Dr. Boyce Watkins: KKK Rally at Ole Miss University

By Dr. Boyce Watkins 

I was intrigued by recent reports that the Ku Klux Klan had a rally on the Ole Miss Campus recently. It might surprise you to know that I am essentially unconcerned by their presence on campus. Don’t get me wrong, Klansmen are incredibly ignorant. Also, we cannot deny their historical reign of terror over people of color in America. But I can also give you a list of reasons that we should stop paying attention to the KKK.

1) They thrive off of attention: The KKK has very little power. They don’t do very much anymore, and even in this rally, it appears that there were only a few members present. The truth is that the klan only has power because we give it attention. They are like a grease fire: The more water you put on it, the more it grows. But if you starve the fire of oxygen, it eventually dies out. The klan must be starved of attention, and then they will go away. They only remain relevant because we want them to be.

 

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Ander Cooper 360 Digs into the Heather Ellis Case

Editor’s Note: Watch Randi Kaye’s full report tonight on Anderson Cooper 360 at 10pm ET.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Is it a classic case of “he said, she said,” or is it a brutal case of racism? Whatever it is, it may land a Missouri woman, a preacher’s daughter who has never been in trouble with the law before, in jail.

It all apparently started at a Walmart store in Kennett, Missouri where according to police, customer Heather Ellis had cut in line to pay for her items. What followed is at the heart of a court case that may send Heather Ellis to jail for as many as 15 years!

Let me first say Ms. Ellis has pleaded not guilty. But here’s how police tell it: officers say they were called to the store after Ellis caused a “disturbance” at the cash register by “yelling and cursing.” Officers say when they tried to get her to leave the store, she turned and yelled at them, “I ain’t going nowhere until I get my (expletive) change back” but that even after she got her change, she continued to be “belligerent.” The lead officer says they tried to get her to remain calm and leave in a peaceful manner and told her they’d arrest her if she refused. That is when the lead officer says Ellis “issued a threat to assault” and said if the officer put their hands on her “she was going to beat my (expletive).” Well, it turned ugly according to police, who say she became “combative and began fighting.” The officers say Ellis “continued to fight, yell and curse” and was “completely out of control.” They say she “resisted arrest” and “stiffened her body” when they tried to put her in the police car. Read the full police report here.

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Your Black World Headlines: 11/10/2008

New Front Opens In DR Congo, Increasing Fears Of Wider Conflict

Search For Survivors In Haiti School Collapse Shrinking Hopes

Colorado Defeats Ward Connerly & Affirmative Action Ban

Another Black Man Attacked For Supporting Obama?

Florida School Keeps KKK Founder’s Name

Black Children: Nation’s Most Obese

Racism At Prop 8 Protests

Your Black World Headlines: 09/26/2008

Unemployment Rate No. 1 Concern For African Americans

Cynthia McKinney Hopes To Debate Obama If McCain Wants To “Bow Out”

African American Leaders War Against Tobacco Industries

Hypertension Among Blacks Reaches Epidemic Proportions

Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old Red Granite Head

South Georgia Residents Brace For KKK Rally At Harvest Festival

Busta Rhymes Briefly Detained at UK Airport For U.S. Convictions

Hancock Star Will Smith To Star In ‘I Am Legend’ Prequel

Your Black Life: Reputed Klansman Has Sentence Overturned

A federal appeals court overturned the kidnapping conviction of a reputed Klansman in connection with the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in Mississippi.

James Ford Seale, a former sheriff’s deputy, was convicted in June 2007 of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping in the disappearances of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit Court Appeals sided with Seale’s claim that he should have never been tried in connection with the teens’ deaths because a five-year statute of limitations on kidnapping-related offenses had expired.

“The more than 40-year delay clearly exceeded the limitations period,” Judge Harold DeVoss wrote in the panel’s ruling. “While we are mindful of the seriousness of the crimes at issue, we cannot abdicate our duty to faithfully apply a valid limitations period.”

The ruling brought a surprise turn to a case that the FBI once trumpeted as an example of its efforts to close cold cases from the civil rights era.

“Today’s indictment is one example of the FBI’s strong and ongoing commitment to reexamining and investigating unsolved civil rights era murders and other crimes,” FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said after Seale’s indictment was announced in January 2007. “Under our Cold Case Initiative, we will continue to identify and pursue these cases of racially motivated violence to ensure justice is served wherever possible.”

Seale was not tried for murder, but prosecutors alleged he and fellow Klansmen conspired to abduct, beat and murder Dee and Moore in May 1964. An indictment accused the Seale and his cohorts of picking up the two men hitchhiking and driving them into the Homochito National Forest in Franklin County, Mississippi, where the teenagers were beaten and interrogated at gunpoint…

Continued