Civil Rights Era Killings Draw New Scrutiny, Scant Prosecutions

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – They are among the signature horrors of the civil rights era.

A Black mother of 10 gunned down by a carful of White men amid racial unrest in Jacksonville in 1964. Two Black Louisiana deputies hunted like prey a year later by Klan members furious the force had crossed the color line. A Black man who so enraged the local sheriff by venturing into the “White section” of the Mississippi jail in 1958 that the sheriff beat him to death with a blackjack.

In each case, justice was whitewashed.

Just one of the four ...