In the early morning hours of last June 29, Butler Young Jr., a 21-year-old black laborer, was arrested by two white police officers from the town of Byhalia, Miss. (pop. 750), for hit-and-run driving. With the Byhalia police was a black deputy sheriff from adjacent DeSoto County, where the alleged hit-and-run incident had taken place. The sheriff climbed into the back of the Byhalia officers' car along with Young, and the three policemen set off to take their prisoner to jail. Young never made it.
Within an hour, the arresting officers told the...
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