Word: mississippis
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When the Emmett Till case first became news in Mississippi, the whole state was aroused against the crime, and anxious to see justice done. But the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (along with Life magazine and other Northern journals which referred to "lynching") obscured the issues so completely that the white people of the state retreated to their old position of distrust of the North and to white supremacy. The cause of better racial relations was deeply harmed. Another instance in which the NAACP seems to have hurt itself here was by its recent protest over...
...example of how the NAACP has lost much respect in Mississippi, among even the most fair-minded people, was its recent handling of the Till case. It loosed a stream of vicious accusations and threats, indicting officials, newspapers, ministers, and the so-called "better citizens" of the entire state. Moreover, it began its accusations as soon as the body was found, despite the fact that every person and organization in the state let out a cry against the murder. People from all types of occupations were asked about the Till case, and no one came near condoning such a brutal...
...fact remains that there was not enough evidence for a conviction. Such a verdict would have been miscarriage of justice. That the body was never positively identified is due to the antiquated methods of the Mississippi police, which has never been noted for scientific medico-legal methods. What is surprising, however, is that the NAACP, which certainly knew that the body's identification would be the crucial issue, did not use some of its own resources to pin down the identification. It may have been, of course, that such was done, and that no positive evidence (dental records, X-rays...
Furthermore, there is a double standard of justice in Mississippi, one for Negroes, the other for whites. That for whites is, with a little more ineptitude, similar to the standard of justice in Massachusetts. That for Negroes is strikingly different, and is apparently predicated on the belief that "Negroes are like that." Crimes among Negroes are terribly wide-spread in West Point, but the police and the newspaper alike ignore them unless the wrong doing becomes habitual. If Negro violations were treated with the same strictness as white, the country jail would have to be tripled in size...
...Halberstam was Managing Editor of the CRIMSON last year. At present he is the reportorial and photographic staff of the West Point, Miss (pop. 7000) Dally Times-Leader. His analysis of Mississippi politics appeared in a recent issue of the Reporter magazine, and his account of Negro voting is scheduled for next week's issue. This article is the first of a series complied from letter to his brother, Michael J. Halberstam...