Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era, by Jerry Mitchell

"Those guys got away with murder...It's not too late."

9781451645132
Simon & Schuster, 2020
418 pp

hardcover


It's January, 1989 in Jackson Mississippi, and reporter Jerry Mitchell was on assignment for his newspaper The Clarion-Ledger to cover the state premier of  the film Mississippi Burning.  He normally had the "court beat," so this was something different for him.  Mitchell found himself seated next to someone who seemed to know a lot about what was and wasn't true about the film, based on the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.  As it happened, that man turned out to be retired special agent Roy K. Moore, who had been in charge of the FBI in Mississippi at the time.  Later, when the rest of the press had gone, Mitchell stayed behind to listen to Moore talk to two other men, another FBI agent and a journalist who had covered the events at the time.  During that conversation he learned that nobody had ever been prosecuted for the murders of the three men, even though "more than twenty Klansmen' were responsible.  Mitchell wondered how it was possible that twenty people, their identities known by locals who'd never turned them in, could get away with murder.   Why hadn't the state of Mississippi done anything about it?  From further conversations with Moore, Mitchell learned that although one killer eventually talked and had given the FBI what it needed for prosecution, the governor of the state "couldn't" do so, "essentially refusing to uphold its own murder laws."

As Mitchell began to research this case he came to learn about the connections between the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which "worked with and even helped fund the white Citizens' Councils" to help fight desegregation in the state, and  the murders of the three activists.  He'd hoped that by bringing certain facts to light he would "spark"  the Attorney General to "pursue new  charges in the case," but it was not to be and the case remained cold.   Feeling like he'd failed, his colleagues reminded him that they had been able to help

"ferret out unreported details about a twenty-five-year-old murder case that many powerful figures had wanted to keep sealed."

That was at least "something."   He  continued to read about other civil-rights "cold cases," and eventually his research  would lead him to into the murder of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of the home and store of Vernon Dahmer Sr. which led to his death,  and the September 1963 bombing of the  Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham which killed four little girls -- Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair.    All of these crimes were the work of members of the KKK; none of those responsible had ever been punished.  The main issue facing Mitchell was that time was not on his side: witnesses and suspects were dying off.  In a "race against time," Mitchell was determined to bring the details of these crimes into the light through his investigations, hoping that his work might be a driving force into not only getting these old cases reopened, but also that people like Byron de la Beckwith, Sam Bowers, and Bobby Cherry (the KKK members responsible) would finally be brought to justice for their crimes.   Yet, what continued to "gnaw" at him after these successes was the "Mississippi Burning" murders that by 1998, still had not been "reckoned with."  Undaunted, and even as the "pool of witnesses and evidence" decreased, Mitchell continued his efforts for justice in this particular case, determined to bring Edgar Ray Killen, "the moving force" behind these murders, to trial.

The book is divided into five parts, each section under the names of the victims of these horrific crimes, beginning and ending with James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.  It is his contention that the "Mississippi Burning" murders were not only the "result of a months-long battle plan," but also that the head of the Mississippi branch of the KKK (the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), Sam Bowers, meant to send a message

"not just to African-Americans and civil rights activists throughout the state but to the nation at large.  Bowers meant to tell all of America who held power in Mississippi, who called the shots, who could do as they pleased, and who needed to live in fear."

What was just as important, notes Mitchell, is the message of the "murderers' impunity."  As long as they were still in power, as long as they were still free and living among the public, the message would continue to be heard and understood not just in Mississippi, but throughout the entire nation as well.  In each and every case presented here, he offers clear proof of how these people managed to maintain this impunity and escape prosecution;  what I discovered here chilled me not only down to my bones, but to my very soul.  Quite honestly, I was so stunned by what came to light here that right after I'd finished, I could not move for the longest time, just sitting here staring into space and trying to digest what I'd just read. 

While he notes other cases he'd worked on but could not solve, saying that he felt that he'd failed more often than succeeded, I say that he should be beyond proud of what he's accomplished; in bringing out the truth behind these four crimes, he also paved the way for bringing about a long-overdue measure of justice.    He had been told a number of times just to "let the past be," but he has long believed that "Truth rules, while hate thrives on obfuscation, murkiness and fear."   It is important, he says, to know and to remember the truth of what came before in the "past waves of white supremacy" so that we are able to act now and in the future. 

With notes, bibliography, index, etc., the page count runs to just over four hundred pages, but I was so completely engrossed in what I was reading here that the hours just flew by.  I do think it would have helped to have included photos along with text,  but I sat with tablet in hand when I wanted to match names with faces, or to reacquaint myself with the four cases discussed here. And although this rarely happens, I happen to agree with the dustjacket blurber who says that Race Against Time is a "landmark book" and "essential reading for all Americans," adding only that it should be read especially by anyone with even a passing interest in civil rights both past and present.  It's one I'll never, ever forget.

****

My thoughts are from a reader's perspective; here are a couple of real reviews of this book:

from David J. Garrow, at the Washington Post

from Dean Jobb at The Southern Review of Books

Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas

9780393062083
W.W. Norton and Company, 2012
345 pp
(hardcover ed.)

The New Yorker is one of my favorite magazines, and inside  the March 12th issue I came across a fantastic article by writer Dahlia Lithwick, a review of Flagrant Conduct, by Dale Carpenter.  By the time I'd finished it, I knew I had to get my hands on the book -- I have a more than keen interest in civil rights history and the growth of social and political power in the nation's gay community. The book examines a case that started with an arrest in Texas in 1998 that ultimately led to a groundbreaking, decisive civil-rights victory in 2003, when the US Supreme Court decided that laws criminalizing sexual behavior between members of the same sex were  unconstitutional. It was a red-letter day for members of the gay and lesbian community; the Lawrence v. Texas decision also overturned an earlier decision made in 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick in which  the Supreme Court had ruled that the constitution afforded no right to privacy or protection for homosexual acts between consenting adults in the privacy of the bedroom. It also stated that state legislatures were able to enact laws based on "notions of morality," laws that reflected "majority sentiments." Flagrant Conduct  is a compelling story that gets the reader behind the scenes of this momentous change in civil rights history, but even more, it is a very human story, detailing the determination behind the drive for this change that got the case to the highest court in the land.

The book proceeds chronologically, beginning in 1998, with the arrest of two men for sodomy in Houston,Texas.  On a September night, in a Houston apartment complex known for wild parties and other "shenanigans," a man in Apartment 833 says he's going to go out and grab a soda. Instead he dials 911, reporting that inside the apartment there's a black man “going crazy with a gun.” His aim may have been to separate the other two men, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner (his current partner), because of jealousy.  Sheriff's officers arrived at the scene, made their way into the apartment, and ultimately arrested Lawrence and Garner for sodomy. According to the arresting deputy and an officer who corroborated the story as a witness, the two were actively having sex in the bedroom while he was standing there, and did not stop even when they realized he was in the room. The senior officer, Joseph Quinn, had discretion in what to do: he could give the two men a warning and let them off, he could write them a ticket, or he could charge them for sodomy. Quinn wasn't feeling particularly charitable, Lawrence was being belligerent, and  ultimately, citing Texas criminal code law 21.06 (the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law) the sheriffs arrested Lawrence and Garner and took them to jail. But all may not be as law enforcement claimed: first, the two men denied that they were having sex, and stated that they were both wearing clothes at the time the deputies arrived; second, the  officers' account of events that night varied, none of them agreeing with the others. The case was eventually picked up by gay-rights advocates Lambda Legal, representatives of whom met with Garner and Lawrence, explaining to them  the necessity of taking a no-contest plea for which they would have to pay a fine, regardless of what really might have happened in that Houston apartment that night.  The plea was the entry point for Lambda to try to challenge not just the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law, but all anti-sodomy laws that pointedly discriminated against gay people. Lambda and others realized that the Lawrence case had the potential to get to the US Supreme Court, and quite possibly undo the damage caused in 1986 with the decision made in Bowers v. Hardwick.

Flagrant Conduct examines not just the case itself, but also  the "peculiar corrupting quality of laws that target a class of persons for moral opprobrium," as well as cases based on these laws, the real influence of fundamentalist religions on politics in Texas,  the growing social and political power of the gay community in Houston (many of whom still remained in the closet due to workplace and other repercussions), and the stories of the individual people connected through this case, which ultimately would become a landmark moment in the history of US civil rights.  It also examines law enforcement and its attitudes toward homosexuals. There are also many memorable moments throughout the book, none the least of which are the arguments before the Supreme Court -- especially the differences between presentations by the unprepared, self-assured DA from Texas and the Lambda team, for whom the outcome of the case had a special, more personal meaning.  Also memorable is the day of the Court's decision, the protests by Christian groups including those led by Falwell, Robertson and the notorious Fred Phelps of Topeka Kansas whose slogan is "God hates fags."

Obviously there's much more to this book; I've just scratched the surface here.  Don't expect an Erik Larson kind of nonfiction read; it's just not that kind of book, but nor is it a boring historical treatise that will lull you to sleep or cause you to put the book down for long periods of time before returning. There are times at the beginning when Carpenter is analyzing his arguments where it necessarily gets a bit repetitious, for example, when debating what the arresting officer said what he saw versus the defendants relating their own account of events. It's a non-issue, really, because overall the book is well researched, well analyzed, flows well and is very well and fairly presented. There's no need to know anything about either case prior to starting this book; nor is there any need to be familiar with legal terminology: the author clearly and carefully spells everything out. His work is very approachable and reader friendly, easy to understand and quite frankly, a mesmerizing account of a life-changing event. Very highly recommended, especially for people who are interested in the history of civil rights in this country as well as the social and political history of the gay and lesbian movement and its opposition in the United States.


I am truly amazed at just how good this book is -- I couldn't put it down.