Mississippi Goddam Chapter 3: The Autopsy

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The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

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•••

After Billey Joe Johnson Jr. died in 2008, the state of Mississippi outsourced his autopsy. Al Letson and Jonathan Jones travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to interview the doctor who conducted it. Her findings helped lead the grand jury to determine Johnson’s death was an accidental shooting. However, Letson and Jones share another report that raises doubts about her original conclusions.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan. I hope 2022 has been a good year for you. But to be honest, it's been a tough one for us.
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1:03.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is reveal. I'm Owletton.
1:09.0	It's May 7th, 1955 in Belzona, Mississippi. It's a warm summer evening in the Mississippi Delta.
1:18.0	The type of night where fireflies synchronize their light and lead a chorus of wondrous small things that fill the air.
1:26.0	That simple beauty relies attention that is blanketed the area.
1:31.0	The brown-versed board of education ruling has come down, and many white southerners are not happy.
1:36.0	All the people of the South are in favor of segregation. And Supreme Court or no Supreme Court.
1:44.0	We are going to maintain segregated schools down in Dixie.
1:50.0	Despite the overwhelming opposition to equality in the state, many activists put their lives on the line.
1:57.0	Reverend George W. Lee became a successful businessman in Belzona and was a fiery preacher in the pulpit.
2:04.0	He believed black folks deliverance would come from God and getting people to the polls.
2:11.0	That wasn't a small order. Racists tried to stop them from registering to vote by imposing poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation.
2:20.0	But Lee was insuppressible. He passed their tests, paid their taxes, and when that didn't work, he took them to court.
2:29.0	Ultimately, Lee was one of the first black men to register to vote in Humphrey's County since reconstruction.
2:36.0	He founded the local chapter of the NAACP and was determined to get other black people registered.
	...

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