For all the civil rights advances in the Deep South, a harsh reality remains in Mississippi courts: white men accused of violent crimes against Negroes are almost never convicted. About the only time such offenders are punished is when they are tried in federal courts under statutes enacted during Reconstruction times. Among those antique laws, several prohibit conspiracy to deprive any citizen of his civil rights, and last week a federal judge in Vicksburg concluded that one of man's most basic civil rights is his right to live. U.S. District Court Judge William Harold Cox, a stubborn segregationist, decided...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
