Jimmie Lee Jackson

Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 1938 – February 26, 1965) was a young, unarmed civil rights protestor who was shot by an Alabama State Trooper in 1965.citation
last=Fleming
first=John
title=The Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson
newspaper = The Anniston Star
pages=
year=
date=6 March 2005
url=http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2005/as-insight-0306-jflemingcol-5c09o1640.htm
accessdate=2008-01-21 ] Jackson's death was among the abuses of African Americans that inspired the Selma to Montgomery marches, an important event in the American Civil Rights movement.

Personal background

Jimmie Lee Jackson was a deacon of the St. James Baptist Church in Marion, Alabama, ordained in the summer of 1964.citation
last=Reed
first=Roy
author-link =
title=Memorial Service Honors Negro Slain in Alabama Rights March
newspaper = New York Times
pages=17
year=1965
date=03-01-1965
url=] Jackson had tried to register without success for four years. Jackson was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who had touched of a campaign against Alabama restrictions on Negro voting and attended meetings several nights per week at Zion's Chapel Methodist Church. This desire to vote, led to his death at the hands of an Alabama State Trooper.

Non-violent protest

On the night of February 18, 1965, around 500 people left Zion United Methodist Church in Marion and attempted a peaceful walk to the Perry County Jail about a half a block away where young Civil Rights worker James Orange was being held.cite book
last=Davis
first=Townsend
coauthors=
title=Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement
publisher=W. W. Norton & Company
date=1998
location=New York
pages=121-123
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S7IYlI9KopkC
doi=
id=
isbn=0393045927 ] The marchers planned to sing hymns and return to the church. Police later stated they believed the crowd was planning a jailbreak.

Police violence

They were met at the Post Office by a line of Marion City police officers, sheriff's deputies and Alabama State Troopers. In the standoff, streetlights were abruptly turned off (some sources say they were shot out by the police) and the police began to beat the protestors. Two United Press International photographers were beaten by the police and their cameras were smashed and NBC News correspondent Richard Valeriani was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. The marchers turned and scattered back towards the church.

Twenty-six-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson, his mother Viola Jackson, and his 82-year-old grandfather, Cager Lee, ran into Mack's Café behind the church, pursued by Alabama State Troopers. Police clubbed Cager Lee to the floor in the kitchen. The police continued to beat the cowering octogenarian Lee and when his daughter Viola attempted to pull the police off, she was also beaten.cite book
last=Kotz
first=Nick
authorlink=Nick Kotz
title=Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America
publisher=Houghton Mifflin
date=2005
location=Boston
pages=275,276
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FgvF5_nPPH8C
doi=
id=
isbn=0618088253 ] When Jimmie Lee attempted to protect his mother, one trooper threw him against a cigarette machine. A second trooper shot Jimmie Lee twice in the abdomen. James Bonard Fowler later admitted to being that trooper. Although shot twice, Jimmie Lee fled the café amid additional blows from police clubs and collapsed in front of the bus station. Jackson made a statement to a lawyer, Oscar Adams of Birmingham in the presence of FBI officials stating he was "clubbed down" by State Troopers after he was shot and had run away from the café.citation
last=Reed
first=Roy
author-link =
title=Wounded Negro Dies in Alabama
newspaper = New York Times
pages=1, 10
year=1965
date=27-02-1965
url=]

Jimmie Lee Jackson died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma, on February 26, 1965. After his death, Sister Michael Anne, and administrator at Good Samaritan, said there were powder burns on Mr. Jackson's abdomen, indicating that he was shot at very close range.

Burial

Jackson was buried in Heard Cemeterey, an old slave burial ground, next to his father. His headstone was financed by the Perry County Civic league and since his burial, his headstone has been vandalized, bearing the marks of at least one shotgun blast.

Criminal prosecution

A grand jury declined to indict Fowler in September 1965, identifying him only by his surname: Fowler.

On 10 May 2007, 42 years after the crime, Fowler was charged with first degree and second degree murder for the death of Jimmie Lee Jacksoncitation
last=
first=
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title=Nation in Brief: Indictment Brought in Civil-Rights-Era Death
newspaper = Washington Post
pages=A08
year=2007
date=May 10, 2007
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902488.html
accessdate=2008-01-28 ] and surrendered to authorities. Fowler's trial is set for the week of Oct 20, 2008. [Citation
last = Phillip
first = Rawls
title = Former Ala. trooper to face trial in 1965 shooting
place =
publisher = Associated Press
year = 2008
date = 10-07-2008
url = http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVPvFEk8J0d9MFcH5FQHblbmeF5wD91R3BG80]

References

External links

* [http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/gallery/gallery15.asp Selma Exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum]