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A Mississippi after Emmett Till Murder

March 20th, 2010 | Author: admin

When JW Milam and Roy Bryant trial in Sumner, Mississippi, ended with the murder of Emmett Till, less than a month later, in the nearby small cotton town of Glen, a black service station attendant and father of four children, life is a friend of Milam's.

Elmer Kimball murdered Clinton Melton and then nineteen days after the young woman Melton was killed just a week before Kimball murder trial opened.

Fourteen years, Till of Chicago was visiting relatives inMississippi Delta in late August, when he was abducted, tortured and killed after being accused of whistling at a white store clerk.

Then in December, Clinton Melton was murdered only four miles from where Emmett Till body was thrown into the Tallahatchie River six months earlier. Kimball, Milam's friend, Glen has lived for a short period, the management of a local cotton gin, and had an account at the station where Melton worked.

The day of the murders, Kimball, 35, wasdriving a car borrowed from his friend, JW Milam, one of two men accused and acquitted of killing Till, when he drove up at the gas station and ask for a fill-up. "Melton's daughter, Deloris Melton Gresham, was a child when his parents were killed but later said he had been kept at the service station:

"When Kimball drove up to the station, my father's boss told my father to go to fill up his car. But when he had finished filling the car, Kimball was furious and said thatonly a value in U.S. dollars of gas and that he would go home and the rifle to shoot him to get. Gas station owner tried to talk him down, but could not. She told him that my father was a good negro and that does not deserve to be not bad. He actually pleaded with Kimball. "

As soon as Kimball left, said his boss, who had better leave quickly. But his car was out of gas and had to fill first. Kimball is back and started shooting with my father. Another man was in his carHe called not for him to shoot. Jumped from the car and ran to the station to collapse. The arrest, said Kimball Melton fired first. McGarrh [the white owner of the gas station] denied, adding that Melton did not have a gun had not at any time during the dispute. A bullet hole was the windshield of a car parked Melton has found.

A raging Southern newspaper publisher, Hodding Carter, responded to the murder of one of Mississippi's own ", comparing it to the case TillA Delta-Times editorial:

[Melton] was no out-of-state Smart Alec. It was a homemade "and" highly respected ."…. There was an insult to women in the south. … There was only one issue on gasoline. There was no pressure from the NAACP, " credited with the outcome of the process …. Till Then another "not guilty" verdict was written at Sumner this week. It means to cement the perception of the world that no matter how strong the evidence, or as seems obviouscrime, a white man can not live in Mississippi convicted of the murder of a black man.

Little attention was dead, the mother of Gresham, which took place around 21 December 1955 by some nineteen days after Clinton Melton was killed on 3 December. Officially, the death of his mother was accused of driving defective. "Later, a relative told me that was not true that everyone knew, ran along the road," said Gresham.

Gresham, a child trapped inside at the time recalledher mother's car as it sank to the bottom of a dark Bayou near Glen. A sequence on saved by his life and his little brother. But Beulah Melton drowned.

"My mother was a beautiful woman known for her bright and outspoken," Gresham said. "People who knew her have told me that we are very similar – both in appearance and personality."

Beulah Melton was to gather information on the death of her husband and was a "problem" for Parton at the hearing, Greshamsaid.

The accounts of news and conversation around the Glen, there was no provocation by the death of his father. E 'pure murder, according to white witnesses, including the owner of the white service station. The Melton family was well known in the Glen. Clinton Melton had lived all his life, for once, white people have protested against the killing of a black man. The local Lions Club adopted a resolution branding the murder an outrage '[and donors to donate $ 400 for family] "MyrlieEvers, wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, she wrote later.

Melton's widow told Medgar Evers she feared that justice would not have happened if the NAACP were interested in the question and asked him not to get involved. "His wishes were respected."

In a subsequent investigation of his death, Medgar Evers discovered the club had been a widow twenty-six dollars and a local minister white its sixty U.S. dollars of his own heart.

Family was in Delores MeltonGresham and her siblings, and Gresham continued to live in Glen with his grandmother. "My grandfather was so upset that he left Glen and never came back."

Unlike some earlier Mississippi white on black murders, Kimball was charged with murder, and even if convicted, has had a couple of times in prison

Kimball lost a bid for freedom Bond

Sumner, Miss. (AP) -28 December 1955 – Elmer Kimball today lost his bid for bail pending grand jury action on a tax onthe murder of a black man.

Three justices of the peace held a preliminary hearing for the white gin operator and refused bond. Officers Kimball returned to prison to await action by the Grand Jury which meets in March next year. The hearing is in the small bowl in which the sensational Emmett Till trial was held on. Binding normally be refused where a person accused of a crime that a death sentence after conviction.

Kimball is charged with murder in the shotgunkilling of Clinton Melton, Negro service gas station in nearby Glen and father of four children. The man accused testified that he fired in self-defense after someone shot him three times. Roberts said he did not know who fired until he returned fire and killed not Melton.

McGarrh Lee, Melton's employer, testified that Kimball fired without provocation, and Melton was unarmed. He said Roberts was angry with the black man, during a discussion on petrol for cars Kimball. McGarrh sayKimball said he went home for his gun and [sic] kill Melton.
***

A wire service sent an employee of Kimball attempted to cover, and the newspaper in Mississippi that sent only one staff member was green Carter's Delta Democrat-Times. Reporter David Halberstam remained in Mississippi after the Milam-Bryant trial and wrote as a freelancer.

This time the cameras were barred, not only by the court but also from all around the courthouse property, and there is no pressure on the table wasset. The sentiment [for conviction] was particularly strong in the communities where Glen Melton Kimball shot and where both the deceased and the defendant was well known, according to Halberstam: "Elsewhere in Talahatchie County, of course, is subject to the usual case of a white man and a black man. "

Defining "good" and "Bad"

Halberstam assessed the environment before the start of the process:

"One of my friends are separated from the white population in Mississippi in twocategories. The first and largest contains the good people of Mississippi, as they are affectionately called by columnists, politicians, and themselves. The second group is a small, but in many ways more conspicuous faction called peckerwoods.

"People of good will in general I think peckerwoods are troublemakers, and the best people have told me that they had joined the Citizens Councils because otherwise the situation would completely peckerwoods. ItThe good people who will tell you that the city has had racial harmony for many years while peckerwoods can be sure that they know how the blacks in their place to keep the good people say, and say, 'We love our Nigra " and is the peckerwoods what to say and say: "If any big buck came in my way would be too damn bad."

"But while the good people would act with arrogance and are not regulated by the hatred of the peckerwood, they are reluctantremedies using normal society for the peak. So this is the peckerwoods who kill Negroes and the good people who reject peckerwoods … "

In spite of its resources in defense, Kimball was denied bond in two preliminary hearings. The biggest problem at the hearing, District Attorney Roy Johnson and County Attorney Hamilton Caldwell, according to Halberstam, was swearing in a fair and impartial judges [of] a group of jurors to the birthright of the protection of the interests and lifewhite. "

The State produced three witnesses.

First was McGarrh, "a string little man who was a member of one of Glen's most respected families." McGarrh, Halberstam wrote, adhering to the same story he had in previous hearings.

"He said he saw Kimball shooting ongewapende Melton. Kruisondervraging is unshakable. The only weakness in his account is that, while Kimball first warning of his intentions McGarrh was touched to the station withHis rifle shot. "

The next witness was John Henry Wilson, "a black man when Ferguson said he had great confidence he had. Wilson had not witnessed the shooting, but the self-defense theory is damaged. He stayed away from the station, when he returned with Kimball a gun. Kimball asked what will.

"I will kill that nigger," said Ferguson.
"Please, sir, do not shoot that boy. He has not done anything for you," Wilson said.
"Come back or I'll kill you!"said Ferguson. Wilson ran to the back of the station. "

The last witness for the state, George Woodson, testified that he Staning ten yards from the scene and saw Kimball walking next to the station with a gun and that he does not see the gun in his hand, not Melton.

"The defense lacked eye witnesses and thus tried to shake the testimony of witnesses the government. His witnesses with only minor points," according to Halberstam.

"But more importanttheir testimony were their positions – a sheriff, a deputy sheriff and a chief of police. "

Apparently Kimball did the most damage to himself when he was on the stand, as Halberstam said that:

"[He] raised there before the Mississippi twelve and told them a story about his relations with Melton that clearly contradicts all the Mississippi honest …. Roberts said that he had come and said that Clinton was McGarrh to be rather ugly and asked him to complete his account and wants to beback and correct when he returned a few minutes later, someone began shooting at him and pushing him back to his car and had his shot.

"Kimball's story would be difficult for a jury to believe, because they want to know …." [It] can cause a Negro attendant not to talk like that, no matter how much you irritate him, especially a black man of confidence, as Clinton Melton. "

"The jury also knew that" no manager white peckerwood gin, the best friend of JW Milam, leaving aNegro speaks like whupping that without a little 'there on the field. "

After four and a half hours, the jurors walked in and announced their decision to eliminate the errors:

Sumner, Miss. (AP) – Elmer Otis Kimball was acquitted of murder late yesterday in the shotgun killing of a 33-year-old Negro. "I was not sure justice would be," said the 35-year-old Glen operator white cotton gin, "but I have known. A 12-man all-white jury, which consisted mainly of peasants bentmore than four hours before freeing Kimball.

Two witnesses have testified Kimball blast Clinton Melton had seen three times with a shotgun December 3 at a gas station Glen. Witnesses said the shooting was a result of an argument between Kimball and Melton over gasoline to put into the machine Kimball. Roberts testified that Melton cursed on topic. Defense Atty. JW Kellum said Roberts fired the fatal shots in self defense. Roberts said that three shots were fired at himbefore opening fire, one wounded in the shoulder. He has a scar to show and have a doctor who has monitored the shots wounded.

But neither the owner Lee McGarrh White service station, not George Woodson, Negro, who said he saw the killing said they had seen or heard the fire Melton. N. Melton's body or weapons were found in his car. The hearing was held in the same courtroom where half-brothers, JW Milam and Roy Bryant innocent six months ago for murdering 14-year-old identifiedEmmett Till, Chicago Negro. Kellum was one of five defense lawyers in the case of Till.

****

There was more dangerous for African Americans in Mississippi. A resident of Glen White, asked by a reporter for his opinion both the cash and Melton murder against him and said, " 'a hunt for black people now. They have no security, and any peckerwood who wants can go also a blow. "

Clinton and Beulah Melton's daughter never moved from the Delta. Has apicture of his mother, who looks like he could be his twin. While she has never owned a picture of his father, Gresham, said he wanted to learn more and continue to question what had happened to his mother on that awful day.

Yet his story has a happy tone. In 2003, Keith Beauchamp, a filmmaker in New York, a copy of an old newsreel showing the story of Clinton Melton's murder. Beauchamp built the roll in a documentary about Emmett Till, and made sure thatGresham had a copy of his family. The following year, the documentation was in a television station in Chicago, which happen in one of Gresham's brothers discovering his sister. A family reunion took place this summer.

"It 'been happy," said Delores Gresham. "We're talking to them on the phone a couple times a week, and I meet other relatives through my brother."