Monday, September 07, 2009

Monumental Battle: The Genesis Of The Forrest Park Controversy...



'The Wizard Of The Saddle' & 'The First Grand Wizard Of The KKK': The (In)Famous Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest


©photo courtesy of The W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Group
Revisionist History Or Heritage? Forrest's Equestrian Statue Faces South With 'Old Glory' (U.S. Flag) In Background...

Monumental Battle
Answers to the Confederate parks controversy aren't inscribed in black and white.
by Pamela Denney
The Memphis Flyer
Originally Posted:
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/monumental-battle/Content?oid=1122385

August 19, 2005

On most Saturday afternoons in the summer, not much happens at Forrest Park. By August, the grass is dried up, and the pin oaks are lethargic. The crepe myrtles nod a little, but only when there's a breeze.

In the center of the park, separated from the shade trees, is a bronze statue on a marble base: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, sits mounted on his horse, looking south. He is still and massive, oblivious to the traffic on Union Avenue or the controversy that makes Margaret Tull and her family stop by to pay their respects before heading home to Selmer, Tennessee.

The group, five in all, walks quickly through the park, scattering the quiet with their energy and purpose. They don't seem to notice the man sacked out near the exercise trail, or that Forrest's wife, Mary, is buried beneath the statue too. Instead, they are intent on remembering the general and, for those who will listen, setting the record straight.

"We think he was a great man," says Katalin, Tull's 15-year-old daughter. She leads her three cousins up the monument steps, where they link arms and smile big for the camera.

"Wait, let me get another one," her mother calls out, clicking away. "General Forrest might be gone next time we get to Memphis."

No matter how you feel about the proposals to rename Forrest Park or to move the couple's remains to Elmwood Cemetery or to just hand over the park's care to the University of Tennessee, there's something kind of nice about stair-step cousins traveling 80 miles to Memphis to learn more about local history.

"I wanted them to see Baptist Hospital because I went to nursing school there, and I wanted them to see Forrest Park," Tull explains. "I'm a good Southern girl who was raised to admire the generals of the South."

When I hear her explanation, I check out for a few minutes because by now some of these justifications are sounding, well, a little parochial: You can't change history. We need the Confederate monuments so we don't make the same mistakes. The Civil War caused such deep wounds that we're still fighting about it 140 years later.

But then, unexpectedly, Tull cuts through the rhetoric and pulls me back in. "I'm not black, so I can't speak to how a black person would feel about a Confederate monument," Tull says. "But I do believe this: Individuals study history from their own perspective. That's why the controversy over renaming the park isn't so much about black or white. It's about where the history hits you in the heart."

Her words seem profound, particularly in a city where heartfelt reactions to history, be it Civil War or civil rights, typically fall along racial lines. So is it race that makes changing the Confederate parks feel more like a complex social issue than a simple naming debate? Or is the community upheaval over Confederate monuments just creative problem-solving by a city finally trying to sidestep racial divides?

In many ways, the summertime debate over the Confederate parks has been a perfect storm of politics and timing by, at times, disparate groups. A month ago, the Sons of Confederate Veterans hosted a centennial at Forrest Park to remember Forrest's 184th birthday and the 100th anniversary of his statue's dedication. Civil War re-enactors brought tents, cannons, and historic photographs to the celebration, but a performance by Snowflake's Minstrels, a troupe of white actors who paint their faces black, was canceled.

Less than two weeks later, the Center City Commission, a 20-member group that promotes the redevelopment of downtown Memphis, asked the City Council to consider renaming the Confederate parks. The proposal, spearheaded by county commissioner Walter Bailey, included Forrest Park, located in the middle of the University of Tennessee medical complex; Jefferson Davis Park, located along Riverside Drive near the city's official Welcome Center; and Confederate Park on Front Street, located not far from City Hall.

Karl Schledwitz, a local attorney and University of Tennessee trustee, weighed in next. He submitted a proposal to move Forrest's remains to historic Elmwood Cemetery, where he was originally buried in 1877. Protests by some Memphians started almost immediately. A group called Save Our Parks staged a rally near the Forrest monument at evening rush hour. While some protesters waved signs at passing traffic, others used their own lawn equipment to cut the park's overgrown grass. The Sons of Confederate Veterans objected as well, writing letters to local media and pledging $10,000 to fight name-change proposals.

Fueling the debate even more was inviting the Rev. Al Sharpton, social activist from New York City and former presidential candidate, to lead last Saturday's Rally for Dignity sponsored by the Memphis Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Sharpton's invitation from the Rev. L. LaSimba Gray angered many people, both black and white, including Mayor Willie Herenton who held a news conference to denounce "outside agitators" and to release his own recommendations: Don't rename the parks, but convey ownership of the land to the University of Tennessee and the Riverfront Development Corporation.

A week or so later, Herenton revised his recommendations, saying the city should maintain park ownership but relinquish maintenance agreements. He also announced his intention to seek a fifth term as mayor.

Herenton's new recommendations were scheduled on the parks committee agenda this week, and organizers at the Sharpton rally urged participants to show up at Tuesday's council meeting to protest and submit petitions.

About 250 people attended the rally, gathering around the Forrest statue to hear Sharpton proclaim: "We need to show the rest of the world that the day for honoring people like this is over." An impressive orator, Sharpton was at his best, urging Memphis to start a national campaign to eliminate all symbols and monuments that offend African Americans. In typical style, he also confronted his critics head-on: "You need outside agitators when you don't have enough inside agitators. Don't get mad at us for doing your job."

All morning, police patrolled Forrest Park and Confederate Park, where a small group of counter-protesters honored Confederate history. Both parks were cordoned off with police tape, channeling people through bag checks with hand-held metal detectors. But at Jefferson Davis Park, activity was uneventful. The green space along the Mississippi was quiet and almost empty, except for a fabricated sign with red letters reading, "Louis Farrakhan Park: Now are you happy?"

Scout Morris, one of about two-dozen white people listening to Sharpton, could be the only non-media person in Memphis to attend both the Sharpton rally and the Forrest centennial held a month before. He says different reasons made him a little uncomfortable at both events.

"I felt uncomfortable at the centennial celebration because I was on record as supporting the name change," says Morris who is a member of the Center City Commission and an attorney with the firm Martin, Tate, Morrow & Marston. "At the Sharpton rally, I felt like a few people were looking at me suspiciously wondering what side I'm on. Unfortunately, for most of the people going to these rallies, there is not a lot of understanding or respect for the contrary point of view."

Generally, Morris says he supports the views expressed at the Sharpton rally, particularly the idea that there's nothing wrong with addressing issues that aren't paramount. "People like to talk about renaming the parks," he says, "but it doesn't mean they are forgetting about other issues that matter more. You can discuss some things without ignoring others."

Whether removing Confederate monuments is a substantive issue or merely a symbolic one, most people have opinions influenced by a shaky understanding of who Nathan Bedford Forrest really was. Check out Forrestmonument.org, a Web site from Selma, Alabama, and there's a Memphis Daily Avalanche report from July 4, 1875. In the story, Forrest graciously accepts flowers from a black postwar organization as a token of "reconciliation, peace and good will." (Folks in Selma, by the way, have had their own upheaval over a commemorative bust of Forrest commissioned in 2000 for a city-owned museum but moved several months later by order of the mayor.)

A biography of Forrest by Tennessee author Jack Hurst provides a more comprehensive explanation of an intelligent but ruthless man. A review of Hurst's book appeared last year in the Intelligence Report, a quarterly magazine from the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. Copies of the review were left last week at the base of the Forrest statue, stacked neatly inside a manila envelope.

Contacted at his home in Lancaster, Hurst was unaware of the park controversy in Memphis, but he wasn't at all surprised.

"The fact that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a slave trader before the Civil War naturally makes him a lightning rod," Hurst says. A career newspaperman, Hurst, who is 64, says he is still deeply conflicted on Forrest's place in history.

"He was tremendously driven, a brilliant military tactician, a guy who came from the backwoods with no advantages and only six months of formal education," Hurst says. "But then Abraham Lincoln only had a year of formal education, and no words are horrible enough to describe slavery. To understand Forrest, we should try to understand the time he lived in, but his time certainly doesn't fit with our way of life today."

Generational change makes a statement in the Rev. Ray Allen, a retired Methodist minister and former dean of admissions at Rhodes College. Allen, along with 15 other ministers, attended a community prayer summit for racial harmony last week at Christ United Methodist Church.

Like the ministers before him, Allen stepped to the microphone to deliver his prayer, dignified and earnest. But first, he had something else to say: "My mother, Louise Martin Allen, raised the money for the statue of Jefferson Davis now in Confederate Park. I honor her memory for the work she did, but I certainly don't have the same feelings about segregation and the Confederacy that prevailed at the time."

"I think many problems are better served by compromise, cooperation, and looking forward, not dwelling on the evils of the past," Allen says later. "Whatever the solution to the park controversy is, I hope it unites us, not divides us."

The Rev. Dwight Montgomery, president of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter, agrees. Montgomery, who organized the prayer summit, is one of many black pastors who say the parks controversy is diverting too much attention from more urgent issues such as Tenn Care and gang violence. Consequently, he's stayed away from the protests, including the Sharpton rally.

"Let me make it clear as an African American that I don't appreciate the names of those parks, and I am not criticizing any other organization's methods," Montgomery explains. He says he admires Sharpton and that Gray is a mentor and friend. "But my concern is to eliminate the existence of bigotry by dealing with the issues first. Dealing with the important issues makes the symbols of racism become null and void."

Along those lines, Montgomery is forming a Coalition for Racial Harmony and Equality for clergy of all faiths. "I want to see black and white churches all over Memphis exchanging pulpits," he says. "Let's get some national attention for that."

He believes most people in Memphis, regardless of race, agree with his perspective. "Throughout this whole debate on the parks, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has not received one phone call urging us to become involved in the issue, and my home phone number was even put in the paper," Montgomery says. "Our phone calls have been 'My daddy's being cut off of TennCare. Can you help?'"

City councilman Myron Lowery has been the most visible council member in the controversy, investing time and energy into meetings and discussion groups. Although there were shouts of "Myron for mayor" at the Sharpton rally, Lowery says he's only interested in helping Memphis become a more cohesive community.

Like Montgomery, Lowery sees opinions in the naming debate crisscrossing racial lines. "This is not a black-versus-white issue," he says. "This is a blended issue, but it's getting out of hand. That's why I've decided we should just put it to a referendum and allow everyone to vote."

A number of other suggestions are surfacing as well, such as renaming the park Forrest-Grant, adding a monument to Ida B. Wells, and skipping the Civil War altogether in favor of a musical-heritage theme. Many ideas came from a community dialogue organized by Lowery with help from the organization called Facing History and Ourselves. Program associate Steven Becton facilitated the meeting along with Rachel Shankman, director of the group's Memphis office.

"People are disagreeing, but the dialogue is not always being categorized by race," Becton says. "The dialogue is also about our legacy, it's about how our history is or is not remembered. When you look at all these things, you realize that maybe we are starting to grapple with issues from multiple perspectives, and that is healthy and very encouraging."

Becton admits that as an African American who grew up in Memphis, a part of him wants to change the park names. "But the historian part of me wants to preserve the history as it stands because Nathan Bedford Forrest was a complicated man, and it's the complexities of individuals and the complexities of history that make us learn and grow," Becton continues. "This issue is, when you get down to it, a very teachable moment."

A Light On Forrest

Jack Hurst, author of the book Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, started working at the Nashville Tennessean at age 15. Hurst later wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune before moving back to Tennessee. Contacted by telephone at his home in Lancaster, he offered these insights into Nathan Bedford Forrest:

Can you explain more about Forrest as a slave trader?

Hurst: Forrest's uncle ran a mercantile business in Hernando, Mississippi, and he was dealing some in slaves. When Forrest was about 25 years old, he moved to Hernando to join his uncle in that business. By the time Forrest returned to Memphis, slave-trading was his principal business. At the time, the southwestern United States was really opening up, and plantation owners needed workers. Forrest traveled all over the southwest trading slaves, from Kentucky to Texas. He was one of the major slave traders in the southwest from about 1852 until just before the Civil War started. In fact, he was a major slave trader when he was elected to the Memphis City Council in 1857 or '58, and he served two terms.

Did he really make a fortune trading slaves?

Forrest had offices all along the Mississippi River. Any time a plantation owner fell on hard times, he would sell his slaves. I know this sounds just reprehensible, but by the time of the Civil War, slaves could sell for more than $1,000 a piece. Forrest claimed he was worth more than $1 million, and that was probably true. Some people try to say that he made his money in real estate, because real estate and trading slaves were related businesses. But slaves were more valuable than land, so it's pretty obvious that the money he made in slave trading came first.

What about Forrest's reputation as a ruthless military leader?

He came to the military from outside military tradition. He wasn't trained in the niceties of combat. To him, it was the bottom line: You either won or lost. There is some evidence that he tried to take care of wounded prisoners after the battles, but when people defied him, he was a ruthless guy. It was, after all, a ruthless time.

What exactly was Forrest's role in the Ku Klux Klan?

Nothing was ever written down about that, but it was commonly accepted that he was running the Klan from 1867 to 1869. He was the Klan's first grand wizard. He eventually had to testify before Congress about Klan activity, but he tried to sidestep his own involvement.

Did Forrest ever change his views toward blacks?

I do think that after the Klan, Forrest made some overtures that a lot of people in his place and time did not make. He gave some speeches about needing to welcome northerners instead of demeaning them as carpetbaggers. But you have to remember that he was trying to build a railroad from Memphis to Selma, Alabama, so by 1871 he was keenly aware of the business aspects of trying to create a new image for the South.

How did it go with the railroad attempt?

Several economic panics during that time really ran up the price of steel. It was a titanic effort, but it ultimately failed and ruined Forrest financially.

Are you writing a new book now?

Yes, I am. It's another book on the Civil War, but I can't tell you the title. I'm a little superstitious. - Pam Denney

***

"I'm prepared to come as often as possible, as often as necessary."


The Sharpton Interview

By Jackson Baker

Saturday will definitely go down in Memphis history as the day that the Rev. Al Sharpton came to town in support of an effort to rebury a vintage Confederate hero elsewhere.

Those Memphians who welcomed Sharpton - prominently including the Rev. LaSimba Gray and the Bailey brothers, Circuit Court judge D'Army and Shelby County commissioner Walter - want it to go down also as the day the Confederacy itself began to be reburied in the swamp of historical oblivion.

Speaking at Forrest Park under the statue of the legendary Confederate military commander whom he persisted in calling "Nathan Bedford Foster," Sharpton called for the removal of the general's grave and statue from the park. Sharpton promised to return "again and again" and to focus attention on Memphis as "a national example" until the entire South is forced to renounce the last vestiges of the Confederacy.

Though he declined to mention Memphis mayor Willie Herenton by name, Sharpton heaped scorn on those black leaders who, like Herenton, have distanced themselves from the local effort to remove the Forrest presence from the park and to rename it, as well as Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park.

Afterward, in his personal trailer, surrounded by a small group of supporters that included Gray and the Baileys, Sharpton munched on peanuts and talked about his current mission. Flyer: Is there a relationship between this current matter and your presidential ambitions?

Sharpton: No, not at all. I mean, clearly, I'm not ruling out a presidential race, but I think all national leaders ought to take a position on this. I framed my statements the way I did because we're fighting terrorism. The Confederates were the terrorists of the 1860s. They tried to destroy this country; 682,000 people died. People are talking like this is some cultural thing. This is not a cultural thing. These people had a standing army against this Union.

How often do you intend to return to Memphis?

I'm only coming as needed and when asked. But I'm prepared to come as often as possible, as often as necessary.

Do you think other public figures besides the ones here today will ever join you?

I think in the course of time that they will, which is why I'm not getting into calling names. I'll certainly answer some of the misstatements I've heard them say, but I think when they see the turnout - you had 200 people here today - this was certainly a lot more than they predicted would come or thought would come. Or when they see their constituents moving that way. Politicians have a way of finding where the voters are.

What do you think when Mayor Herenton called you a "hell-raiser" and "troublemaker" and stated that it was he who had power in Memphis, not you?

You know, it's funny. I've been here before, and he welcomed me to City Hall. So I don't know why all of a sudden I'm a bad guy 'cause I don't like a dead Confederate. He didn't say that when he had me in his office.

Were there white Southerners from the Civil War era that are worthy of respect?

Absolutely. You have any number of former senators, governors, writers - Harriet Beecher Stowe - many of whom were worthy. Some might have even been anti-black. But to lead an army against the country and be honored in that country! I'm not just talking about racists. I'm talking about people that led a standing military against the United States; they should never be honored in that country. That man [Forrest] wasn't a politician. He was a rebel leader of a military army. Why would the United States allow him to be honored here?

Andrew Johnson, who was a senator from Tennessee and became vice president in Lincoln's second term, used the "n" word in his acceptance speech. But he was a vice president. I would disagree with him. I would say he probably had racist attitudes, but I would not say he shouldn't be honored. I'm saying how do you honor traitors to the country and use public funds to do it?

How national could this situation become? Could it reach the level of President Bush?

Clearly, as this picks up steam, it could end up at the president's door - and [Senate majority leader] Frist's door.

***

SHARPTON COMES TO TOWN

by Jackson Baker
The Memphis Flyer
Originally posted:
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/sharpton-comes-to-town/Content?oid=1122353

Saturday will definitely go down in Memphis history as the day that Rev. Al Sharpton came to town in support of an effort to rebury a vintage Confederate hero elsewhere.

Those Memphians who welcomed Sharpton – prominently including Rev. LaSimba Grey and the Bailey brothers, Circuit Court Judge D’Army and Shelby County Commissioner Walter – want it to go down also as the day the Confederacy itself began to be reburied in the swamp of historical oblivion.

Speaking at Forrest Park under the statue of the legendary Confederate military commander whom he persisted in calling “Nathan Bedford Foster,” Sharpton made common cause with his local hosts in calling for the removal of the general’s grave and statute from the park which bears his name. Sharpton promised to return “again and again” and to focus attention on “Memphis as {a} national example” until the entire South would be forced to renounce the last vestiges of the Confederacy.

Though he declined, both during his remarks and in an interview afterward, to mention Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton by name, Sharpton heaped scorn on those black leaders who, like Herenton, have distanced themselves from the local effort to remove the Forrest presence from the park and to rename it as well as Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park..

Several pro-Confederate groups had promised to rally at Confederate Park against this effort, but only a relative handful showed up Saturday morning. One other gathering on Saturday, at the monthly Dutch Treat Luncheon in East Memphis, focused on the parks matter, with two city councilmen, E.C. Jones and Myron Lowery, joining businessman Karl Schledwitz and Shelby County historian Ed Williams in discussing a number of different approaches to the controversy. Sharpton himself made a brief appearance Saturday at a luncheon meeting of local Democratic women.

Want to respond? Send us an email here.

READER RESPONSES:

It seems to me that folks of all color should wake up and see what is happening to our country's history and heritage. Forget the politicians who make a living stirring up controversy and creating problems where there are none. If you people up north think you are " exempt " from these radical attempts to destroy all things " anglo ", consider the push to have the " Minute Man " removed from the campus of a college in Boston or the word " Celtic" removed from public display due to being divisive and insulting to blacks ( or so the likes of Jackson and Sharpton claim ). In the not so distant future, you will see a push for all symbols of our American icons such as Washington, Jefferson, Hancock ( yes, John Hancock was a northerner, and his brother prospered in the slave trade ), St. Patrick's Day, or anything else that may be considered devisive or insulting to blacks. Due to the support Jesse and Al have gathered from the guilty " white " Southerner or the " holier than thou " liberal's, north and south, many feel they are justified in their claims and rush to support them. This is only the beginning I am afraid..... When will all of you take your heads out of the sand and support ALL things American, whether North, South, Confederate ( they are American's too ), Native Americans or Martin Luther King ? Perhaps many of us are insulted by being " profiled " as racist due to our white skin, Southern birth, and JUST maybe display a Confederate flag ? This too is just as devisive and insulting.
What happens when they want to re-name Washington, DC. due to it being named after George Washington ? Just wondering......
Pam
Tampa, Fl. (8-15)

***

I have heard that Tennessee SCV Commander Butler ordered his "troops" to stand down. Apparently he told his guys that they'd be playing right into Sharpton's hand to come out with their flags....that somehow he'd make them look bad.

I wanted to come but was unable to make the trip from Tuscaloosa. However, as a League of the South member, I sure wanted to. I personally feel the SCV should have been there. I'd like your opinion on the subject.

Mary Jean Allen
Tuscaloosa, Al.
fitpitcher@bellsouth.net (8-15)

***

Hey Al Sharpton ! How`s Tawana Brawley doing ? Why were you not prosecuted & sent to prison for that piece of kniving & lying you put her up to ?
Billy E. Price
26249 Hwy. 411
Ashville, Al. 35953
Ph. 1-205-594-4328 (8-15)


***

To Whom It May Concern: 07-25-2005

Mayor Herenton,
I'm David Lamb in Murfreesboro Tennessee. I am a member of the Camp 33, Sons of Confederate Veterans in Murfreesboro Tennessee. I am sending this letter to you and carbon copies to other elected officials in the State of Tennessee. I visited Memphis the weekend of July 22-24,2005 and was appalled at the condition of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Park. I was greeted there by a well dressed black man that was very disgruntled with the Memphis Mayor that had according to him served several terms in office. I had never heard of you or had any reason to even really care until now. I know, Sir, that to serve several terms then you have done something very right.

The park I mentioned where Mr. Forrest is buried was well littered with trash, the benches were bent and being destroyed, there was even a shopping buggy turned upside down and crushed within site of the monument of Forrest. As you know Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the greatest Generals of all time. This piece of history is undeniable. Sir I respectfully ask that your City be responsible and dignified enough to not change the name of this park, and not to consider re-interring this world famous General who has already been moved and desecrated once that I know of. I would also ask that this park be cleaned up of the litter and the loiterers. There were at least 4 people sleeping or passed out in the park on Sunday July 24,2005 as the temperature was near 100*. These were very definitely vagrants or were they simply there to intimidate the Good Southern People that would Love to visit this Internationally known Burial Place? I am very alarmed that we no longer have the audacity to stand up for what is right without fear of retaliation or embarrassment.

It doesn't matter, Sir, who is buried where, it matters in America that they and their ancestors have the God Given right to Rest In Peace. Not to be moved from place to place and not to have the memories and monuments destroyed or defaced. I don't know where Dr. Martin Luther King is buried Mayor but I for one will be the first to Yell form the Rooftops if a group was forming to re-inter or destroy his final resting place. I love what was said in the Cool Hand Luke movie. "Calling it your job Boss don't make it right". Mayor down by the river bank are two other parks. I was pleased to see the nice signs that marked at least the Jefferson Davis Park. I cannot believe that today in the year 2005 we have people that are so twisted and sick even in high offices, that would attempt and even succeed in trying to conceal or twist our History in this Great Country.

There is probably nothing I could tell you about these Great Men that are and have been Honored in Memphis Tennessee for near or more than 100 years that you don't already know, so I will not attempt to do so. Enough is enough. It is simply not acceptable to continue to allow the destruction the lies that continue to plague the Heritage of the Confederate States of America and the ancestors of these men. The Honor of these men that fought and died for their Country, Family, Beliefs, and Friends, should not be concealed or hidden or destroyed. One monument at a time one flag at a time this has been going on for as long as you and I can remember. The two parks by the riverfront were much cleaner and maintained I must say. Even on Sunday I witnessed a sweeper or vacuum machine in the lower park.

Sir, I again ask that the names of these parks not be changed. It is a disgrace to Memphis Tennessee and all who would participate in changing the names of these parks for even considering such a thing. We both know that when the American Public stands up and targets changing any of the streets, parks, memorials to Dr King then many of the African Americans and others would be greatly offended as we Good Southern Americans and Sympathizers are offended by the desecration of our Heritage one monument, one flag, one TRUTH at a time. I close this letter Sir with one last plea: May God himself speak to every Heart that reads this letter and pour his Great Spirit out to protect the Truth's of the past. Not to be destroyed by a race, color, creed. My Plea is: Please do not allow either of the Parks in question to be renamed or destroyed at the hands of any one or anything outside an act of God Almighty himself.
Sincerely,
David W. Lamb

David W. Lamb
PO Box 1445
Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
37133-1445 (8-15)


See also...
The Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest Historical Society

http://www.tennessee-scv.org/ForrestHistSociety/index.html


For More Related Information On The Legacy of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest & The Forrest Park Controversy On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News:

An Artivist Remembers…The Grand Old School & The Grand Ol’ Wizard: Wash U. & Gen. Forrest
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/artivist-remembersthe-grand-old-school.html

View W.E. A.L.L. B.E. TV Special...The Shame Of A Nation: The Forrest Park Controversy:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/view-we-all-be-tv-specialthe-shame-of.html

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Jackson Free Press: A Delta Manhunt, With Booze And Guns...


Attorney W. Ellis Pittman
Photo By Thomas Beck

A Delta Manhunt, With Booze And Guns

by Ward Schaefer
The Jackson Free Press
September 2, 2009
Originally Appeared:
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/a_delta_manhunt_with_booze_and_guns_090209/


Federal authorities are investigating an Aug. 20 incident in which armed white citizens, using a military vehicle, helped search for an unarmed black burglary suspect in the Delta.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi's second congressional district, confirmed to the Jackson Free Press Monday that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating the manhunt, which took place outside Sumner in Tallahatchie County.

"Anytime one takes the law in their own hands—if it's in this situation or others—it's absolutely illegal," Thompson said. "While people have the right to protect themselves, they don't have the right to put other people at risk at any time."

The Mississippi NAACP and ACLU have also condemned the incident, which NAACP President Derrick Johnson said should be investigated as a "racial hate crime."

"The time for individuals or a group of individuals to have a reign of terror on a town in Tallahatchie is long overdue," Johnson said.

Here Comes The Tank

The Jackson Free Press accompanied Johnson on a fact-finding trip to the Delta on Sunday, Aug. 30.

At his home in Clarksdale, Tallahatchie County Sheriff's Deputy Willie Booker said that the target of the search was Will Pittman, a 28-year-old black man from Sumner. Around 2:35 p.m. on Aug. 20, Booker received a call reporting a burglary at a home on the outskirts of Sumner.

Booker, who says he spoke to FBI agents Tuesday, went to the house and discovered a flat-screen television lying in the center of the kitchen floor, along with several guns belonging to the owner, Pat Ryan. Booker assumed that Ryan interrupted a burglary in progress and that the suspects had fled.

After receiving a tip that Will Pittman may have been involved, Booker called Ellis Pittman, Will's father and an attorney in Clarksdale, informing him that police were looking for his son and asking for his cooperation. On the instructions of Tallahatchie County Sheriff William Brewer, Booker also called for assistance from a Parchman State Penitentiary K-9 unit and officers from the police departments of nearby Tutwiler and Webb.

With the other officers, Booker began searching the woods and cotton field near Ryan's house on Cassidy Street. Soon, a civilian joined the manhunt: Tallahatchie County prosecutor John Whitten, who also serves as the town of Tutwiler's attorney. Whitten arrived at the field in a Jeep with another man, whom Booker identified as Brian Smith. Booker said he saw Smith and Whitten drinking beers as they sat in the jeep.

After conducting a fruitless search of the field, Booker returned to the burglarized house. "When I went back to the house, I heard Pat Ryan saying he was going to go down there and shoot up the field," Booker told the Jackson Free Press.

Soon afterward, making another pass by the field, Booker overheard another troubling statement. "I heard Whitten telling the guy in the Jeep with him that he was going to go back and get his tank," Booker said. "(To) flush him out of the field."

Booker called Sheriff Brewer and warned him that citizens were threatening to bring out a tank for the search. Brewer told him to leave, Booker claims. As he was leaving, Booker saw an armored personnel carrier driving toward the cotton field.

Like It Was A Party

At roughly the same time, Cornelius Pittman arrived in Sumner, having heard from Will's girlfriend that the police were looking for his brother.

When Cornelius came to the gravel road near Ryan's house, he discovered a group of mostly white men standing around their trucks, drinking beer and holding weapons. The armored personnel carrier, which he describes as being the length of one-and-a-half SUVs, was parked nearby. One man was carrying a shotgun and wearing a bandolier of shotgun shells.

"When I initially pulled up, folks were drinking beer and getting guns like it was a party," Cornelius said.

Cornelius introduced himself to the first man he encountered and explained that he was there to get his brother to surrender peacefully. The man directed him to John Whitten, explaining that Whitten's brother lived in the burglarized home.

"I go up and shake Mr. Whitten's hand, and the first words out of his mouth are he's going to kill whoever's out there," Cornelius remembered.

Whitten, who was wearing a pistol on his side, told Cornelius that he had one minute to find his brother.

As Cornelius searched the woods bordering the cotton field, he says he saw Officer Michael Daves arrive in a Mississippi Department of Corrections truck. Daves works for MDOC as a K-9 officer and for the Tutwiler Police Department. Daves brought with him James Nichols, who was wearing a town of Tutwiler Police T-shirt, a police badge on his belt and a gun.

Nichols was not a Tutwiler police officer, however. According to minutes from a July 7, 2009, meeting, the town's Board of Alderman approved transferring Nichols from the police department to the town's Public Works Department "as a maintenance man and machine operator."

Nevertheless, Nichols identified himself in an Aug. 21 statement for the Tutwiler Police Department as "Officer James Nichols" and claimed that Daves had called him "to assist along with thermal imaging equipment."

"As we attempted to enter the woods, several rounds of gun shots were heard," Nichols wrote in his statement.

Cornelius says that he heard roughly 10 shots. Daves then called someone on his radio to inform them that civilians were firing weapons, Cornelius says. Finding no sign of his brother, Cornelius returned to his GMC Denali. He planned to talk to one of the other burglary suspects about Will's whereabouts, but found the armored personnel carrier blocking the road.

"The gentleman with the shotgun that was on the tank—he tells me I need to talk to John," Cornelius said.

Ready To Fire

Still wearing his gun, Whitten demanded to search Cornelius' car, including the trunk.

"I go back to raise the trunk, and they stand back with their guns, ready to fire," Cornelius said.

After searching the car and finding nothing, Whitten still did not let Cornelius leave. As they waited for a sign of Will, Whitten threatened to burn or trample the woods even if it killed Will, Cornelius alleges.

Finally, around 8:50 p.m., Sumner police received a phone call that Will, covered in mud, was asking to use a resident's phone. Nichols and Daves met a Sumner police officer at the resident's house and took Will into custody.

Cornelius followed them to the Sumner jail, where he was told to find clean clothes for his brother. Several minutes after he left the jail, Ellis Pittman arrived, having heard from Tutwiler police officer Terry Tyler that his son had been arrested.

Ellis Pittman arrived at the jail to find a motley assortment of law enforcement officers. In addition to officers from Tutwiler, Sumner and the county, Tutwiler Alderman Chris Hooper was present.

"It was obvious something was going on when I pulled up," Ellis Pittman said.

Pittman demanded to see his son—not as his father, but as his defense attorney. The jailer, Marcus Brown, informed him that he had to wait for the lead investigator to arrive. Fuming, Pittman stepped outside, where Tyler and Cooper informed him that Nichols was with Will in the jail. The news made Pittman irate.

"I went back into the jail in a very less-than-professional way," Pittman admitted.

After shouting down the jailer, Pittman was allowed through to his son's cell, where he saw James Nichols standing outside the door, still wearing his gun, badge and police T-shirt.

"All these law enforcement personnel are sitting out front, and there's a non-law enforcement person, white male, back with him with a gun on," Ellis Pittman said. "I worked in the penitentiary, in maximum security for seven years. You do not take a gun in the back of no jail, nowhere in this country."

Will was apparently unharmed, and he was released on bond later that night. He still faces charges for the burglary. His father says that although Will has had trouble with the law for drug possession in the past, he has no previous involvement in burglaries.

Whitten could not be reached for comment Monday or Tuesday or to confirm that he owned the armored personnel carrier or that he participated in the incident. On Aug. 25, the Associated Press reported that Whitten called the allegations baseless.

Rep. Thompson, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that private citizens could only acquire military vehicles through an approved organization.

"If it was something that was surplussed and acquired that way, that's one way," Thompson said. "But you would have had to buy it with some eligible entity, some nonprofit or unit of government."

Reached Tuesday for comment, Nichols said that some private citizens were drinking alcohol by the field but emphasized that no law enforcement personnel were drinking. Nichols said no tank was present, but confirmed that there was a vehicle with tank-style "tracks."

Nichols also said that while "there were shots fired, it wasn't law enforcement."

"Nobody in law enforcement would act that ignorant," Nichols said. "Ain't nobody that damn stupid to start shooting guns when they've got officers in the woods."

Nichols averred that while he is not currently employed with the town of Tutwiler as a police officer, he was serving as one on Aug. 20, which was within the scope of his current contract, he claimed.

"I was hired onto this city as a police officer," Nichols said. "They needed some help with the city, and I volunteered to help them."

Nichols was reluctant to comment at length, though, citing the ongoing federal investigations.

"There's proceedings fixing to take place," Nichols said, "and I'd really rather not get into this, because it's fixing to get really stinky."

Read The Documents Related To This Story:
Town of Tutwiler July 21 Alderman's meeting minutes
Officer James Nichols' statement

© Jackson Free Press, Inc.

See Also On W.E. A.L.L. B.E....

Mob Rule In Sumner, MS:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-newsmob-rule-in-sumnerms.html


W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Special: Mob Rule In Sumner, MS:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2009/08/27/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Round 2: "Mob Rule In Sumner,MS" Update & Online Townhall Meeting With Tallahatchie County Citizens...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/round-2-mob-rule-in-sumner-update.html

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Special: Online Town Hall Meeting...
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2009/09/03/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Katrina Four Years Later: Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans

On The Fourth Anniversary Of Katrina, New Orleans Is Still Far From Recovery


By Jordan Flaherty



Crawling through a hole in a fence and walking through an open doorway, Shamus Rohn and Mike Miller lead the way into an abandoned Midcity hospital. They are outreach workers for the New Orleans organization UNITY for the Homeless, and they do this all day long; searching empty houses and buildings for people, so they can offer services and support. “We joke about having turned criminal trespass into a fulltime job,” says Rohn.



Up a darkened stairway and through the detritus of a thoroughly scavenged building, Rohn and Miller enter a sundrenched room. Inside is Michael Palmer, a 57-year-old white former construction worker and merchant seaman who has made a home here. Palmer - his friends call him Mickey - is in some ways lucky. He found a room with a door that locks. He salvaged some furniture from other parts of the hospital, so he has a bed, a couch, and a rug. Best of all, he has a fourth-floor room with a balcony. “Of all the homeless,” he says, “I probably have the best view.”



Mickey has lived here for six months. He’s been homeless since shortly after Katrina, and this is by far the best place he’s stayed in that time. “I’ve lived on the street,” he says. “I’ve slept in a cardboard box.” He is a proud man, thin and muscled with a fresh shave, clean clothes and a trim mustache. He credits a nearby church, which lets him shave and shower.



But Palmer would like to be able to pay rent again. “My apartment was around $450. I could afford $450. I can’t afford $700 or $800 and that’s what the places have gone up to.” Keeping himself together, well-dressed and fresh, Mickey is trying to go back to the life he had. “I have never lived on the dole of the state,” he says proudly. “I’ve never been on welfare, never collected food stamps.” Palmer rented an apartment before Katrina. He did repairs and construction. “I had my own business,” he says. “I had a pickup truck with all my tools, and all that went under water.”



Palmer is one of thousands of homeless people living in New Orleans’ storm damaged and abandoned homes and buildings. Four years after Katrina, recovery and rebuilding has come slow to this city, and there are many boarded-up homes to choose from. The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center counts 65,888 abandoned residential addresses in New Orleans, and this number doesn’t include any of the many non-residential buildings, like the hospital Mickey stays in. Overall, about a third of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, the highest rate in the nation. UNITY for the Homeless is the only organization surveying these spaces, and Miller and Rohn are the only fulltime staff on the project. They have surveyed 1,330 buildings – a small fraction of the total number of empty structures. Of those, 564 were unsecured. Nearly 40% of them showed signs of use, including a total of 270 bedrolls or mattresses.



Using conservative estimates, UNITY estimates at least 6,000 squatters, and a total of about 11,000 homeless individuals in the city.



UNITY workers have also found that not all people living in New Orleans’ abandoned homes are squatters. In the last three months alone, they have found nine homeowners living in their own toxic, flood-damaged, often completely unrepaired homes. These are people living in buildings - identified as abandoned and not fit for human habitation – that they (or extended family members) actually own, but cannot afford to repair.



The abandoned building dwellers they’ve found are generally older than the overall homeless population, with high rates of disability and illness. The average age of folks they have found is 45, and the oldest was 90. Over 70% report or show signs of psychiatric disorders, and 42% show signs of disabling medical illnesses and problems. Disabling means “people that are facing death if not treated properly,” clarifies Rohn. “We’re not talking about something like high blood pressure.”



Life In Abandoned Homes



“This leg here bent backwards and the muscle came up,” says Naomi Burkhalter, an elderly Black woman in a wheelchair, sitting outside of the abandoned house she lives in and gesturing to her badly twisted leg. She was injured during Katrina, and can’t walk. She stays in a flood-damaged house in New Orleans’ Gert Town neighborhood, with no electricity or running water. She says the owner – who cannot afford to repair the home - knows she lives there, along with two other women. When they need water, they fill bottles up from neighbors. When she needs to get in and out of her house, she crawls, very slowly dragging herself up and down the steps with her hands, leaving her wheelchair outside and hoping no one takes it. Miss Naomi worked at a shrimp company and rented an apartment before Katrina. Now, between her injury and higher rents, she can no longer afford her former home. “My rent was 350 dollars,” she explains. “But when I came back, my rent was up to $1200.” Burkhalter has been homeless since then.



UNITY has received funding from the federal government for 752 housing vouchers specifically to help house the city’s homeless population. They have put people on a list, with those in the most danger of dying if they don’t get help on the top of the list. However, the vouchers still have not arrived, and at least 16 people from the list have already died while waiting. “The stress and trauma that these people have endured cannot be overstated,” says Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY. “The neighborhood infrastructure that so many people depended on is gone.”



This problem was exacerbated by the demolition of thousands of units of public housing, an act which not only took away the community that many people found brought them comfort and safety, but has also made affordable rentals for poor New Orleanians even harder to find. Section 8 subsidized housing has been offered as a solution for those displaced from public housing and other poor renters, but a new study from Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) shows that discrimination keeps many people from finding quality housing through the program. According to the report, 82% of landlords in the city either refused to accept Section 8 vouchers, or added insurmountable requirements.



The study found that both discrimination on the part of landlords (99% of Section 8 voucher holders in Orleans parish are Black) and mismanagement on the part of the housing agency were barriers. One prospective landlord told a tester for GNOFHAC that he wouldn’t rent to Section 8 holders, “until Black ministers…start teaching morals and ethics to their own, so they don’t have litters of pups like animals, and they’re not milking the system.”



The mismanagement from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) was also a big problem for prospective landlords. “I faxed HANO the needed information 12 times for the rent I was never paid” said one landlord. Another housing provider said, “I called every day for a month and never got a call back.”



Last month, more than a hundred members of STAND for Dignity, a grassroots membership project of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, protested outside of the offices of HANO, decrying their lack of action. A single mother named Ayesha told the crowd that she had been on the Section 8 waiting list for eight years, and still hasn’t received any help. She is paying 80% of her income on rent, and has been forced to go months at a time without water, gas or lights. George Tucker, another member of STAND, and also (like Mickey Palmer) a former merchant mariner, told the assembled crowd his story of being evicted from his apartment because HANO lost his paperwork. Because of bureaucratic carelessness, he was homeless for thirteen months. “This governmental crookedness is not new,” he said. “But it cannot continue without consequences.”



Last week, at least partly in response to criticism from folks like the members of STAND, HANO announced that they would accept new applications for Section 8 vouchers, for the first time in six years. The period that they will accept applications in is only a week long – from September 6 through 12.



Fear And Harassment



“My best friend died three weeks ago in this chair,” says Mickey Palmer gesturing next to him in his room in the abandoned hospital. “There was two other people staying here with me. One gentleman got in an accident about two months ago and he’s paralyzed in the hospital. Another friend of mine OD’ed and died here three weeks ago. My best friend. So I’m here alone.”



Palmer also fears police harassment. “The police hate homeless people,” he declares. “They’ll arrest me on drunk in public,” he says. “I haven’t had a drink in months.” Gesturing around the room that he has made into a home, he adds, “Of course, this is illegal. If I get caught I can not only be evicted, but incarcerated. I could go to jail for trespassing.”



This fear drives the homeless further underground, and makes it even harder for organizations like UNITY to find them and offer help. “Our city has a long history of police criminalization of homelessness, so people have reason to hide,” explains Martha Kegel.



Despite the size and scope of this problem, help has been hard to come by, from either the city, state, or federal government. “I’m not a politician and I’m not politically savvy,” says Palmer. “But I don’t think they care.”



In a rare step forward last month, both houses of Louisiana’s legislature unanimously passed a bill creating a statewide agency – to be almost entirely funded by the federal government - to address the issue of homelessness. However, Governor Jindal vetoed the bill. Jindal also vetoed funding for the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, further reducing medical and mental health services in the city – another factor that has made life hard for many homeless folks in the city. As rates of mental illness rise in the city, we now have less treatment available then ever before.



For people like Mickey, caught in a city with few good paying jobs, much more expensive housing, and ever-decreasing social services, there are not many options. “At one time we were part of the city and part of the workforce,” Mickey says. “But people cannot afford the housing in New Orleans anymore. I find most of the people I know, my friends, they can’t afford the rent.”



Like most people in his position, Palmer has felt hopelessness at his plight. “I try not to get depressed, he says, nervously flicking his lighter. “But this can get you depressed. Coming back here last night got me a little depressed.”





Jordan Flaherty is a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting on post-Katrina New Orleans shared a journalism award from New America Media. Audiences around the world have seen the reports he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org.



Housing And Homelessness In New Orleans:

UNITY of Greater New Orleans - http://www.unitygno.org

Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center - http://www.gnofairhousing.org

STAND for Dignity - http://www.nowcrj.org/about-2/homeless-worker-organizing-project

Louisiana Justice Institute - http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org





Other Resources:

Left Turn Magazine - http://www.leftturn.org

Justice Roars - http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com



Other New Orleans reporting by Jordan Flaherty:

Media As Weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent - http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=532&p=1

Torture at Angola Prison: http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flaherty270109.html

Video report for Democracy Now during Hurricane Gustav - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtfcMkdoNhk


W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special~Never Forget: Hurricane Katrina Three Years Later...
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/08/31/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

From The Honorable Sis. Cynthia McKinney: Hazel Survived Jim Crow But Could Not Survive The Health Care System.

A Message To The Honorable Sis. Cynthia McKinney From Tha Artivist:

“The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.”
~H. L. Mencken

To The Honorable Sis. Cynthia McKinney,
My condolences to you and your family...I am glad that your aunt has had such a major influence in producing one of our greatest freedom fighters...You have endured a lot for so many of us who are afraid to get off the sidelines and into the game to push for a change to the rules of the game as well as a change of venue for progressive dialogue and action to take place…Let’s pray that your auntee’s sacrifice serve as a catalyst for us all to wake up from our collective malaise in order to become more active in building a paradigm where we all can live a quality of life that will allow us to seed brilliance, moral accountability & activism in generations yet to walk the earth…Thanks once again for your service and sharing your grief as well as triumphs with us…You are not operating in a vacuum Sis. McKinney, you are making a difference!!!
Your brother in the right war and struggle,
Bro. Ron
p.s.
This story for me did more to illustrate, illuminate and humanize the crisis of health care in this country than all the thousands of corporate media logged hours of town hall coverage of disgruntled folks with guns ever could!!!


How Did We Get From There to Here?


I never want you to take the journey that I'm currently on. So, I want to tell you about it.

It starts on the front of the refrigerator. "The Healthiest Foods on Earth." A two-page primer from apple to watermelon, touting immunity to male fertility support. Inside the refrigerator, natural and organic foods only. On the countertop is the Jack LaLanne juicer, the Magic Bullet, the handy food chopper plus, the food saver vacuum sealer--all items familiar to us because they are constantly hawked on the midnight cable channels. Hanging from the kitchen cabinet door are plastic bags for recycling: one for plastics, the other for aluminum cans. The house and car are filled with reusable shopping bags made of recycled materials. By the way, a new car was in the works, and not because of the cash for clunkers program of the Federal Government. An American-made hybrid was preferred--keeping U.S. workers working. In the back seat of her Ford Focus is a booklet, "Living in a Healthy Body: A New Look at Health & Weight." What I'm trying to describe is someone working very hard at changing a typically indulgent "American" lifestyle into one more respectful and healthy for the body, healthy for our earth.

So, in an act of preventive medical care, my aunt Hazel went to the doctor to have a colonoscopy. We are all bombarded with television commercials advising us to have a colonoscopy. I know in the black media, those ads abound. And so, dutifully, my aunt abided by those suggestions for healthy choices and had her first colonoscopy. What the family knows is that her colon was perforated. That's when our journey took us on a wrong turn.

Unfortunately, the facility that performed the colonoscopy had told my aunt not to call before the results were published and that would take up to two weeks!!! When my aunt called them because she was feeling so bad, they told her that she'd be ok overnight and that they would call her in the morning. The hospital talked to her and her daughter. The hospital told my aunt to go to sleep overnight and they'd call her back in the morning. But my aunt-tee continued to deteriorate so badly that her daughter called 9-1-1 and by the morning, my aunt-tee was already in surgery at another hospital that was not too busy to care for her. This is when the perforation was discovered and repaired.

While my aunt was recovering in the second hospital, in intensive care, a letter was sent from the hospital where the colonoscopy was performed stating that they were the insured's provider and that the hospital performing the emergency surgery would not get paid. The hospital performing the mal-colostomy demanded my aunt-tee back. So, against the desires of the hospital providing the emergency surgery, my aunt, while still in intensive care, was forced to be transferred to the hospital that, in my opinion, committed a capital crime.

My aunt-tee deteriorated after the transfer, but fought like heck to live. Unfortunately, her body had been so poisoned by the doctor's failure to recognize that he had perforated her colon that her body became toxic. The third affront to my aunt-tee's health and life occurred when morphine was administered, ostensibly for pain and gave her such a blow to her vital statistics that the family objected to a second administration of morphine. But guess what!!! She was given morphine again, despite her children's complaints!!!! My aunt never recovered from that.

My aunt, a divorced mother of two, struggled to live righteously. Those of you in southern California know that she accompanied me almost everywhere I went. She was a hard-working woman, a proud homeowner in Watts, a student working on her Social Work degree, finally able to achieve her dreams after deferring them for so long in order to help her children realize theirs. She also took to the campaign trail too many times, traveling to Georgia to help my father and me realize ours. I can't even believe that she's gone--through no fault of her own--and I'm still wondering how the heck my aunt ended up in this place. Despite all the care she took of herself this is unfathomable to me. And sadly, too many families are arriving at this same place. Iraqi families devastated by U.S. occupation; Afghani families devastated by U.S. war; U.S. families also devastated by U.S. policy makers. Why?

For the last four years, I've spouted off the racial quality-of-life disparities that exist in our country. I've said it so much, it's as if no one heard me. Because even during my tenure in Congress, I gave floor speeches, but the policy change never came. I spoke at banquets and conventions about it, but the policy changes never came. Two steps forward always seemed to end with one step backward. If we got the money appropriated, in too many instances, black institutions couldn't be in charge of it, so only a trickle at best reached the community. I found that the "plantation" was alive and well in patterns of federal spending. So when Dr. David Satcher, President Clinton's Surgeon General, found in a 2005 study that over 83,000 blacks die unnecessary and premature deaths each year due to their treatment after they arrive in a doctor's office, among other factors, I added that datum to my panoply of quality-of-life stats. And now, my aunt factors in Dr. Satcher's numbers.

I have seen such betrayal and lack of principle in the current "health care" debate, I had no intention of getting into it. In our Power to the People campaign, I wrote a platform that included policy recommendations to eliminate all disparities still extant in our society, including for health care. A single-payer system is so obviously needed, it should be too politically costly for our Democratic majority in the Congress and our Democratic White House to do anything else. I recommended an end to war. I advocated public ownership of the Federal Reserve. I even anticipated the skullduggery of the bailouts and recommended that if the "powers that be" were intent on forcing Congress to give these bailouts to institutions that conducted what I would call criminal behavior, then at a minimum, a credible person like David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller, should audit all corporations and institutions receiving such funds. I suggested that Senator Obama use the power of his Senatorial pen to amend the bailout legislation to this effect. It didn't happen.

My aunt-tee had a policy of rarely voting for an incumbent. She understood that just as she was trying to change herself into a lifestyle that she could believe in, she wasn't going to get political, social, and economic change that she could believe in by voting like everyone else, for the same special interest candidates. Once she decided that it was necessary to step outside of the box of political conformity, she discovered that there were Independent, Green Party, Libertarian, and other political party candidates on her ballot that she had long ignored. She began to listen to them and learned to explore the totality of her options. It was glorious to watch my aunt-tee's liberation.

So why is she in the morgue now?

Not enough people took that journey with her. Not enough people saw her example. Not enough was done to change policy. At a time when the policy makers have never been so divorced from the reality borne by the average citizens that they govern, the American people have shown an amazing ability to accept graft, corruption, death, and destruction while continuing to believe that hope alone can produce real change. Why did Cindy Sheehan protest without thousands in front of President Obama's $50,000 a week vacation home?

I've tried to walk my talk. Just last week it came out that one "journalist" who called for my lynching was on the FBI payroll at the time of his comment. He claims to have been paid to say provocative things. I've withstood a lot--for the people. But now, I really don't know how much more walking or talking I'm able to do. I just wonder, how many more will have to experience this before more people write their own Declarations of Independence from this political disorder.

The phone just rang and it was the hospital that performed the botched colonoscopy on my aunt, that ignored her call for help, that demanded that she be transferred while she was in intensive care, that administered morphine twice, despite objections from the family and from which her vitals never recovered. They wanted to know how my aunt would rate their service. I told them poor on every count.

Thank you for reading this with empathy and I thank you all for your support. I apologize for any appointments that I've missed while I've been on the road to this place I'm in now.

P.S. My friend, David Josué, wrote a beautiful notice that I include in this message. Please click on the link at the end of his message because "dying while black" is real. My aunt is just the latest victim. The highlights are mine:

Cynthia McKinney lost a family member . . .
100,000 Unnecessary Black Deaths Per Year!

[09/01/09] It is with a heart full of sorrow that I have to inform you of the death of Cynthia's maternal aunt. Hazel was not sick and took all preventive measures to live a long life. She went to have a colonoscopy and her colon was punctured. What else went wrong during the procedure is still unknown to the family. Hazel survived Jim Crow but could not survive the health care system. Cynthia is deeply affected by this tragic event. She was very close to her aunt and Hazel loved her niece. Hazel was a fervent supporter of Cynthia's six terms in Congress and was so happy to see her niece run for President of the United States in 2008. Only last July the 4th she was in Atlanta with us while we were working around the clock to secure Cynthia's release from an Israeli jail. It is hard to accept that she is no more.

Please visit Professor Vernellia Randall's site http://www.dyingwhileblack.org/book.htm

Thank you

David Josué






*MORE INFORMATION*

The Honorable Cynthia McKinney

http://www.runcynthiarun.org

http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com

http://www.mckinney2008.com

Green Party of the United States

http://www.gp.org

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Round 2: "Mob Rule In Sumner,MS" Update & Online Townhall Meeting With Tallahatchie County Citizens...

*For Immediate Release*
Contact:
Ron Herd II/R2C2H2 Tha Artivist
Phone: 901-299-4355
E-mail: r2c2h2@gmail.com
W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News
http://www.weallbe.blogspot.com
The Home Of 21st Century Citizen Journalism

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”
~Frederick Douglass

“Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.”
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
~H. L. Mencken



Note: This is the official update to last week’s "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" press release:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-newsmob-rule-in-sumnerms.html

Dear people,
Last week was really incredible in terms of the response generated by last week’s press release/article concerning alleged lynch mob activity in the small Mississippi Delta town of Sumner in Tallahatchie County. Anything involving the rather touchy or sensitive issue/element of race can definitely draw/fire passions from every quarter of our diverse yet polarized society whether you are Black or white, Nationalist or Supremacist, liberal or conservative and so on. I am glad to report that all interactions so far on the internet have been very civil and thoughtful. I would encourage everyone to read the comments left on the original blog post to get an idea of the dialogue being started and would encourage everyone to leave their thoughts as well for the historical record.

We found out last week that there is a federal investigation being jointly conducted and headed by the FBI and U.S. Justice Department currently looking into the events surrounding said lynch mob incident. Even longtime U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, who represents Tallahatchie County, has weighed in on the matter and personally asked the assistance of the Attorney General Eric Holder led U.S. Justice Department. Several papers in the Mississippi Delta (some links of those articles will be included in this release) as well as Jackson, MS’s Clarion Ledger have also provided another perspective on the events of August 20, 2009. Even the Associated Press has provided an article.

But the real hero in getting the word out has been the information super highway a.k.a. the internet. The real fourth estate, the internet allowed W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News the privilege to relay the story a.s.a.p. to friends, foes, social networking sites and other media outlets who in turn spread it out even further…Unfortunately, it’s a give in that the bad and sensationalized news can travel faster than the good news, but it was truly good news that the bad news got out at all!!! If this was 12-15 years ago no one outside of the Mississippi Delta would have probably heard this story at all without the aid of corporate news media….By the way the corporate news media only reports less than 1% of the actual news going on in the world today…We need more citizen journalists!!!

You Must Be The Change…
I have recently been thinking about how much effect one person can have for the good if one decided to a make a positive contribution and difference. I was one person who heard a story that was unbelievable yet plausible and automatically knew I had to contribute something. What if I didn’t post a blog or host an internet radio podcast concerning this matter? Would all these things be happening as I am presently writing/posting this latest entry? Maybe and maybe not…

With that said I knew it was my responsibility to get involved, even without being a witness to the incident or knowing all the facts as I write this even now...All I know is that I did not want to regret this years later if I knew that there was a wrong that could have been righted, but wasn’t out of my own fear and/or cowardice…I do not want to be one of those people who will have to tell another generation to wait for glory or the quote right time unquote to make things right. MLK said it best when he wrote ‘wait means never!!!’ It is always the right time to do the right thing and I encourage everyone reading this to get up and fight for what is just, fair and right! As they say bad things tend to happen when good people do nothing…

There’s Something About Whitten…

John Whitten III
(Photo by Charlie Smith)

This past weekend was the 54th Anniversary of Emmett Till’s martyrdom in the same county where this alleged incident took place. The accused, John Whitten III, is the son of one of the lawyers (John Whitten Jr.) who defended Emmett Till’s murderers. He is currently the city lawyer of Tutwiler, MS. The city lawyer for Tutwiler before John Whitten III was Harvey Henderson, his father’s partner in the defense of Emmett Till’s murderers…

With that said this coincidental connection to a tragic past injustice should not be held against Mr. Whitten III. However, what he should be held accountable for are his own actions and character. From what I have gathered from e-mails, the internet, phone calls and even the internet radio podcast show we did last week is that Mr. Whitten III has a prolific track record when it comes to questionable character and ethics as it relates to law and order. Here is what we know…So far:

• During the incredible podcast show last week, a caller who identified himself as a White male with ties to Sumner, MS, told our listening audience that Whitten not only possessed an impressive collection of antique military weaponry and vehicles but also live cannons! The White male went on to say that he knew Mr. Whitten for almost 30 years and that he is known for using his weapons for his own ends outside of the law. He also said that Whitten allowed him to even use some of his weaponry for ‘recreational activities.’

• That on one occasion Whitten allegedly and unapologetically used the n-word severally times before Attorney Ellis Pittman, the father of the alleged nearly lynched victim, in a judge’s chamber. His alleged reason was that his grandfather was allowed or permitted to say it in court.

• Whitten was tried by the Mississippi State Supreme Court for allegedly kidnapping and torturing three white male youths ‘for trespassing’ in the mid 1990s. Instead of being disbarred or removed from the bench as a municipal judge, Whitten was actually fined $2,500 for the incident. Please read the whole disturbing account on the official Mississippi State Supreme Court website:

• The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms) raided Whitten's property, found and seized illegal assault weapons in his possession. Allegedly the late Jamie Whitten, his uncle and one of the most powerful and longest serving (53 years) congressman in United States Congressional history, gave him the political insulation and access to obtain all kinds of weaponry.


• According to one source, Whitten allegedly is a leader of the Tallahatchie Militia, “a group of white men with guns that the law seems not to be able to control.”

There is more!!! I would encourage everyone to listen to last week’s podcast for more info on Whitten and the alleged lynch mob case in Sumner, MS:

Please Join Us Weds. Sept. 2, 2009 @ 9PM Central For W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Town Hall Special: Tallahatchie County Stand Up & Be Counted!!!


This Wednesday Sept. 2, 2009, @ 9PM Central/10PM Eastern W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio will have a town hall style show where citizens of Tallahatchie County will air their grievances about the recent lynch mob incident as well as provide other alleged incidents where Mr. Whitten III and his cronies abused their powers and violated the civil rights of certain citizens as well as ‘the spirit of the law’ in Tallahatchie County. Please feel free to join the conversation by calling 646-652-4593 and by listening to the show online at the following link:

What Happened To 2nd Burglary Suspect McKeel Smith?

Another concern is what happened to the 2nd burglary suspect and targeted victim in this lynch mob incident, McKeel Smith? McKeel Smith as I write this has not still been heard from in any capacity by certain participants involved in this story. I am personally concerned about his safety and truly hoped that he is in a safe place getting the assistance and attention that his current situation warrants.

Other News On Mob Rule In Sumner,MS Incident

Here are some different perspectives on the incident from different news sources:
The Sun-Sentinel (Charleston, MS) Coverage On "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/sun-sentinel-charleston-ms-coverage-on.html

The Greenwood Commonwealth Coverage Of "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/08/greenwood-commonwealth-coverage-of-mob.html

The Clarion Ledger's Coverage Of "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/clarion-ledgers-coverage-of-mob-rule-in.html

The Associated Press Coverage Of "The Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/09/associated-press-coverage-of-mob-rule.html

And lest we forget…

“The Revolution Won’t Be Televised, But It Will Be Blogged, Podcasted, Twitted & Broadcasted Online!!!”

The Associated Press Coverage Of "The Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...


August 25, 2009

FBI Probes Delta Burglary Arrest

The Associated Press

The FBI says it's looking into the circumstances surrounding a burglary arrest in the Mississippi Delta during which residents reportedly took it upon themselves to search for the suspect.

The suspect, William Pittman, who is black, was charged Aug. 20 with breaking and entering at a home in Sumner. He was released on bond the same day.

There's no indication the suspect injured.

His father, attorney Ellis Pittman, told Greenville television station WABG in an on-camera interview that his son's life was threatened by Tallahatchie County Prosecuting Attorney John Whitten. Ellis Pittman didn't respond Tuesday to a message left by The Associated Press.

Whitten, who is white and allegedly among the group, said the allegations are baseless and he's considering a libel lawsuit.


More Related Coverage On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

The Clarion Ledger's Coverage Of "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...


U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson
August 27, 2009

Thompson seeks AG probe in Sumner

The Clarion-Ledger

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson has officially requested that the U.S. attorney general to investigate an incident in which residents of Sumner conducted a search for a burglary suspect.

The suspect, William Pittman, was charged Aug. 20 with breaking and entering a home in Sumner. He was released on bond the same day.

There's no indication Pittman was injured.

The FBI has also said it’s looking into the incident.

"I have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the vigilante type activities that occurred in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, last Thursday," Thompson announced today in a news release.

“Unauthorized people with guns, terrorizing citizens of this area has no place in civilized society.

“The fact that this community still (bears) the stains of racial tensions and is the area that Emmett Till was murdered weighs heavy on the conscience and fears of this community.”

Till, a Chicago teen who was visiting relatives in the area, was lynched in 1955.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D, District 2, MS)

Washington, D.C. Website:
http://benniethompson.house.go ...

Washington, D.C. Address
2432 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5876
Fax: 202-225-5898

District Address
107 West Madison Street
Bolton, MS 39041
Phone: 601-866-9003
Toll Free: 800-355-9003
Fax: 601-866-9036

District Address
910 Courthouse Lane
Greenville, MS 38701
Phone: 662-335-9003
Fax: 662-334-1304

District Address
Post Office Box 356
263 East Main Street
Marks, MS 38646
Phone: 662-326-9003

District Address
3607 Medgar Evers Boulevard
Jackson, MS 39213
Phone: 601-946-9003
Fax: 601-982-5337

District Address
Post Office Box 679
106 Green Avenue
Suite 106
Mound Bayou, MS 38762
Phone: 662-741-9003
Fax: 662-741-9002

District Address
509 Highway 82 West
Greenwood, MS 38930
Phone: 662-455-9003
Fax: 662-453-0118


More Related Coverage On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

The Greenwood Commonwealth Coverage Of "Mob Rule In Sumner, MS" Incident...


Sumner attorney John Whitten III looks out across his back yard Friday while discussing a manhunt last week that has drawn a U.S. Justice Department investigation. Whitten denied any wrongdoing and said he only assisted local law enforcement during a search for a burglary suspect. (Photo by Charlie Smith)

By Charlie Smith
News Editor
The Greenwood Commonwealth
Published: Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:45 PM CDT

SUMNER -- With its picturesque bayou, quiet town square and pristine neighborhoods, Sumner reflects the brightness of the Mississippi Delta’s heyday.

But federal investigations into a manhunt 10 days ago could reveal lingering elements of the region’s dark past.

The known facts look like a routine jail docket entry: William Pittman, 28, of Tutwiler was charged Aug. 20 with burglary of a dwelling and released on bond.

Murkiness seeps into the story when it comes to what led up to Pittman’s arrest.


W. Ellis Pittman

His father, Clarksdale attorney Ellis Pittman, told WABG-TV and the Charleston Sun-Sentinel that Tallahatchie County Prosecuting Attorney John Whitten III threatened his son’s life, fired weapons along with others into a cotton field where his son was hiding and drove a tank to the scene. Ellis Pittman could not be reached for comment by the Commonwealth Friday.

Whitten, 60, denied the accusations and defended himself in an interview Friday at his law office across the street from the Sumner courthouse.

“The whole thing’s bull,” he said. Ellis Pittman “is trying to ruin my reputation. That’s all it is. I never fired a round. I never threatened anybody.”

The Pittmans are black, and Whitten is white.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose district includes Sumner, said in a press release he has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate “vigilante type activities” surrounding William Pittman’s arrest.

“Unauthorized people with guns, terrorizing citizens of this area has no place in civilized society,” Thompson said in the statement. “The fact that this community still (bears) the stains of racial tensions and is the area that Emmett Till was murdered weighs heavy on the conscience and fears of this community.”

When Whitten’s wife called him Aug. 20 to tell him the home of their Cassidy Street neighbors, Pat and Cindy Ryan, had been burglarized at about 2:30 p.m., he was in court in Charleston. He got the message after finishing between 3:30 and 4 p.m.

A native and nearly lifelong resident of Sumner, Whitten is a stout man with a short white beard and closely cropped hair. He looks as if he’d be as comfortable in a cotton field or tree stand as a courtroom. A plate on his front bumper touts the Confederate States of America.

Whitten said a crime such as the Ryans experienced would normally have been surprising in the town of 407 people where everybody knows everybody.

“I can’t remember a burglary in Sumner until the last few months,” he said. “Everybody’s been a little bit scared.”

His wife and Cindy Ryan were driving down a nearby road looking for the suspect at the behest of law enforcement when he called back, he said.

He stopped home, changed out of his suit and tie, and switched vehicles to his Jeep before joining the search, he said.

By the time he arrived at the Ryans’ home less than a half-mile away, 20 to 25 people were there, according to Whitten.

He said the makeup of the group was roughly 65 percent black and included Tallahatchie County sheriff’s deputies, a canine unit from the state penitentiary in Parchman and police officers from Sumner and the nearby towns of Webb and Tutwiler. Bystanders drawn to the commotion were also present, he said.

Because everyone wears many different hats in small towns, Whitten said it wasn’t clear exactly in what capacity everyone was there. For example, he also acts as Sumner’s fire chief and Tutwiler’s town attorney.

Sheriff William Brewer and Sumner Police Chief Clifton Harris could not be reached Friday to confirm their departments’ presence at the scene.

However, Harris told the Sun-Sentinel that all of those agencies searched for two burglary suspects until about 6:15 p.m., and other officials continued looking for several hours after that.

The Sumner city limits end near the Ryans’ house and the road turns to gravel. Thickly grown Conservation Reserve Program land adjacent to a bayou covers one side of the road and a cotton field the other.

Whitten said he drove around the bayou and noticed nothing besides normal agricultural practices.

“Someone had done a good job keeping their turnrows clean,” he said.

After about a half-mile, the growth becomes less thick and the cotton changes to soybeans. Near that point Whitten said he noticed the group from Parchman n without their dogs n going through a grown-up, potholed field.

“I told the canine folks I’ve got a track vehicle that will get through that brush,” he said.

Whitten has collected military transport vehicles for about 20 years and has at least seven in sheds behind his home.

Someone n Whitten said he doesn’t remember who n went to his house and drove back his FV432, a British personnel carrier. It moves on two rubber tracks and seats 10. He said it is a defensive, not offensive, machine and definitely not a tank.

“No guns, just seats,” he said after pulling down the latch and opening the door of the green transport vehicle Friday.

In addition to the driver, four or five passengers may have been inside, Whitten said.

When the vehicle arrived at the scene, the canine crew was beginning to pull out because it was getting dark, Whitten said. The vehicle turned around and went back to his house, he said.

Whitten himself did not drive it or ride inside, he said. It never left the road, Whitten said, noting that he owns farm land himself and has too much respect for it to go running through it.

He also denies firing any shots and said no one else did either as far as he knows. He did report hearing a “bang, bang, bang,” but someone later told him it was bird bangers — which he described as similar to firecrackers — designed to make the suspect think he was being shot at and start running.

During the entire search, Whitten said, neither he nor anyone else ever saw any suspects, and he didn’t know whether they were black or white.

At one point, William Pittman’s brother, Cornelius Pittman, arrived. Ellis Pittman said Whitten then threatened to kill William Pittman and his entire family.

Rather, Whitten says, he told Cornelius Pittman to convince his brother to give himself up. Otherwise, he could be run over in a field or startle one of the authorities when they stumbled upon him and get shot and killed. That would devastate their entire family, Whitten said he told Cornelius Pittman.

According to what Harris, the Sumner police chief, told the Sun-Sentinel, William Pittman was eventually found by a woman in a nearby home who called authorities. Sumner officers took him in without incident, according to Harris.

“He’s lucky he didn’t get shot, and that’s what I was trying to tell them all the time,” Whitten said.

Differing versions of what happened began to spread soon afterward, fueled in part by Web sites and television reports. On Monday, Brewer said Ellis Pittman called him with complaints, and the sheriff forwarded the information on to the district attorney, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

In addition to requesting an attorney general’s investigation, Thompson confirmed to the Associated Press that the U.S. Justice Department was looking into the allegations.

The Mississippi branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union have also called for state and federal investigations.

Whitten said Friday no federal investigators had approached him.

“I wish they’d contact me,” Whitten said. “I’ve got some questions I want to ask them.”

Whitten said Ellis Pittman has unnecessarily turned the search into a racial issue. He said Thompson’s mentioning of Emmett Till is in that same vein.

Till, a 14-year-old Chicago youth, was killed in 1955 after whistling at a white woman at Bryant’s Meat Market and Grocery in Money.

Whitten’s late father represented n under compulsion by a judge, according to Whitten n the two men who were tried and acquitted in the Sumner courthouse for Till’s slaying. J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant later admitted in a magazine interview to the murder, which drew national attention and helped spark the civil rights movement.

Since the story broke about the Aug. 20 manhunt, black friends have called him and voiced their support, Whitten said.

“They know me, and they don’t believe that mudslinging,” he said.

He said he’s trying to downplay the incident as much as possible.

“I really wish the whole thing would go in a hole and die,” Whitten said.


Copyright © 2009 - Greenwood Commonwealth


More Related Coverage On W.E. A.L.L. B.E.:

Mob Rule In Sumner, MS:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-newsmob-rule-in-sumnerms.html

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio Special: Mob Rule In Sumner, MS:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2009/08/27/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

The Sun-Sentinel (Charleston, MS) Coverage On "Mob Rule In Sumner,MS" Incident...

Note: "Reprinted with permission from The Sun-Sentinel, Charleston, Mississippi, Aug. 27, 2009" By Clay McFerrin, Editor and Publisher of The Sun-Sentinel."

The Burglary Incident (August 20, 2009)
By CLAY McFERRIN
Sun-Sentinel Editor

SUMNER — When Pat Ryan arrived at his 502 Cassidy St. residence about 2:30 p.m. last Thursday, he saw uninvited guests fleeing from the back door of the house, according to Sumner Police Chief Clifton Harris.

More than six hours later, Will E. Pittman Jr., 28, of 510 Central St., Tutwiler, was arrested and charged with burglary of a dwelling house in connection with the Ryan break-in. Pittman was released that night after posting bond of $5,000.

Harris said lawmen continue to search for another person in the case.
“Through information from a witness, we learned there was a second male suspect,” Harris stated. “We know his identity and charges have been filed. We’re still searching for him.”
Harris said the perpetrators apparently used some instrument to jimmy the lock on the front door.

“Two subjects entered the home,” he added.
Once inside, “they ransacked the house,” Harris noted. “They were opening drawers, a jewelry chest, a closet and went into the bedroom and kitchen areas.”
The chief said the burglars moved selected items to a central area.

“They piled up some goods including guns, a flashlight, camera and a flat-screen TV,” Harris said. “We later determined that some old coins and jewelry were actually removed from the home.”

Harris noted that Pittman allegedly fled the home, crossed a drainage ditch and entered an adjacent field that was waist-high in cotton.

A Tallahatchie County sheriff’s deputy who was first on the scene called for the K-9 unit from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman to assist in the search for the suspect. The K-9 unit arrived about 3:10 p.m.

Harris said a matching set of shoes was found in the field, the first about 30 yards from the Ryan house.

Assisted by officials with the Sumner, Tutwiler and Webb police departments and the Tallahatchie County Sheriff’s Department, the K-9 contingent of dogs and five officers searched until about 6:15 p.m.

Harris said other officials continued to search the area for several hours.
About 8:50 p.m., the Sumner sheriff’s office received a phone call from a woman who lives just outside the Sumner town limits stating that the person being sought by the manhunt was “at her house trying to get her to make a call for him.”

Sumner police responded to the report and took Pittman into custody without incident.
Harris said Friday the owners of the burglarized home were conducting an inventory to determine if any other items were missing.

***

The Manhunt & Fallout (8/20/2009)
By CLAY McFERRIN
Sun-Sentinel Editor

SUMNER — The FBI is investigating charges that Tallahatchie County Attorney John Whitten, among others, acted unlawfully during last Thursday’s manhunt of a burglary suspect here.

Will E. Pittman Jr., 28, of 510 Central St., Tutwiler, was arrested and charged Aug. 20 with burglary of a dwelling house in Sumner.


W. Ellis Pittman

His father, Clarksdale attorney W. Ellis Pittman, claims that prior to his son’s arrest, Will Pittman’s life was threatened by Whitten during a manhunt that followed a burglary in which his son is alleged to have been involved.

Tallahatchie County Sheriff William Brewer said he was contacted by Ellis Pittman Monday morning with complaints over the circumstances surrounding his son’s apprehension.
“I contacted the district attorney’s office, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the FBI,” noted Brewer. “The incident is being investigated.”

Ellis Pittman told The Sun-Sentinel Monday that his son’s life was placed in jeopardy during the Sumner manhunt.

“Anytime someone is shooting at you with pistols, shotguns and, some say, machine guns, and chasing you with a tank, then I would call that abuse,” said Ellis Pittman.
The attorney said he has been told that Whitten and others fired weapons into a cotton field where his son was seeking refuge during the manhunt.

“There were shotgun shells and other spent casings in the area,” he noted.
“I was told that John Whitten was in charge of everything,” he added.

Ellis Pittman said another of his sons, Cornelius Pittman, who arrived at the scene was given a stern warning by Whitten.

“John Whitten was sitting there drinking a Budweiser and took a pistol out and showed it to Cornelius and said they were going to kill Will and his entire goddamn family,” said Ellis Pittman.

He also echoed some accounts that Whitten drove a military tank to the scene.
Ellis Pittman said he was not present while the search was ongoing but noted that he has questioned several people, including some law enforcement officers, who he claims have corroborated some of the statements.

“Just like if Will broke into someone’s house he should be punished, if they did those things, then they also should be punished,” said Ellis Pittman. “Clearly, shooting at someone is aggravated assault.”

Ellis Pittman said he does not know whether any legal action will be pursued.
“Will is an adult, so if there are any charges pressed, he will have to do that on his own,” he noted.


John Whitten III
(Photo by Charlie Smith)


Whitten vehemently denies all of the accusations.
“This is a vicious attack or someone’s idea of a bad joke,” the Sumner lawyer said Monday.
“I never saw the kid, I never fired a round, I never drove anything other than a Jeep,” Whitten added.

A self-proclaimed collector and restorer of many things military, including machinery, Whitten said a tank is not part of his collection.

“I don’t own a tank, never have owned a tank. Have always wanted one, but they’re impractical,” he noted. “I checked into one a few years ago, but it weighed over 50 tons.”
Whitten said he does own an armored personnel carrier, which someone else borrowed last Thursday to help block traffic from entering the area of the manhunt.
“The personnel carrier doesn’t have a gun mounted on it,” he added.
Whitten said he did speak with Cornelius Pittman, but only to tell him that he should help convince his brother to surrender.

“I think several folks shot up in the air, but I was not one of them,” noted Whitten. “There were no machine guns involved, to my knowledge.”

In the end, Whitten said the accusations that have been reported by Ellis Pittman — many of them are reflected in graphic detail on the Web site, weallbe.blogspot.com — are nothing more than “pure bull.”

“I’ve always heard that when the facts are on your side, you pound on the facts. When the law is on your side, you pound on the law. When neither one is on your side, you pound on a table. He’s pounding on a table,” Whitten said of Ellis Pittman.

On another matter, the Clarksdale attorney voiced concern that James Nichols, a maintenance worker for the Town of Tutwiler, was in Sumner, wearing a police uniform complete with a badge and sidearm.

“He’s not a certified law enforcement officer,” said Ellis Pittman, who noted that Nichols “was in on the chase” and also was permitted inside the area at the Sumner jail where his son was being held.

Tutwiler Acting Police Chief Tommy Harris said Tuesday that Nichols, a former full-time police officer in Tutwiler who as of July 1 was transferred to the town’s maintenance department, had remained an “auxiliary police officer,” available for train derailments and other emergencies at the request of the police chief.

However, Harris noted that as of Monday, in a joint decision made by himself and Tutwiler Mayor Genether Spurlock, “we relieved [Nichols] of all of his duties and he’s no longer associated with the police department.”

Harris said Nichols, who owns his own sidearm and uniform, was contacted last Thursday by K-9 officials from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, who asked that he bring Tutwiler’s “infrared detection machine” to aid in the manhunt at Sumner.

“He’s the only person certified to operate it,” noted Harris. “That machine tells if someone is hiding behind a tree or something.”

Harris declined to say whether Nichols overstepped the bounds of his authority last Thursday. But when asked why he was disassociated from the police department, the acting chief said, “We did it because of this deal and some other matters.”

Brewer confirmed Tuesday that he and some of his employees have been contacted by the FBI as part of that agency’s investigation.

However, as for his department’s role in the Will Pittman manhunt, Brewer, who was in Olive Branch last Thursday attending to a family matter and communicated via cell phone with deputies at the scene, said his own personal investigation into the conduct of lawmen reveals no apparent misdoing.

“As far as what the law did, it looks like normal procedure,” Brewer noted.
Sumner Police Chief Clifton Harris declined to comment Monday on Ellis Pittman’s statements.

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