So, now that everyone is sweeping Shirley Sherrod under the rug, I figured I would drag her back out for discussion.
The killing of her father interests me. Much of the press refers to his "murder". Murder is a legal term that requires a verdict from a court. But the grand jury refused to indict.
From Sherrod's speech to the NAACP
It was 45 years ago today that my father's funeral was held. I was a young girl at the age of 17 when my father was murdered by a white man in Baker County. In Baker County, the murder of black people occurred periodically, and in every case the white men who murdered them were never punished. It was no different in my father's case. There were three witnesses to his murder, but the grand jury refused to indict the white man who murdered him.
I actually spent a few hours last night looking for the details of the event. It's safe to say that details are very sparse out there and apparently the records for the case are not going to be available anytime soon.
There doesn't seem to be any dispute as to whether the white farmer killed Hosie Miller (Sherrod's Father). Apparently there were three cows on the white farmer's property that Miller said were his and the white farmer said were his. And there was some conflict that ended up in Miller being shot. Some reports say that he was shot in the back. But I didn't find anything to really substantiate that.
The media assumes that the homicide was a murder, even without a court verdict. The media assumes that the homicide was racially motivated. They media also assumes that the fact that the grand jury dismissed the case was also racially motivated.
I accept that there were many examples where white on black crimes were not prosecuted. But do we know that this is the case with Sherrod's father? Is it fair to assume that all white on black homicides were racially motivated murders? I don't think so. I think that there have to be examples of justifiable homicide.
It seems to me that, figuratively, the media is only watching part of the video where Sherrod's father is concerned. It would seem that before declaring it a "murder", the media should investigate the details of the incident and they should also investigate whether there were examples of prosecutions of white on black crime in county in that time period.
Also during Sherrod's speech to NAACP, she talks about the lynching of a black man, Bobby Hall by the sheriff of Baker county, Claude Screws. It turns out that though Bobby Hall did die in custody, there was no lynching. So we know that Sherrod would tend to exaggerate toward events always being racially motivated. spectator.org
This is really more about the media than Sherrod. She probably knows more about the case and in her mind a court verdict isn't necessary. But the media has an obligation to research the homicide before declaring it a "murder"
oh, and....Nice grub! |
