Follow the JFP reporting team's journey into old Mississippi civil rights cases.
Donna Ladd is the editor of the Jackson Free Press and a native of Neshoba County. The Mississippi State and Columbia University grad led the JFP team that covered Thomas Moore's 2005 trip to Meadville.
Kate Medley is a Jackson, Miss., native and a freelance photojournalist who photographed Thomas Moore's 2005 trip for the Jackson Free Press. Her photos also appear in The New York Times and many other publications.
Matt Saldaña is covering the trial of James Ford Seale for the Jackson Free Press. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Medill School of Journalism.
Photo intern Thabi Moyo graduated from Howard University in 2004. She is an aspiring filmmaker and lives in Madison. She grew up in Jackson.
Natalie Irby is a Jackson, Miss., native and intern for the JFP. She graduated from Ole Miss.
Following are links to the Jackson Free Press' full, and ongoing, package of stories about 1960s Klan activity in the Natchez-Meadville-Roxie, Miss., area, starting with the award-winning investigative story by Donna Ladd and a team of young Mississippians, working with David Ridgen, a documentary filmmaker from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., to chronicle Thomas' Moore's 2005 return to Mississippi to seek justice for his brother's murder.
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Media folks often ask the Jackson Free Press to clarify why the timeline in the original story, "I Want Justice, Too," published in the JFP on July 20, 2005, about Thomas Moore's July 2005 trip to Meadville varies from the "Mississippi Cold Case" documentary released about that trip back to Meadville nearly two years later. The truth is that that documentary muddles the timeline in some small, but significant ways, that leave out the role of the Jackson Free Press. (The original intent of the documentary was to document Mississippi journalists covering Moore's journey for justice.)
This is how the discovery that James Ford Seale was alive transpired:
June 3, 2005 - David Ridgen wrote the JFP's Donna Ladd an e-mail confirming his plans to come make a documentary about the JFP writing a story about the Dee-Moore case:
To iterate and flesh out the possibility we've already discussed, I think it would be interesting to parallel the Killen trial with the unsolved case of Dee and Moore, and for me to follow you - Philadelphia native Donna Ladd - as you put together a story on it for the Jackson Free Press. In the course of you doing this story, the story of the heros could come out as well.more...
Throughout his trial, James Ford Seale appeared in court wearing slacks and a dress shirt. This morning, as he walked in shackles into a U.S. District courtroom in Jackson, he wore an orange Madison County-issued jumpsuit. Neither his siblings nor his children were present. He smiled at his wife, as guards escorted him to his seat next to public defenders Kathy Nester and George Lucas.
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A former Klansman, who was thought to be dead until the brother a man he kidnapped and helped kill went to Franklin County with the CBC and the Jackson Free Press and found him living in a trailer, was sentenced to three life sentences this morning on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges, reported the Associated Press.
Read JFP acting assistant editor Matt Saldaña's editor's note this week about Charles Moore and Henry Dee's journey from the Ole Mississippi river bed to the James O. Eastland courthouse.
After approximately two hours of deliberation, the jury in the federal kidnapping and conspiracy trial of James Ford Seale returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts. The jury found Seale guilty of two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy in the abduction and murder of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
"Mississippi spoke today," said Thomas Moore, brother of Charles Moore.
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A federal jury on Thursday convicted reputed Klansman James Ford Seale of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.
Seale, 71, had pleaded not guilty to charges related to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The 19-year-olds disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964, and their bodies were found later in the Mississippi River.
When I hear the words Roxie Baptist Church I am taken back to July 17, 2005.
I find myself sitting at the end of a pew, tape recorder in hand, admiring how the light shone through the stained glass windows on a sweltering day in Mississippi. I look to my left and on the other side of the church sits Thomas Moore, hands folded, pondering the words he is about to deliver to the congregation. I am immersed in the soulful voices of the choir, as I wait in anticipation for Thomas to move purposefully to the front of the church.
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At 3:05 p.m. on Wednesday, after calling just four witnesses, the defense in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping and conspiracy trial rested their case. The prosecution then declined its opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses. Seale, addressed by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, declined to take the stand in his own defense.
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Prosecutors in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping and conspiracy trial rested their case Tuesday, with a final dagger coming from retired FBI Agent Edward Putz. The last government witness, Putz testified about Seale’s infamous statement following his arrest by Mississippi highway patrolmen in Nov. 1964:
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Feb 22, 08 | 7:59 pm Inside the Journey for Justice ladd: My guess would be that CBC/Ridgen don't want the documentary screened here because people could be in the audience who could point out its errors and omissions.
Just a guess.
What a disappointment it turned out to be, I'm sorry to say. It...
Feb 12, 08 | 12:40 pm Inside the Journey for Justice Tom Head: I got a similar response from DR when I tried to get the documentary screened at one point. I don't know what the deal is....
Feb 12, 08 | 12:32 pm Inside the Journey for Justice ladd: Yes, I believe it, C.W.
Someday soon I need to write my review of the documentary and point out its inaccuracies. But I haven't, yet, out of respect for Thomas, whom I respect immensely....
Feb 12, 08 | 12:24 pm Inside the Journey for Justice C.W.: Rigden strikes again. Another FYI, Mr. Thomas Moore is NOT coming to Ole Miss to speak and screen the documentary because *someone* found out about it an won't allow it to be screened - at the last minute, so to speak.
Can y'all believe this? I...
Feb 11, 08 | 2:50 pm Inside the Journey for Justice C.W.: FYI, in case anyone wants to attend - Mr. Thomas Moore will be at Ole Miss on Thursday afternoon discussing the investigation of his brother's murder, and the documentary done by Mr. Rigdon. It's at 3:30 p.m., Feb. 14th, Overby Center Auditorium. ...
Aug 29, 07 | 2:17 pm Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms Goldenae: Romans 13:1-7 was the passage I was referring to. I usually read the New International Version, because it clears up some of the old terminology. ...
Aug 29, 07 | 2:07 pm Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms Goldenae: Ladd, it is Biblical that Christians should abide with the law of the land. Even though that is not the biblical justification for the Death Penalty, it is a factor. War is also a necessary evil in the Bible. There is no way to have war without...
Aug 29, 07 | 8:33 am Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms ladd: Lets not make this a Biblical discussion, but Jesus advocated that Christians abide by the laws of the land. Breaking laws carries with it punishment.
You can't use "laws of the land" as a reason here. If so, we'd still be living under Jim...
Aug 28, 07 | 11:12 pm Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms Goldenae: Brian:
Lets not make this a Biblical discussion, but Jesus advocated that Christians abide by the laws of the land. Breaking laws carries with it punishment....
Aug 27, 07 | 8:32 pm Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms Brian C Johnson: Um. The Old Testament sure, and then you've always got that bloodbath in Revelation. But Jesus? His whole point was that you it is not our place to seek vengeance on those who wrong us. The fact that so many Christians miss that most...
Aug 27, 07 | 12:36 pm Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms Goldenae: Golden Eagle and Brian:
Jesus most definately would believe in capital punishment. Hard to imagine a Hell if you do not think He would. Its hard to have read the Bible and believe that capital punishment is not a part of it. A recurring theme of...
Aug 27, 07 | 11:05 am Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms ladd: BTW, now that Matt is gone, our new assistant editor, Maggie Burks, is taking his place covering ("stringing") local and regional stories with national...
Aug 27, 07 | 8:06 am Judge Sentences Seale to Three Life Terms blu_n_a_redstate: Here is the link:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Politics/story?id=3421219&page=1
ABC News is reporting that Alberto Gonzalez has resigned. Will hold 10:30 a.m. press...
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