1957 murder by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
Willie Edwards
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Born
| Willie Edwards Jr.
November 13, 1932
(
1932-11-13
)
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Died
| January 23, 1957
(1957-01-23)
(aged 24)
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Cause of death
| Racially motivated murder by Ku Klux Klan members
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Willie Edwards Jr.
(November 13, 1932 – January 23, 1957) was a 24-year-old black American, husband and father, who was murdered by members of the
Alabama
Ku Klux Klan
.
[1]
He is buried at New Pleasant Valley Cemetery in
Letohatchee, Alabama
.
Murder
[
edit
]
On the night of January 22, 1957, a small group of Klansmen gathered armed with pistols and a rifle. They got into a car to search for Willie Edwards, a black African-American, who had recently been hired as a driver for
Winn-Dixie
whom they suspected was sleeping with a white woman. Willie had left work but an hour later received a call from his supervisor asking to return as one of the other workers had called in sick. Edwards left for work on the afternoon of January 23, never to return home. It is suspected he was abducted and beaten by the Klansmen as they drove him around Montgomery. While stopped at the Tyler-Goodwin Bridge, along the
Alabama River
near Montgomery, they pointed a gun at Edwards commanding him to leap from the height. He fell 125 feet (38.1 m) to his death. Three months passed before his body was discovered washed up on the shores of the river.
[2]
Officials stated that
decomposition
made it impossible to determine the cause of his death.
Case reopened
[
edit
]
In 1976, then State
Attorney General
Bill Baxley
re-opened the Edwards case. Four people were arrested and charged with Edwards's murder: Sonny Kyle Livingston Jr. (38), Henry Alexander (46), James York (73), and Raymond Britt Jr. Britt broke the long silence with his
affidavit
in exchange for immunity dated February 20, 1976. In the statement to Attorney General Bill Baxley, Britt described how on the night of January 23, 1957, he along with three other men beat and forced Edwards to jump off the
Tyler-Goodwin Bridge
into the
Alabama River
. Alabama Judge
Frank Embry
, however, dismissed the charges, in spite of Britt's sworn testimony, because no cause of death was ever established. He concluded that "merely forcing a person to jump from a bridge does not naturally and probably lead to the death of such person."
[3]
In 1997, Edwards's daughter, Malinda, requested the District Attorney, Ellen Brooks, to re-investigate her father's death. The District Attorney agreed and began working with the new medical examiner, Dr. James Lauridson. It was determined that Edwards's death was caused by a forced jump into the
Alabama River
in 1957. Therefore, Edwards's cause of death was changed from unknown to homicide. In 1999, the District Attorney presented the new case before a
Montgomery County
Grand Jury, which subsequently affirmed that Edwards's death was indeed caused by the KKK, but declined to indict anyone specifically of the crime.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Justice Still Absent in Bridge Death
, Major W. Cox, Montgomery Advertiser, March 2 1999
(archived)
- Suspects Bound In 1957 Slaying
, Montgomery Advertiser, February 27, 1976
- COLD CASE FILES: Episode 34
, The History Channel, December 23 2004
[
dead link
]
- A Changing South Revisits Its Unsolved Racial Killings
, Emily Yellin, New York Times, November 8 1999
(archived)
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Before 1900
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1900?1940
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After 1940
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Multiple victims
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(
Joseph Smith
,
Hyrum Smith
) (1844)
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(1858)
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(1863)
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(1864)
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(1866)
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(1898)
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(1899)
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(1905)
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(1906)
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(1908)
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(1910)
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(1911)
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(1912)
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(1916)
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(1917)
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(1918)
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(1919)
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(1919)
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(1919)
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(1919)
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(1920)
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(1920)
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(1921)
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(1922)
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(1923)
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and
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(1961)
- Freedom Summer Murders
(
James Chaney
,
Andrew Goodman
,
Michael Schwerner
) (1964)
- Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore
(1964)
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