Mississippi Goddam Chapter 5: Star Crossed

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

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•••

Billey Joe Johnson Jr. and Hannah Hollinghead met in their freshman year of high school. Hollinghead says Johnson was her first love, and in many ways, it was a typical teen romance. Friends say they would argue, break up, then get back together again. Some people were far from accepting of their interracial relationship.

On Dec. 8, 2008, they were both dating other people. According to Hollinghead and her mother, Johnson made an unexpected stop at her house, moments before he died of a gunshot wound during a traffic stop on the edge of town.

But it appears that investigators failed to corroborate statements or interview Johnson’s friends and family to get a better idea of what was going on in his life on the day he died. Reveal exposes deep flaws in the investigation and interviews the people closest to Johnson, who were never questioned during the initial investigation.

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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0:48.0	Please visit revealnews.org slash 2023. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
1:01.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is reveal. I'm Al Edson.
1:07.0	It's June 21st, 1948 in Ellisville, Mississippi, and Davis Knight is in love.
1:18.0	He met Juni Lee, Bradley a few years ago. They got married and settled down on a farm in Mississippi.
1:24.0	But on this day, that love is being put to the test. Davis Knight is in court.
1:30.0	A grand jury is inditing him for violating the state's law against miscegenation. That's an antiquated word for an interracial relationship.
1:39.0	There's no recordings of that case, but we had an actor read the indictment.
1:43.0	Davis Knight on the 21st day of June, 1948 in the county in District of Forsair, did.
1:50.0	Being a citizen of the state of Mississippi and a Negro are a malato male person with one eighth or more of Negro blood.
1:58.0	Davis appears to be white, but he's facing charges because his great grandmother was black.
2:04.0	In 1940s, Mississippi, that heritage was enough to indict him.
2:08.0	And being a person who is prohibited by the laws of the state of Mississippi from marrying a white person or a person of the Caucasian race,
2:17.0	did on or about the 18th day of April, 1946, willfully and falloniously and unlawfully married Juni Lee, Bradley, a white female person,
2:30.0	and did willfully, falloniously and unlawfully live with her and cohabit with her as man and wife against the peace and dignity of the state of Mississippi.
2:42.0	Davis was convicted in sentence to five years in parchment prison.
	...

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