Seale the ‘Last’ Case? We Doubt It.

To fill space this weekend in The Clarion-Ledger’s package on the James Ford Seale case, reporter Jerry Mitchell returned to a well from which he has drunk in the past with a story headlined “Seale Case Could Be Last of Its Kind.” The article is a thinly disguised prognostication that seems to pander to a perceived demographic of readers who are “tired” of civil rights cases being brought to trial. But the article flies in the face of evidence that both the federal government and Mississippians intend to prosecute any of these old civil rights cases when the facts of the case warrant it.

For Mitchell to be certain that all the worthy cold cases have been prosecuted would be to ignore recent history. The Clarion-Ledger was caught unaware by the re-emergence in 2005 of the Dee-Moore case, as Mitchell had reported in 2000 that James Ford Seale was dead. When the Jackson Free Press, Thomas Moore (brother of Charles Moore) and CBC filmmaker David Ridgen discovered that Seale was still alive, residing near Natchez, prosecution of the case was re-opened by U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, resulting in the trial that is now underway.

Regardless of The Clarion-Ledger’s hurry to write an epitaph for this short era of civil rights prosecutions in Mississippi, the truth is that there are other cases to be investigated. The complete story of the civil rights era has not yet been told, and everyone who had a hand in wrongdoing has not yet been brought to justice. It’s true that some perpetrators are dead, but not all are. While The Clarion-Ledger may be ready to call it a day, the JFP and others aren’t quite done, yet. Mississippians should not be done yet, either.

For years now, The Clarion-Ledger has reported these stories as Klan murders and Klan activities. Even this past weekend in the story “Officers Reflect on Klan Probe,” Mitchell painted a picture of local law enforcement in 1964 as “enemies of the Klan.” But what’s lost in that reporting is the complexity of the true nature of Mississippi’s institutional racism in the 1950s and 1960s, when the Citizen’s Council, Sovereignty Commission and Jim Crow reigned supreme. Mississippi’s past is not just “old Klansmen” terrorizing “the good people.” It’s a tapestry of heroes, villains and victims, a history that should continue to be exposed, explored and explained.

For The Clarion-Ledger to continue this Move along, nothing more to see here… mentality in their reporting is to deny both our state’s history and its brightest possible future. We need to continue the fact-finding and the truth-telling, and, yes, criminal convictions where warranted.

The Jackson Free Press is determined to continue to investigate and report on these cases. We encourage The Clarion-Ledger to do the same.

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