Murders of The Civil Rights Movement That We Must Not Forget

The civil rights organizer led boycotts of businesses that refused to serve Black people and also held voter registration events, per WGBH. His activism in trying to desegregate spaces and even schools, after applying to University of Mississippi, placed him on the “Mississippi to-kill” list, his wife said.

One night in June of 1963, Evers arrived to his home in Jackson, Miss. unloading a bunch of shirts reading “Jim Crow Must Go,” when a sniper yielded by a KKK member shot him down in the driveway. He died at the hospital.

In January of 1957, Edwards was working the late shift at a grocery store when he was kidnapped on his break by four klansmen, per the Alabama Political Reporter. They drove Edwards to the Tyler-Goodwyn Bridge and forced him to confess to offending a white woman. When he refused, Edwards was held at gunpoint and ordered to jump off of the 40-foot high ledge.

Three months later, fishermen discovered his body from the Alabama River. the klansmen involved in his killing were never prosecuted.

The 13-year-old boy and his friend were killed the same day the KKK detonated a bomb underneath the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Al. Ware was fatally shot while riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bike. Police found later that two white teens were the ones behind the shooting, per AL.com.

Emmett Till was only 14 years old. Visiting his family in Mississippi, the young boy got into a terrible mess when he was accused of making inappropriate advances on a white woman named Carolyn Bryant. We now know she lied to her husband and his brother claiming the boy whistled at her.

As a result, the two men kidnapped Till from his family’s house, tortured him to death and mutilated his body. He was practically unrecognizable when his body was discovered floating down the Tallahatchie River. This egregious act of hate led his mother to host an open casket funeral for the world to see what racist hate did to her baby boy.

In September 1963, right before Youth Sunday service, 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and 11-year-old Denise McNair, were in the basement of 16th Birmingham Baptist Church. While they got ready for the service, the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite under the staircase of the church. The impact of the explosion completely obliterated the women’s restroom in the basement where the four girls were located. Only a fifth girl, the sister of Collins, was discovered still alive in the rubble but suffered permanent damage to her eyes.

Tulsa, Oklahoma was home to a city full of Black-owned business, libraries, churches, shops and schools. However, in 1921, the Black community was attacked after an angry white mob stormed the town in search of Dick Rowland, a Black man arrested for allegedly harming a white woman. It was never clear what the offense was but the rumors of what happened sparked the flame of an angry white mob. They looted the stores, burned down homes with children inside and shot at any civilian with brown skin. The governor declared martial law and sent National Guard Troops to Tulsa to assist in salvaging what was left of “Black Wall Street.”

In 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner volunteered to work with the Freedom Summer campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to register Black people to vote in Mississippi. Despite the large number of African Americans in the state, voting could mean death. The three men were investigating a church burning when they were pulled over while leaving town and abducted by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office and Philadelphia Police Department.

They were each fatally shot and their remains were burned. The FBI led the investigation to find their bodies which weren’t discovered until seven weeks later. The state refused to prosecute the men involved but they all were convicted on federal civil rights violations.

Nat Turner, an educated preacher, was one of the few enslaved people who dared to go against the white man, attempting to claim freedom through an insurrection. That revolt ended up in the slaughter of over 60 white people. Even more innocent Black people were killed because of the fear that the enslaved could gain power or independence.

Turner managed to hide for six weeks. But eventually, the manhunt for Turner succeeded and he was found in a foxhole. He was executed by hanging but historians say he was never buried. Instead, his body was dissected and skinned for purses, his flesh was boiled for grease and his bones were trophied as heirlooms.

The Civil Rights power couple founded a chapter of the NAACP in Brevard County, Fla. The two were teachers but worked to help Black people vote, investigated hate crimes and overall fought for racial equality. They both fought in the Groveland case where four Black men were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman. However, Christmas night, a handmade explosive of dynamite detonated under the couple’s bed.

Harry Moore died on his way to the hospital and his wife, Harriette, died nine days later. Five decades, it was discovered that four KKK members were behind the killing.

On Feb. 21, 1965, civil rights activist Malcolm X was preparing to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. As he stepped to the podium, someone threw a makeshift bomb into the audience, causing the two security guards in front of the stage to leave their posts, per WashPo. As Malcolm tried to calm the crowd, a man charged toward him and shot him in the chest with a shotgun. Two other men shot him in the ankle and legs from the side of the stage.

One gunman, Talmadge Hayer, confessed to the shooting and was convicted. Two other members of the National of Islam were convicted as well, but were recently exonerated. The public speculated about what really happened and who plotted against the civil rights leader. Documentaries about Malcolm X suggest he knew the government was after him because of his “radical” views on how Black people could achieve freedom.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy stepped out onto the balcony of a room at the Lorraine Motel before heading to dinner. King was fatally shot that day by a white man named. James Earl Ray. He was located across the street. The day prior, King was putting together a march on behalf of the Memphis sanitation workers.

Exactly a year before, he had also delivered a haunting speech against the Vietnam War which resulted in a backlash that added even more fuel to the fire. For that reason, many still believe his opposition to war led the government to plot on killing him.

Soul and rock legend Sam Cooke was only 33 when he was shot and killed. According to PEOPLE, he spent his last night at a chic restaurant in L.A. with Elisa Boyer, then headed to his hotel. Boyer said once the two got to the room, she feared Cooke was going rape her. When he went into the bathroom she fled and called the police.

Cooke allegedly assaulted the motel manager, Bertha Franklin, demanding to know where Boyer had gone. Franklin said she grabbed her pistol and shot him three times. However, this story is disputed. One theory suggests Boyer and Franklin conspired to lure Cooke to the hotel and rob him of his money. Another detail revealed that the bullet that killed Cooke didn’t match Franklin’s firearm. Others believe Cooke’s turn from love-song singer to civil rights activist had made him another target for the Feds.

Years after her son was assassinated, in 1974, Alberta Williams King continued her duties at the church playing the organ as usual during a Sunday Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church. However, a 21-year-old white man from Ohio walked into the church and shot her at the piano in front of the whole congregation. “All Christians are my enemies,” police say he proclaimed. King died that day at 70 years old.

The deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, and chair of the Illinois chapter, took the midwest by storm spearheading initiatives to pour back into the Black community, partnering with the Rainbow Coalition and promoting Black people being armed for protection. However, Hampton’s fire against fascism and racism led the FBI to name him a threat. In 1969, they hired a mole to infiltrate the local Panther Party chapter and facilitate in his assassination. The spy drugged Hampton, allowing FBI agents and Chicago PD officers to raid his home. Hampton was shot to death in his sleep.

In Florida, around 1923, a white woman claimed she was assaulted by a Black man and without any evidence, a manhunt was launched for the culprit in question. Eventually, an angry mob of 200 white men stormed the Black community of Rosewood, Florida slaughtering over 30 Black families and burning the town to the ground. The whole town was held accountable for protecting an alleged refugee, subject to the reign of racist violence. Turns out the woman lied about the assault in order to cover up her affair with another white man. The slaughter was for nothing.

During the fight for Black people to be able to register to vote and participate their right to do so under the Constitution, Rev. George Lee was one of the first Black folks to register in his Mississippi county despite the death threats from angry racists. He gave a fiery speech at a Black town-hall empowering the Black community to follow in his footsteps. However, a month later, he was fatally shot in his car while driving. His death was ruled an “accident.”

The corporal was a ripe 27-years-old, expecting a child with his wife when he was senselessly gunned down. The DOJ said he was stationed in Fort Ritchie, Md. and rushed home to Mississippi after hearing his wife was having pregnancy complications, per PBS. Ducksworth fell asleep on the last leg of his trip home prompting the bus driver to try to wake him. The driver then called the police for help but shortly after the officer arrived, tensions rose as he suspected he was part of the ongoing bus boycott. The officer fatally shot Ducksworth in the chest. Later that day, his wife gave birth.

The night of Feb 18, 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson met with a group of activists to join a march in support of a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who was arrested. However, Alabama State Troopers were deployed to break up the demonstration. Jackson’s elderly mother and grandfather had been assaulted by police when Jackson stepped in to protect them. An officer shot him and he died eight days later from his injuries.