"Justice Denied"

Josef Reuther

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“Justice Denied”

            The article “Justice Denied” by Upfront Magazine authors Dan Barry, Campbell Robertson, and Robbie Brown talks about a series of racially motivated murders. It focuses on several killings that primarily targeted African Americans during the 1960s in the South of the United States. The great majority of these homicides were never solved up to this day. Frank Morris for instance a black merchant in Ferriday, Mississippi who owned a shoe repair shop was in it when two white men burned it down. Morris died 4 days later from his wounds without ever naming or describing the men who burnt the shop. He most likely feared that if he

named the men to the authorities they would seek retribution on his family. His family was never able to figure out who killed Morris as much as they might have sought revenge. Morris’ case was one of many unsolved cases that were racially motivated.

Many families also were too scared or reluctant to come forward with charges many lacked faith in the judicial system even more they feared retaliation from groups like the Klu Klux Klan. However even when the F.B.I recently decided to investigate some of these cases more closely, they often came up with nothing. The main factor leading to this was simply the passage of time between the murder and when it was being investigated. The families of the people who were killed received  no justice. Personally, I think that they should have received the justice that they deserved and should not have been muted out of fear for retaliation. Racism has scarred this country for so long and even does today. Although people don’t kill each other over their race anymore, I do hear the N-word so often it’s unbelievable. Before saying it people barely think about where and under which circumstances the word came about. I think the fact that people use it all over is not fair and just to the African Americans who believe the word is offensive.