Once the JW Milam and Roy Bryant trial in Sumner, Mississippi, ended with the murder of Emmett Till, less than a month later in nearby small cotton Glendora, a black service station attendant and father of four sons was killed by a friend of Milam's not.
Elmer Kimball murdered Clinton Melton and then 19 days later, a young woman Melton was killed just a week before the murder trial opened Kimball.
Fourteen years, grew up visiting relatives in ChicagoMississippi Delta has been accused at the end of August, when he was abducted, tortured and killed after whistling at a white job.
Then in December, Clinton Melton was only four miles from the body of Emmett Till was thrown into the Tallahatchie River was murdered six months earlier. Kimball, Milam friend, had lived in Glendora for a short period, is the administration of the local cotton gin and had an account at the service station where Melton worked.
The day of the murder, Kimball, 35,a car driven by his friend, JW Milam, one of two men accused and acquitted of killing up to borrow, when he drove to the gas station and asked for a full tank. Daughter, Deloris Melton Melton Gresham, was a small child, their parents were killed, but he has since learned what happened to the pump:
"When Kimball drove up to the station, said my father, the head of my father going to fill his car. But when he had finished filling the car, Kimball went into a rage and said:only wanted a dollar's worth of gas, and that he wanted to go home and shoot his gun at him. The owner of the gas station was trying to calm him, but. She told him that my father was a good negro and that does not deserve to be hurt. It 'really asked Kimball. "
Once Kimball went to his boss told him that it would be best left in a hurry. But his car had gas and had to fill up first. Kimball came right back and started to shoot my father. Another man was in his carwith him, and shouted not to shoot. He jumped from the car and ran to hide in the station. To stop alleged Melton Kimball fired the first shot. McGarrh [the owner of the white service station] denied this, adding that Melton did not have weapons at any time during the dispute. A bullet hole on the windshield of the car was found parked Melton.
A newspaper publisher angry South, Hodding Carter, said the murder of one of the "Mississippi really," comparing it with the case until aTimes-Delta:
[Melton] was no out-of-State Smart Alec. It was homemade and "highly respected .".... It was not an insult to Southern womanhood. There was only a discussion about ... Petrol. There was no pressure from the NAACP, "credited" with the results of the study until .... Then another verdict of "not guilty" was written in Sumner this week. And has served the world's opinion that no matter how strong the evidence, nor how flagrant is the apparent concreteOffense may not be a white man convicted in Mississippi for killing a black man.
Little attention has been the Gresham's mother died, and about 21 took place in December 1955 have been reported in about 19 days after Clinton Melton was killed on 3 December. Officially, the death of his mother to blame a bad trip. "He told me later that was not really a relative who everyone knew was gone, the road running," said Gresham.
Gresham, a child at the time, recalls being trapped insidehis mother's car as it sank to the bottom of a dark bayou near Glendora. A relative of the trip with their lives and saved the small of his brother. But Beulah Melton drowned.
"My mother was a beautiful woman, known to be bright and open," said Gresham. "People who knew her have told me that we are very similar in appearance and -. Both the personality"
Beulah Melton had information about the shooting death of her husband and would be a "problem" of having to study Kimball, Greshamhe said.
News from the accounts and the discussion around Glendora, there was no provocation to kill his father. It 'was an outright murder, according to white witnesses, including the white service station owner. The Melton family was well known in Glendora. Clinton Melton had lived all his life and "even for white people spoke out against the killing of a black man. The local Lions Club adopted a resolution branding the murder 'an outrage' [and pledging to donate $ 400 for family] "MyrlieEvers, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, the murdered woman, he later wrote.
Melton said the widow of Medgar Evers she feared justice would not have done if the NAACP also be interested in the case, and asked not to be involved. "Her wishes were respected."
In a subsequent investigation discovered after his death, Medgar Evers had given the association, the widow of only $ 26 and that a local white minister had sixty dollars in his data.
Relatives took in Delores MeltonGresham and Gresham and his brothers still live in Glendora with her grandmother. "My grandfather was so excited, he left and never returned to Glendora."
Unlike some earlier Mississippi white on black murders Kimball was indicted for the murder and even if not convicted, spent time in prison:
Kimball lost Bid for Freedom on Bond
Sumner, Mississippi (AP) -28. December 1955 - Elmer Kimball today lost its bid for freedom on bail pending grand jury action at an altitude ofMurder of a Negro.
Three justices of the peace held a preliminary hearing white gin operator and refused bond. Kimball's new officers in jail awaiting the action of the Grand Jury, which meets in March next year. The hearing was held in the courthouse where the trial Emmett Till was sensational. Bond is usually in cases where a person is accused of a crime, the conviction carries a possible death sentence rejected.
Kimball is accused of murder in the shotgunKilling of Clinton Melton, Negro service station attendant near Glendora and father of four children. The defendant testified that he fired in self-defense after someone shot him three times. Kimball said he did not know who fired until he returned fire, killing Melton.
Lee McGarrh, employer Melton testified that Kimball fired without provocation, and Melton was unarmed. He said Kimball became angry at the black man during an argument on petrol for cars Kimball. McGarrh saidKimball said he went home for his gun and [sic] to kill Melton.
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A WIRE SERVICE sent a staff member to cover the study Kimball, and the only Mississippi newspaper that sent an employee was Carter's Greenville Delta Democrat-Times. Journalist David Halberstam remained in Mississippi after the Milam-Bryant trial and wrote as a freelancer.
This time, cameras were banned, not only by the court but also from the entire courthouse property, and no table set up prizes.The sentiment [for conviction] was particularly strong in the Glendora community where Kimball and Melton shot where both the deceased and the accused were known, according to Halberstam: "Elsewhere in Talahatchie County, of course, had a habit of becoming big business usually black and a white man. "
The definition of "good" and "Bad"
Halberstam assessed the environment before the process started:
"A friend of mine, the white population of Mississippi is divided into twoCategories. The first and largest contains the good people of Mississippi, as the affection of columnists, politicians and even be called. The other group is a small, but in many ways surprisingly Peckerwoods village called.
"The good people will agree with the rule that the rioters Peckerwoods are indeed many good people have told me that is a member of the Citizens Councils because otherwise the Peckerwoods would take the situation at all. And 'The good people who tell you that their city is the racial harmony for many years, while the Peckerwoods who think they know what the blacks can be maintained in their position, it is good people, and say "We love our niggers" , and is the Peckerwoods that and say: "If a dollar in my large, is pretty bad."
Would "But while good people are not governed by the audacity of the gesture and not out of hatred Peckerwood, are reluctantnormal means of the Company shall apply to Peckerwood. And 'the Peckerwoods to kill Negroes and the good people who perform the Peckerwoods ... "
In spite of its right to self-defense, Kimball was denied bond in two preliminary hearings. The biggest problem at the hearing before Attorney Roy Johnson County Attorney Hamilton Caldwell, according to Halberstam swearing in fair and impartial jury [from] a group "to protect the interests of the birth and life of the oathknows. "
The State had produced three witnesses.
McGarrh first was "a little strong man, who was a member of one of Glendora's most respected families." McGarrh, Halberstam wrote, on the same story he told in previous hearings determined.
It is "said to have seen shoot the unarmed Melton Kimball. He went unshaken under interrogation. The only weak point in its history, even if that Kimball had given prior notice of its intention McGarrh, remained in the stationhis shotgun. "
The other witness was John Henry Wilson, "a man of color in which Kimball said he trusted a lot. Wilson did not witness the shooting, but has damaged the self-defense theory. He was standing outside the station when Kimball returned with a gun. He asked Kimball what he would do.
"I'm going to kill that nigger," Kimball said.
"Please, sir, do not shoot that boy. He has not done anything," Wilson said.
"Go back, or I'll kill you"said Kimball. Wilson ran to the back of the station. "
The last witness of the state, George Woodson, testified that he staning about ten meters away from the scene and saw Kimball across the page to go to the station with a gun and that he saw no weapons in the hands of Melton.
"The defense had no eyewitnesses and then tried to shake the testimony of witnesses the government. His testimony came up with only minor points," said Halberstam.
"But more importantlytheir testimony were their positions -. Sheriff, a deputy sheriff and a police chief "
Kimball apparently more damage while he was on the stand, as Halberstam says:
"[He] was there before the twelve Mississippi and I told them the story of his relationship with Melton, smoothly that contradicts all the Mississippi mores .... McGarrh Kimball said he went and said that Clinton was very angry and asked him to total of his account and that wouldBill and value, and when he returned a few minutes later, someone opened fire on him, beat him, and returned to his car and got his shotgun.
"The history Kimball would be difficult for any jury to believe, because they would know ...." [They] can not cause fellow Negro, like that, no matter how irritating it, talk about trust first and foremost a black man as Clinton Melton. "
"The jury also knew that" no white Peckerwood gin manager, the best friend of JW Milam, would be aNegro speaks in this way without doing a little 'of whupping right there on the spot. "
After four and a half hours, the jury came in and announced their decision to absolve:
Sumner, Mississippi (AP) - Elmer Otis Kimball was acquitted of murder late yesterday in the shotgun killing of a 33-year-old Negro. "I was not sure that justice would be done," said the 35-year, Glendora cotton gin operator knows, "but I should have known." A 12-man all-white jury, made up mainly of farmers recommendedmore than four hours before the release of Kimball.
Two witnesses saw an explosion Kimball Clinton Melton three times with shotgun third December in a Glendora service station. Witnesses said the shooting was a connection to a dispute between Kimball and Melton on petrol in the car to be taken Kimball. Kimball testified that Melton cursed him during the argument. Defense Atty. JW Kellum said Kimball fired the fatal shots in self defense. Kimball said three shots were fired at himbefore opening fire, a wounded him in the shoulder. He showed a scar, and brought a doctor who examined the bullet wound.
But neither McGarrh Lee, owner of the station in white, not George Woodson, Negro, who said he witnessed the killing, said he had seen or heard Melton fire. No weapon was found on Melton's body or in his car. The study took place in the same courtroom where half-brothers, JW Milam and Roy Bryant found innocent six months ago for the murder of 14 yearsEmmett Till, Chicago Negro. Kellum was one of five defenders in the event Till.
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The time was now more dangerous to African-American Mississippi. White is a resident of Glendora, according to a journalist his opinion of both the Up and murder Melton asked him saying. "And 'the hunting season on the Negroes now have no protection, Peckerwood, and all those who want to can go to a shoot."
The daughter of Clinton and Beulah Melton moved from the Delta. He holds aImage of the mother how she could be her twin sister looks like. While she has never heard of a photo of his father, Gresham said she would like to have known better have been, and continue to ask what happened to his mother, the terrifying days.
But his story had a happy ending. Keith Beauchamp discovered in 2003, a filmmaker in New York, a copy of an old newsreel showing the story of Clinton Melton's murder. Beauchamp integrates the role in a documentary about Emmett Till, and made sure thatGresham had a copy for his family. The following year, the documentary about a television station in Chicago has shown that very accidentally discovered in one of the Gresham brothers, his sister. A family reunion took place this summer.
He said "It 'was joyous," Delores Gresham. "We talk on the phone several times a week, and I meet with other parents with my brother."
(An excerpt from "where insurgents Roost, Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited" by Susan Klopfer. Copyright2005 Susan Klopfer.)
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