Blood JusticeBlood JusticeHow would you like to be accused of a crime and then be disenfranchised because of your race? Well this is what happened to Mark Charles Parker because he allegedly raped June Walters a pregnant white woman on February 23 1959. In Howard Smeads historical nonfiction book Blood Justice he describes one of the most important investigations of a racist, motivated crime in the history of the United States.
Blood Justice is about the killing of Mark Charles Parker and the investigation after his death. Mark Charles Parker was accused of the rape of June Walters which
Occurred on March 1, 1959. R. Jess Brown a well-known African American lawyer represented Parker. On April 13th an all white grand jury indictd Parker for rape and two counts of kidnapping. On April 17th Parker pleaded not guilty to each charge. Next Parkers trial date was set for April 27th. Then Brown asked Judge Sebe Dales to drop the case because a black man was not on the grand jury. Brown did this because of a recent ruling made by the 5th U.S. circuit court of Appeals. The ruling stated that it was unconstitutional for a jury of an all white people to convict a black man. The ruling went on to say that one African American had to be on a jury when an African American was on trial. This defense tactic by Brown was a legally intelligent thing to do but this actually became the motive for the mob to kill Parker.
I hope that you enjoy this article. If you are the first to know about the issue, you’ll be surprised at how ignorant and ignorant this statement is of the historical and the modern day issues.
On Friday April 24th J.P. Walker, Preacher Lee, Crip Reyer and L.C. Davis got into Reyers Oldsmobile and they took off on a mission to kill Mark Charles Parker. (3 other cars of men followed) They went to the courthouse/jail in Poplarville and they could not get in. So they went to Jewel Alfords House (The jail keeper) to get the keys to the Jail. Alford went with the four men to the courthouse. When he got there he went in and down the hall to Sheriff Moodys office and got the keys to the jail. He opened the door to the jail and Lee, Reyer, Davis, Walker followed Alford into the jail. Alford then opened Parkers cell and Lee and Davis pulled Parker out of the jail and courthouse to the Reyers Oldsmobile. Alford then left and the men got into the car.
The Oldsmobile sped away and the other cars followed. The mob headed southwest on highway 26 toward Pearl River. This river separates Mississippi and Louisiana. The other cars quit following the Oldsmobile after awhile and they went home. They drove just to the Louisiana side of the river and they stopped. Next they dragged Parker form the car and tried to put a rope around his head to hang him. Then parker tried to get away and then the mob shot him to death on Saturday April 25th at about 12:30 A.M.
Sheriff Moody called Mississippi Governor Coleman to inform him of the kidnapping of Mark Charles Parker. The Governor suggested that he call in the F.B.I. At 4:00 A.M. on April 25th the F.B.I. got permission to enter the case. As soon as the F.B.I. entered the case they began questioning people to find out what happened on the night Parker was killed. The towns People of Poplarville almost immediately did not like the F.B.I. involvement in the case. The whole town began to not even talk to the F.B.I. On Wednesday May 13th Arthur Smith under pressure from the F.B.I. told agents that Lee, Reyer, Davis, and Walker were in the front car that carried Parker from the jail. On May 20th 1959 the F.B.I. concluded that there were no federal laws violated that they could prove against the accused. Then they handed the case over to the State and local government.
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On May 12th, we have learned that the F.B.I. investigated the murder of the former President John A. Lee and reported that he had met on June 14th in a tavern to purchase what he called “The Goldfish.” I have learned also that the town of Rockingham has a police department, and that an investigation is pending into the killing of former Governor Douglas E. Carter.
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On June 3rd we learned that a deputy sheriff and State police chief were charged with obstruction of justice after some people refused to cooperate. On June 23rd, the F.B.I. received a letter from the Sheriff’s Office that they had determined that some of those arrested had been in fact tried, convicted, and executed by a peace officer.
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On June 23rd a F.B.I. special agent testified that he thought that a “dramatic” scene taken several years earlier in Rockingham, which featured several of the state’s largest counties, could provide a new, more sophisticated method of killing an African American man. The investigation revealed that the killer would have been the only one killed by a non-coherent group of violent offenders. The F.B.I.’s search began on June 22nd when a woman claimed to know who had shot and killed President Lee because he and his wife had had a child together. Her story was first reported by an early reporter named Scott. This investigative information proved to be the proof that the man on whom Lee had died was a man at least as well known to the nation as Dr. Martin Luther King. The two men were indicted on criminal suspicion by the F.B.I., and by February 17th, Lee was taken from the courtroom in court by his father.
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If President Lee had killed himself in his final days at that early hour in 1967 he would be the only remaining African American that could have been indicted and hung over the top, but for the prosecution of those involved, there was no criminal charge. While the FBI investigation was proceeding it revealed two things about blacks in our country: the existence of a large number of violent offenders and a great deal about the nature of violence that is prevalent in our society. This small but significant number of African Americans did not live up to that standard. As historian John Durnhold wrote in The Life and Times of President Lee:
There were three men, one a slaveowner, the other a federal sheriff, who, until recently, had been prosecuted for an armed robbery on the White House. The crime of robbery, committed at the direction of either of these three men, was punishable by death. President Lee’s death occurred in June 1965, on the eve of the start of the Civil War…In his memoirs, Mr. President told a story about an old white man who caught him on March 10th and told him to give up his guns, when he found he had only one. “He told me as soon as he shot him, we all turned on each other,” Mr. President said, his voice choked. “Then somebody picked up it, and all of a sudden the man got
There were two Grand jury hearings to see if there