. (You can also see those huge raindrops I talked about on his t-shirt.) Don't miss these photos. Kate's a wonder.
posted by ladd on 07/22/05 at 02:58 PM
I just spoke with Thomas. He is now online for the first time with his own email address, and can be contacted directly at:
Calling Thomas on his cell phone is expensive for him, especially during the day. I encourage any who wish to speak with Thomas to do so after 8 or 9 pm Colorado time to help keep his expenses down. Emailing is obviously the cheapest method of communication now.
Thanks!
David Ridgen
Toronto
posted by David Ridgen on 07/22/05 at 06:27 PM
Thank you, David! I just wrote to Mr. Moore (and I called him last night, not really realizing, in my non-cell phone naivete, that it was costing him). By the way, if anyone is looking for the Paypal Donate button, I have one on my site as well.
posted by C.W. on 07/22/05 at 08:06 PM
Rats - typo on the URL. PayPal Donate Button on site
posted by C.W. on 07/22/05 at 08:09 PM
l'est we forget ...
This issue is coming up and if we mean business about civil rights, then our concern must be with voting rights, as well... since this is why many of these murders occured during the 50s and 60s in the first place:
Civil rights groups cite concerns over Roberts
Question record on voting, busing
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | July 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has a history of working to roll back government affirmative action and voting rights programs enacted to help minorities overcome the effects of past discrimination, leading some civil rights groups to eye him warily...
We need to let our senators know how we feel about the nominee.
posted by Susan Klopfer on 07/22/05 at 10:08 PM
Susan,
While the Roberts debate is certainly a worthy discussion to have, it's the ubiquitous political issue of the day and could very easily derail this very positive and worthwhile thread. We're already talking about Roberts here, and I think that's the best place to do it.
Cheers,
TH
posted by Tom Head on 07/22/05 at 11:20 PM
posted by Susan Klopfer on 07/23/05 at 01:02 AM
I just heard from Thomas Moore on the scope of the listserv, and he welcomes anyone in the state who wants to work on obtaining justice in his brother's and Mr. Dee's lynchings. David Ridgen is setting up the listserv, so all I'll need to do is collect the names and email addresses of those in Mississippi who would like to be included, and send those on to be added to those they have already collected. Those of you who wish to be included, please email me at and I'll make sure that your name and email address are added. If you know anyone who will want to be included, ask them to email me themselves so that we're sure we have only people who really want to work on this. Thanks.
posted by C.W. on 07/23/05 at 07:43 PM
Kate's photo is on the Conservative Voicen site right now, albeit without a photo credit.
Also, the NY Times picked up the AP story today, but cut the part about Thomas Moore out of it. That's too bad. Meantime, Dunn Lampton gets the headlines without the explanation that Thomas and David's phone call and visit brought it on. That's OK, I guess, because the main thing is to get this case prosecuted. But it is amazing to watch the road news takes and how it gets less detailed as it goes. Our story about Thomas, to AP (less detailed, but talked about Thomas at the bottom), then to wire stores that don't even mention Thomas and his journey.
Still, the prize is attention to this case and pressure to get it prosecuted.
And Thomas is a hero, regardless of whether the New York Times puts him in there. Maybe the Times will do a real story about him soon.
posted by ladd on 07/24/05 at 10:36 AM
Are they allowed to submit the photo without a credit since they bought the photo? I would prefer that they acknowledged Kate, though.
posted by L.W. on 07/24/05 at 11:04 AM
AP bought those three photos from her. They sent them out with her credit (appearing on most of them when you do a Google News), but the Conservative Voice doesn't seem to be putting one on there. They don't even seem to be mentioning that it's an AP story, or using Sheila Byrd's byline, so they may not have bought the story and photo. I don't know. That's AP's problem, technically, but it is crappy to use a photo/story without giving credit where it's due.
posted by ladd on 07/24/05 at 01:56 PM
It is crappy to leave off the credt, and Kate's picture is EVERYWHERE. It's also crappy that they are not mentioning Mr. Moore's journey and David Ridgen's accompaniment. Deju vu all over again.
I wonder if that documentary will end up down here as well as on Canadian TV? I really would like to see it.
posted by C.W. on 07/24/05 at 07:39 PM
Black America Web mentioned this story today along with the cases of Evers, Till and Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney. Deborah Mathis was author.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/25/05 at 08:00 AM
posted by Jay on 07/25/05 at 09:53 AM
There is $105 in the paypal account. And I have $43.76 in cash that has been given to me. Total = $148.76 so far.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 10:01 AM
posted by Ray Carter on 07/25/05 at 10:07 AM
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 10:12 AM
I've also gotten a commitment of $100 from a municipal court judge (NOT in Franklin County) and his wife.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 10:15 AM
posted by Ray Carter on 07/25/05 at 10:19 AM
We don't have an org name. So far I've got this little drawstring pouch with $28 and change and one check in it. The PayPal $$ is just sitting there waiting for me to ask them to mail it to me. Maybe I should check into getting a free bank account or something. Any suggestions?
Like CW, I guess you just make it out to me.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 10:26 AM
I think we should set up a bank account asap. Steph, I could have my assistant check with Trustmark today about it; Thomas gave us permission. The JFP could pay any fees, and then people could either deposit directly there (maybe?) or send checks made out to that account.
Want me to have Kristina do that?
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 10:51 AM
Sounds good. Let me know when I can deposit the money and what the name of the account is. Maybe we can get Trustmark to waive the fees?
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 11:04 AM
Steph, I'll send it to you now, since I will be unavailable, consumed and likely overwhelmed by my next case starting this Friday for 2 weeks. Hopefully, y'all can make time stand still until I return. Pray for me as it will take a miracle to keep this guy off death row.
posted by Ray Carter on 07/25/05 at 11:19 AM
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 11:20 AM
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 11:24 AM
OK, here's the poop from Trustmark. We can set up not-for-profit account for $4 a month (which we can pay). The first 10 checks are free (which should be fine). For deposits, the first 30 are free, then 75 cents each over 30 deposits. That's the one that could run up.
However, here is my suggestion; y'all tell me what you think. We set up the account in the name of Dee-Moore Memorial Fund. Then if you want to write a check for, say, under $50, make it out to that, but send it to our post office box to Kristinia Rabarison's attention. Then we'll make one deposit every few days. But if you want to deposit directly a larger amount, feel free to do that because it's worth the 75 cents once we get to that point.
We can also keep an accounting of who gave what. If you don't want your name listed publicly just tell us that when you make your donation.
Thoughts? We can get this set up today if the consensus is to move forward.
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 11:49 AM
posted by Ray Carter on 07/25/05 at 11:53 AM
That sounds okay. The account will probably be in existence for only 2 or 3 months max anyway. I can request a check from the PayPal account every couple of weeks as donations come in.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 11:54 AM
Ray, I am also receiving money. So you're okay with that. I'll pass it along to the account with the other donations I have.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 11:56 AM
Ray, Steph can just write a check for your amount and any others she already has. She can also track the PayPal donations and deposit that regularly. Steph, if you want your name on the account with ours at Trustmark, we can do that. You're the one who got this started, so I think you stay front and center on it. Just call me, and we can coordinate setting up the account if so.
The main thing is let's track donations very closely. Should we start a page on the site that we can both update? And if someone wants to be "anonymous," we can put that with their amount and date donated. We want this to be very transparent and accountable.
I just had a message from Thomas, too. I'll call him back today and update him on exactly what we're doing. Ultimately, he's the boss, our Command Sergeant Major, as it were. ;-D
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 11:58 AM
Absolutely, I was thinking about accountability also. I want everything to be very open and positive. I'm coming down that way to grab lunch at Rainbow. I could meet Kristina or come by your office.
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 12:02 PM
Oh, come on by. We're here, and y'all can figure it out. Maybe go back to the bank together. Bring what you have if you can, and it can be the first deposit. Only need a minimum of $25 to get started.
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 12:05 PM
None of the newer banks down there has free checking? There is a new one near me that is offering free checking (I can't remember the exact name - something like Renesaint).
posted by C.W. on 07/25/05 at 12:12 PM
I'll suggest that Steph and Kristinia call around if they want. Whichever is fine with me; I don't mind donating the fees. One good thing about Trustmark is that it's a few doors away. Then again, Bancorps South is right behind us.
posted by ladd on 07/25/05 at 12:18 PM
Have Kristinia call Bancorps. I am a Trustmark lady, but I have a friend who loves Bancorps for their free services. I'm on my way.........
posted by Steph on 07/25/05 at 12:31 PM
There is a Jerry Mitchell story in the C/L (with two of Kate's pictures - only AP file as an attribute), covering Mr. Moore's journey to Mississippi with David Ridgen (you scooped Jerry Mitchell!) that says that "Mississippi authorities" are looking into these murders, and that of Wharlest Jackson, and will be discussing them Friday.
posted by C.W. on 07/27/05 at 06:48 AM
Yes, Thomas called yesterday and said that he had talked to Dunn Lampton who told him they were going to go down there and shake the bushes, not just rely on old files. He said that Mr. Lampton is meeting with D.A. Harper down there this week to decide how to proceed. I talked to him too late for that to make it into the paper this week, but we do have a short follow-up to the big story talking about the tombstone fund here and such. On that, we ran into a roadblock with the account Monday and had to put it on hold due to getting the paper out. But we're going to finish dealing with it today and post information on how to donate. Sorry about the delay.
As for The Clarion-Ledger leaving off Kate's photo credit -- that downright figures. What are they so damn afraid of that they cannot give credit where it's due to a young native Jackson woman who is working hard on civil rights cases? And this one is squarely the Ledge's choice -- we know that the credit went out with the AP photos because it appeared around the country since the AP story hit the wires last Friday. And it wouldn't have mentioned the JFPóshe sold those photos to AP. Really amusing is that the only people who would have known she took the photos for us are the ones who have likely already seen her photos here!
Lord. They are so precious. There is room for all sorts of people and media on these stories -- including Mississippi natives. Sometimes it seems like it's a conspiracy to keep the world from knowing that native Mississippians care about these issues, too, and are working hard to do something about them. Oh, well. Doesn't really matter, though. The main thing is to get this case back in the spotlight again. And that was our goal when we joined forces with David back before the Killen trial to do this. I'm glad the Ledge didn't cut him out of the story -- because all this wouldn't be happening now, and I suspect little coverage of the case, without David's efforts.
BTW, this is what Jerry Mitchell said in an interview in February 2005 about the Dee-Moore case:
Q: What has been your biggest disappointment or discouragement in covering these cases?
A: That some of these cases will never be prosecuted. Thomas Moore lost a brother to the Klan in the Summer of í64 but is not bitter. He remains an inspiring man, yet he will never see justice for his brother because authorities have closed that case.
I sure hope that prophecy nows proves to be incorrect. From what I understand from our research, the case was not "closed." It was just that no one was moving on it, or reporting it anymore, until David Ridgen called us and Thomas and got it going again.
But, again, what is important now is that the case is rolling along, and the right people seem to be paying attention. Thomas is thrilled, and it is up to us Mississippians to keep the story alive. Cheers to you all for helping do that.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 08:56 AM
Link to that Mitchell interview I just excerpted.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 09:05 AM
Hey, the listserv is up and running, and I think a few of you may have forgotten to let me know that you wanted to participate in brainstorming this coaliton. :-) I'm trying to wait and send a fairly complete list at one time to save Thomas and David a little time and trouble. Email me at if you haven't already.
Although the focus of the Coaliton is on local people, Mr. Moore has expressed a desire to have others join the listserv and give their input and ideas, and do whatever they can to help build this coalition. In his words:
"The Henry Dee and Charles Moore Coalition is a group dedicated to seeking justice using all legal means possible with regard to the brutal murders of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in 1964 at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan in Franklin County, Mississippi. While seeking justice, the group will work to remove and/or dispel longstanding fears from all peoples in the area by building positive community ties and relationships, and mobilizing political, social, and economic forces to make Franklin County a better place to live for everybody."
posted by C.W. on 07/27/05 at 09:54 AM
posted by C.W. on 07/27/05 at 10:01 AM
Yeah, I like this part; it kind of brings to mind some of the "outside" reporters who come in and can't get people to say much to them. ;-) It's simple advice, but very good.
A: I've found that people typically want to tell their stories. I try to tap into that, get people to talk, even if they're reluctant. It probably helps, too, that my personality is the opposite of someone like Mike Wallace. Instead of coming in with guns blazing, I just try to get people relaxed, maybe take them out for lunch or dinner. It's amazing what people will tell you if you'll just let them.
BTW, I in no way blame Jerry for how his editors decide to handle Kate's photos and such. I admire the work he has done over the years, and hope he keeps it up for a long time to come.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 10:08 AM
Lovely statement by Thomas, C.W. Thanks for posting it. He's truly a uniter, I believe.
Of course I want to be on the list serv! I'll send you the address to use.
Thanks MUCH for doing this.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 10:10 AM
In the C-L article, Jerry Mitchell's email address is listed. Donna, what if you email him about Kate's picture? Maybe they can submit a correction of some sort in the next paper.
posted by L.W. on 07/27/05 at 11:06 AM
They certainly wouldn't if I e-mailed them. ;-) Others could try, however. You might, instead, try the metro editor, Grace Simmons, or managing editor, Don Hudson. They probably have more say-so on that kind of thing.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 12:43 PM
Now, L.W., they have changed Kate's photo of Thomas and Mrs. Byrd to say that it was taken by CBC. It wasn't. How friggin' hard can this be?
For the record: The photo was taken by Kate Medley for the Jackson Free Press and then sold to the Associated Press.
The second photo, Kate says, was taken by David Ridgen of CBC.
Hopefully, they will correct this confusion.
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 01:38 PM
posted by L.W. on 07/27/05 at 03:10 PM
Jerry is so right about learning to shut up and listen - I just wish I could learn that lesson. I can think of a time very recently when I got home from somewhere full of interesting people with great stories and realized that I'd run my mouth so much that I hadn't heard nearly enough of their stories.
I think I need to take a roll of duct tape with me when I go to things like that (and apply it to my mouth before I get out of the car).
I'm sure that Mr. Mitchell has nothing to do wtih how they attribute pictures. I didn't realize that the second one was a Ridgen picture, but looks like the C/L has them mixed up.
posted by C.W. on 07/27/05 at 04:26 PM
Donna, I sent an email to both editors and cc'd Jerry in, to which he replied with a thank-you. I agree with C.W. in that the C-L may have mixed up the captions. However, they still need to add Kate's name.
posted by L.W. on 07/27/05 at 05:11 PM
Hey, it looks like they just fixed it; her name is now on there. Good goin', y'all, getting credit for Mississippians where it's due. ;-)
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 05:15 PM
posted by L.W. on 07/27/05 at 05:57 PM
See the follow-up to this story in this week's issue (which talks about what y'all have been up to here). Not much new for the JFP blogosphere, but it's nice to read about your efforts.
The part about Thomas recreating his Mississippi yard in Colorado is pretty cool, though. I didn't have room to get it in the original story and was determined to get it into print. ;-)
posted by ladd on 07/27/05 at 06:36 PM
I'm sorry C.W. I'll check to see what is up with those photos. Thanks for letting me know. News is just coming out now regarding Mr. Lampton's decision to officially initiate a joint task-force style investigation into Dee/Moore and Jackson.....
David
posted by David Ridgen on 07/29/05 at 03:42 PM
See top of the JFP site now for an exciting update.
Also, David, the photo snafu C.W. was talking about here is fixed. I think, on the other thread, she mentioned a problem with viewing your gallery of images on the list serv.
posted by ladd on 07/29/05 at 03:49 PM
posted by David Ridgen on 07/29/05 at 04:59 PM
So, it's very exciting to see media outlets around the state picking up this story from AP today.
I think we can say the case is now officially on the front burner after 41 years. And, due to Thomas' visit and efforts, it sounds like the family of Wharlest Jackson could see justice, too.
Cheers to Thomas! And to Lampton.
posted by ladd on 07/29/05 at 05:41 PM
This is my favorite line:
"The only way you can look at it when you're a prosecutor, you have to look at it in terms of it's a murder case whether it happened yesterday, last week, last year or 40 years ago," Harper said. "You try to just develop the evidence and you rely on the investigative agencies."
Way to go!
posted by L.W. on 07/29/05 at 06:59 PM
This is wonderful news! I'm going to look at both sets of pictures as soon as I read the news stories. Thanks, David, Donna.
As for the Killen trial pictures, yes, I saw them, they are wonderful. As a matter of fact, I recognized some people in the picture of the service at Mt. Zion before you had the names up - I was just looking thru, and bingo, there are a couple of friends of mine! Major props for those pictures, Kate!
posted by C.W. on 07/29/05 at 07:09 PM
Good story today in the Natchez Democrat about Lampton et. al's efforts. It's good to see the paper there now stepping up on this story. I hope they're also out beating their own bushes looking for new evidence and people to talk.
Finding witnesses with long memories is the challenge at hand for local, state and federal authorities investigating three 1960s murders from the Natchez area. Authorities investigating the 1967 Franklin County murders of Henry Dee and Charles Moore, as well as the 1964 car-bombing death of Wharlest Jackson, met at U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton's office Friday to pool their resources and information.
"We had never sat down before (with all of the agencies) and looked at the case in its entirety," Lampton said after their meeting.
In addition to the district and U.S. attorney, the meeting included representatives from the FBI, Mississippi Department of Public Safety and the attorney general's office, as well as Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins, Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown and Franklin County Sheriff James Newman.
The case files are "voluminous," Harper said. But that doesn't mean bringing suspects to trial will be easy, he said.
Because neither case saw the inside of a courtroom, there are no trial transcripts to rely on if witnesses are dead.
"You've got to find people," Harper said. "You've got to find warm bodies - warm bodies that remember their names."
Investigators plan to meet again in about a month to find out where the investigation stands, Lampton said. In the meantime they will be seeking witnesses and trying to determine who is still alive.
Lampton encouraged anyone with information about the cases to talk to investigators. "If there's any consideration to be given, it'll be given to people who come forward first," Lampton said.
That bolded part could be important in this case. Put a sticky note on it in your brain.
posted by ladd on 07/30/05 at 01:30 PM
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