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Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project Northeastern University School of Law

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Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project Northeastern University School of Law CIVIL RIGHTS AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROJECT NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW YEAR END REPORT 2019 he Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Proj- cases in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Tect (CRRJ) was founded in 2007. Through Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, clinical courses, research, civil rights advocacy, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. legal services, and community engagement, CRRJ pursued reparative programs related to affiliated scholars and students examine the several cases on its docket, assisting families relationship between race-based miscarriag- and communities in their efforts to generate es of justice in US history and current press- civic dialogue by placing markers at signifi- ing racial and criminal justice issues. CRRJ in- cant sites, hosting commemorative events, vestigates cold cases of racial homicide and and engaging with filmmakers. supports communities seeking to unearth information about past racial violence and to CRRJ sponsored several events in 2019 to ad- engage in dialogue aimed at reconciliation. vance collaboration and connection among CRRJ resurrects these cases to construct researchers and advocates. CRRJ’s work- an historicized understanding of obsta- shop series featured five talks that brought cles to equal justice today. together researchers, students, and invited guests in the fields of civil rights and historical In 2019, CRRJ continued to develop the Burn- injustices to discuss new research projects in ham-Nobles archive by researching scores of an informal setting. Above: The family of Royal Cyril Brooks at the unveiling of a historical marker in Gretna, Louisiana. Cover: Sam Terry and his wife Minnie Kate Terry (left); Quick-Trigger Cops Kill Pair in Last Week in Dec., Pittsburgh Courier, Jan. 8, 1949 (center); Rufus Johnson (right). CRRJ CASE DOCKET 2019 ALABAMA thored a petition to state officials and the NAACP launched an investigation. Betty Jean Bunn—Mobile, Mobile County, AL (Mar. 1952) The local coroner ruled Butler’s death a “justifiable ho- micide.” The NAACP hired an attorney, Bryan Chancey, to Betty Jean Bunn died in March 1952 in Mobile, Alabama. represent Butler’s widow in a wrongful death suit. Butler’s A report by the Civil Rights Congress stated that she was widow filed her claim against TCI in 1949. She was award- stabbed while babysitting at her aunt’s home. The report ed $10,000 by an all-white jury in 1952. TCI appealed the indicated that the killer had not been identified. CRRJ’s in- verdict to the Alabama Supreme Court which upheld the vestigation of this case is ongoing. award. Captain Leonard Butler—Edgewater, Jefferson Mitchell Dunklin—Lowndes County, AL (July 4, County, AL (June 5, 1948) 1944) On June 5, 1948, Captain Leon- On July 4, 1944, 22-year-old World War II veteran Mitch- ard Butler was murdered by ell Dunklin was dragged from his home by Sheriff Otto two employees of the Tennes- Moorer and a group of unidentified white men and killed. see Coal, Iron, and Railroad After killing Dunklin, Moorer and the group of men came Company (TCI). Butler, an Al- back to the Dunklin house and threatened to kill Dunklin’s abama native, was a miner at father and mother if they told anybody about the homi- Edgewater Mine, which was cide. Dunklin’s sister, Mary Francis Moore, reported the owned and operated by TCI. death of her broth- Butler also served as pastor er in a letter that of the First Baptist Church of was referred to J. Gary-Ensley, frequented meet- L. LeFlore of the ings of the NAACP in Birming- Mobile Branch of ham, and was a member of the the NAACP. She local PTA. also asked the FBI to investigate her TCI claimed Butler was killed brother’s murder, because he harassed a white but it does not ap- teenager and pulled a gun pear that the FBI when approached by the com- ever did so. Sheriff pany’s deputies. However, an Moorer reportedly alternative motive may have had a reputation been Butler’s activism in sup- for using excessive port of the unionization of the Negro Miner’s Death force against Afri- Edgewater Mine. The Edgewa- Halts Coal Production, can Americans. ter Local of the United Mine The Dothan Eagle, June Workers of America (UMW) was 9, 1948. In this letter, dated established in 1934, and Butler August 14, 1944, Mitchell Dunklin’s sister, Mrs. Mary Frances rose to the ranks of local vice Moore, reported her brother’s death. She also reported that president–the highest position an African-American could the mob group that killed her brother beat her parents, hold. Butler’s commitment to the union elicited severe re- writing “They beat my mother and father very bad, and told taliation from TCI. He and his family were forced to leave them if they said anything about it, they would be dealt their home in Edgewater and relocate to Capstown. with the same.” Her letter was forwarded on to J.L. LeFlore of the Mobile Chapter of the NAACP. In response to Butler’s death, over half of TCI’s 4,500 em- ployees went on strike. Black newspapers around the country came to Butler’s defense, alleging he had never owned a gun. The Negro Citizens Defense Committee au- 1 Sylvester Hobdy’s death certificate lists his cause of death as “pistol wounds in head and chest.” Jessie Hood’s draft card. Sylvester Hobdy—Selma, Dallas County, AL (Apr. Daniel Webster Hunter—Birmingham, Jefferson 29, 1953) County, AL (Dec. 5, 1949) Sylvester Hobdy was killed by police officers R.F. Poole Daniel Webster Hunter and Billy Turner on April 29, 1953, in Selma, Alabama. Ac- was shot by William A. cording to newspaper reports, the death occurred after Dobson on December Hobdy, armed with a knife, chased his wife and kids from 5, 1949. The circum- their house, stabbed a neighbor, and then stabbed one of stances of his death the police officers in the arm. Poole and Turner reported are unknown. Hunter that Hobdy ignored the two warning shots that they fired. was the son of Lillian Hobdy’s death certificate indicates that he was shot multi- and Frank Hunter and ple times. He was in his late thirties when he died, leaving worked for his father, behind his wife, Earnestine, and two young sons, Robert who was a manager at and Elvester. Ace’s Detective Service. He had three sisters, Jessie Hood—Oakman, Walker County, AL (Jan. 8, Robbie Ann, Helen Ma- 1951) rie, and Doris, and one On January 8, 1951, Jessie Hood was shot and killed by brother Frederick. Oakman Police Chief George Alfred Warren. According to reports, Lloyd Colvin called Warren around 10pm because Wash Paramore— Hood was outside of his house drunk and disturbing the Gordon, Houston peace. Colvin was hosting a Bible Study. According to County, AL (Nov. 4, Warren, when he arrived, Hood was in a car outside the 1943) house. Warren claimed he tried to remove Hood from the Wash Paramore was car but Hood resisted and kicked Warren. Warren stated found dead on the that during the scuffle he noticed a pocket knife in Hood’s morning of November Letter written on November 6, hand, and that Hood swung the knife at him but only hit 4, 1943, near the train 1943, addressed to Thurgood his sleeve. In response, Warren shot Hood twice. Hood tracks just outside of Marshall, Special Counsel of died on the way to the hospital. Gordon, Alabama. He the NAACP, from W. G. Porter, re- was not yet 25 years porting on the death of Wash Warren was indicted by the Walker County grand jury for old. Ruling his death Paramore. murder in the second degree. He waived extradition in an accident, a coroner’s California and was brought to the Walker County jail. The jury determined that he was hit and dragged by a train. outcome of the legal proceeding is unknown. Many in the community were skeptical, and the NAACP requested that the DOJ investigate the case. The DOJ de- clined to investigate unless the NAACP could provide solid evidence that the death was not an accident. Hence there was no investigation into Paramore’s death. 2 Paramore had been acquitted in July 1943 of murder Corp Railhead Company at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, charges for the 1941 killing of his former boss, Curtis War- Mississippi. At the end of the war in 1946, he returned to ren. Paramore was initially convicted and sentenced to Birmingham, Alabama where his parents, Mattie Julian life imprisonment on the basis of a confession that was al- and James Addison Thomas, and wife, Estella Pullum, still legedly coerced through threats and beatings. On appeal, lived. the confession was suppressed and Paramore was acquit- ted. By that time, he had spent two years in jail. Edward Waithe—Mobile, Mobile County, AL (July 2, 1946) Herbert Thompson—Emelle, Sumter County, AL Edward Waithe died on July 2, 1946 in Mobile. His death (May 9, 1953) certificate states that he accidentally drowned as a result Herbert “Monk” Thompson, a 33-year-old carpenter from of falling into the water at Turner Terminal. He was report- Choctaw County, Alabama, died on May 9, 1953 in Emelle, ed missing two days before his body was found by officers Alabama. On March 28, 1953, members of the Dial family of the SS Williams Phipps, where he was working. Waithe’s stopped at a jail in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, where family believes he drowned as a result of being chased by Thompson was imprisoned for reasons unknown. As they a mob into the water. had done for many other African Americans, the Dial fam- ily paid Mr.
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