Finally we were sent to our room, and we had forgotten to request the VIP suites but whatever, they were all taken anyway, so we had to make do in a tiny little room, which I have to say, are NOT as nice as the labor and delivery rooms. NO flat screen.
DAVIES: And, of course, the students who did this research, they couldn't just rely on the internet. They traveled to these communities and tracked down relatives. The case that we just heard about in the introduction of John Earl Reese, shot to death in this little town in East Texas, what did your researchers find out about that case?
Ala Little Melissa Toplessl
BURNHAM: Yes. In that case, unlike most of the cases in our archive, there was, in fact, a trial. And there was, in fact, the legal proceeding that resulted in his conviction. And he was sentenced to a sentence that was ultimately suspended. So he spent very little, if any, time in jail for that murder.
BURNHAM: Let me tell you a little bit about the case of Captain Butler. Alabama, 1940s, right outside of Birmingham - Captain Butler was a coal miner. And he was a union organizer. And he was - fell into the purview of the owners of the mine, who despised the union. And so, you know, one thing led to another. And he was shot and killed by two security guards for the mining company. This was in the 1940s. Three thousand miners staged a wildcat strike to protest the murder of Captain Butler. These were white miners and Black miners who just left the mines en masse to protest that murder. So there was resistance that is - you know, again, is buried in these files, is not well-known. We concentrate so much, Dave, on the 1954, 1967 civil rights movement that has been so well-documented. But the forebear of that movement, the processes, resistance processes, that led to the activity in the 1950s and 1960s really starts in the 1930s and 1940s. And these files are revelatory in what they show about the nature, robust nature, and the continuity of Black resistance over these years.
DAVIES: You know, there was the case that we began our conversation with of John Earl Reese, this young man who was shot in a little town in East Texas when some two white guys who were angry about a Black school being built had fired randomly into this cafe. And the researcher for your project made some effort to bring people together. What happened in that case? 2ff7e9595c
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