Ferguson police execute an unarmed 17 yr old boy (Update: Ferguson police chief to resign 3/19)

[loyola llothta]

Hickman, Kentucky

After midnight on Oct. 4, 1908, 50 hooded white men surrounded the home of a Black farmer in Hickman, Kentucky, named David Walker. The mob burned his house down after Walker shot at them and refused their orders to come out, according to contemporary newspaper accounts.

Walker ran out of the burning house with four young children and his wife, who was carrying a baby in her arms. The mob shot them all, wounding three children and killing the others. Walker’s oldest son died in the flames. No one was ever charged with the killings, and the surviving children were denied access to the land their father died defending.

Land records show that Walker’s 2 1/2-acre farm was added to the property of their white neighbor. The neighbor soon sold it to another man, whose daughter owns the undeveloped land today.

 

[loyola llothta]

Jasper County, Mississippi

In Jasper County, Mississippi, according to historical accounts, the Ku Klux Klan, resentful that African-Americans were buying and profiting from land, regularly attacked Black-owned farms, burned houses, lynched Black farmers and chased Black landowners away.

On the night of Sept. 10, 1932, 15 whites torched the courthouse in Paulding, where property records for the eastern half of Jasper County, then predominantly Black, were stored. Records for the predominantly white western half of the county were safe in another courthouse miles away. The door to the Paulding courthouse’s safe, which protected the records, usually locked, was found open with most of the records reduced to ashes. Suddenly, it conveniently became unclear who owned a big piece of eastern Jasper County.

In December 1937, the Masonite Corp., a wood products company and one of the largest landowners in the area, was granted a clear title for 9,581 acres of land, which has since yielded millions of dollars in natural gas, timber and oil, according to state records.

From the few property records that remain, the AP was able to document that at least 204.5 of those acres were acquired by Masonite after Black owners were driven off by the KKK. At least 850,000 barrels of oil have been pumped from this property, according to state oil and gas board records and figures from the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, an industry group.

Today, the land is owned by International Paper Corp., which acquired Masonite in 1988.

 

[loyola llothta]

Lincoln County, Mississippi

White farmers known as White Caps, angered by the prosperity experienced by successful Black farmers, often used violence and intimidation to force African-Americans off their land.

The Brookhaven Leader newspaper reported at the time that Eli Hilson of Lincoln County, Mississippi, got a warning on Nov. 18, 1903, when White Caps shot up his house just hours after his new baby was born. Hilson ignored the warning.

A month later, the 39-year-old farmer was shot in the head as he drove his buggy toward his farm, the newspaper said. The horse trotted home, delivering Hilson’s body to his wife, Hannah.

She struggled unsuccessfully without her husband to raise their 11 children and work the 74-acre farm, losing the property through a mortgage foreclosure in 1905. According to land records, the farm went for $439 to S.P. Oliver, a member of the county board of supervisors. Today, the property is assessed at $61,642.

 

[loyola llothta]

Sweet Water, Alabama

In 1964, the state of Alabama sued Lemon Williams and Lawrence Hudson, claiming the cousins did not rightfully own two 40-acre farms their family had worked in Sweet Water, Alabama, for nearly a century.

The land, officials contended, belonged to the state. Circuit Judge Emmett F. Hildreth urged the state to drop its suit, declaring it would result in ”a severe injustice.” But when the state refused, saying it wanted income from timber on the land, the judge ruled in favor of the state.

The state’s internal memos and letters on the case are peppered with references to the family’s race. In the same courthouse where the case was heard, the AP located deeds and tax records documenting that the family had owned the land since an ancestor bought the property on Jan. 3, 1874. Surviving records also show the family paid property taxes on the farms from the mid-1950s until the land was taken.

 

[loyola llothta]

Holmes County, Mississippi

According to county residents, during the 1950s and 1960s, Holmes County, Mississippi, Chevy dealer, Norman Weathersby, then the only dealer in the area, required Black farmers to put up their land as security for small loans for farm equipment and pickup trucks.

Weathersby’s accomplice, William E. Strider, ran the local Farmers Home Administration – the credit lifeline for many Southern farmers. Area residents told the AP that Strider, now dead, often delayed releasing the operating loans to Blacks.

When cash-poor farmers missed payments owed to Weathersby, he took their land. The APdocumented eight cases in which Weathersby acquired Black-owned farms this way. He died in 1973, leaving more than 700 acres of this land to his family, according to estate papers, deeds and court records retrieved by the AP.

 

[loyola llothta]

Birmingham, Kentucky

Today, the town of Birmingham, Kentucky, lies under a floodway created in the 1940s. But at the start of the 20th century, it was a thriving tobacco town with a predominantly Black population. It also was a battleground during a five-year siege by white marauders called Night Riders.

On the night of March 8, 1908, about 100 armed whites on horseback raided the Black part of the town, shooting seven people, three of them fatally. The AP documented 14 cases where Black landowners were driven from Birmingham. Together, they lost more than 60 acres of farmland and 21 city lots to whites – many at sheriff’s sales, all for extremely low prices.

 

[loyola llothta]

They did these things to get the results of today. We are now dependent on the government and put ourhopes in political parties that don't represent us. Over 90% of our money is spent outside of our community. Which party or government program is geared towards us being independent?

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 23

• Private autopsy of Vonderrit Myers shows that he was shot 8 times, 6 of those 8 shots were to the BACK of his legs (x) (storify)
• Week of leaks: Grand jury, medical examiner, and federal government leak Darren Wilson case details. Leaks everywhere in STL. Here’s a running tally of the denials
• Justice Department condemns Ferguson leaks as effort to sway opinion (x) (x)
• Forensic expert: I never said Mike Brown’s autopsy confirmed Darren Wilson’s story says her analysis was taken “out of context”

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 23 part2

• Darren Wilson’s lawyer speaks out on leaked Brown autopsy
• The thuggification of young black victims of white violence
• STL Co. Police lock citizens out of Justice Center (storify)
• How can Gov. Nixon call for peace in Ferguson when Jeff Roorda is his closest ally?
• A new mission for Amnesty International: Bringing human rights home
• Students at a Nebraska High School can now pose with guns in their senior portraits
• Police only shot 4 people (and nobody died) in all of England in the past 2 years

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 24

• Vonderrit Myers’ family releases autopsy, lawyers say findings conflict with police reports. Vonderrit Myers’ DNA DOES NOT appear on the gun that police say he was allegedly carrying.
• Eric Holder is “exasperated” with Ferguson investigation leaks, says DOJ official
• On the streets of America: Human rights abuses in Ferguson | Amnesty International
• With Ferguson protests, 20-somethings become first-time activists
• Ferguson crisis focuses Philly clergy on justice
• Donate to Deray and Netta

 

[cole phelps]

Photos of Chicago 1919 Riots






A man armed with a machine gun sits at the Cook County Jail during the 1919 Chicago race riots


A black man is searched by Chicago Police in front of a crowd at an unidentified spot






The original caption for this photo reads: "These Negro policemen appeal for law and order. Detective Sergeants Middleton and Scott drive through riot area urging members of their race to get off streets and go home." The photo was taken a day after the rioting began, July 28, 1919. Editors note: part of this print was hand-panted

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 26

• Amnesty International releases new Ferguson report documenting human rights abuses. Full report. Summary of the key findings.
• STL Co. town rejects body cameras for police
• STL city and county officer involved shootings info: Metro PD map pinpoints officer involved shootings from 2003-2012. STL Co. PD document has info on all County officer involved shootings for FY 2004-2014
• Ferguson protester: Things will “never be the same” if Darren Wilson isn’t indicted
• AG Eric Holder says Ferguson investigation to be completed in coming months (x)

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 26 part 2

• MO police stocking up on riot gear ahead of grand jury’s decision
• Schools prepare to close after grand jury decision. Schools also remind parents of emergency procedures.
• In Ferguson some have quit jobs to protest, others have been fired or had their job threatened
• Jim Crow persists: How Ferguson case leaks revive a shameful tradition
• Oct. 22: Protesters of Mike Brown shooting block Atlanta highway
• Bassem Masri live streams STL Open Carry March (videos)
• Help Bassem Masri con

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 26 part 3

• Who is Vonderrit Myers (aka Droop)? Interview with some of his friends (video)
• Evidence that demands a trial: Vonderrit Myers independent autopsy pokes huge holes in STL police story (storify)
• Vonderrit Myers: Gunshot residue analysis was inconclusive. Residue could have come from being shot.
• MSU protest at homecoming met with shouts, racial slurs
• Lies about the grand jury leaks and Darren Wilson’s testimony (storify)
• Troubling lack of transparency in Darren Wilson case
• Justice denied for Aiyana Jones

 

[loyola llothta]

Oct. 26 Part 4

• Do black people have equal gun rights?
• SLU Law Professor Justin Hansford: I went to Ferguson to protect the protesters. I got arrested instead.
• Dedicated protesters take criticism, form bonds
• Ferguson looms over race for STL Co. Executive
• A tale of a house, a pastor, and one of Ferguson’s first black families