Booker T. Mixon
Age 35
A Black husband, father of two, veteran and truck driver
Clarksdale, Mississippi
October 12, 1959
Booker T. Mixon was 35, and described as sociable and fun-loving, was born in the small Mississippi city of Itta Bena. He served in the military then moved with his wife to Chicago, where the couple had two daughters. The family eventually returned to Mississippi, and Mixon, who was Black, found work as a truck driver, although he switched employers in 1959, according to media reports cited by a Department of Justice memo. Soon after, on October 12, 1959, Mixon was discovered in a ditch, injured and unconscious, near Crenshaw, Mississippi, more than an hour’s drive from his home. He remained in a coma for 11 days before dying in a hospital.
Initial Investigation
The coroner’s office ruled that Mixon had died from a hit-and-run accident, according to the Department of Justice memo, but Mixon’s widow told Jet magazine she believed his body had been mutilated. Reports also circulated that Mixon had been nude and that his injuries suggested he was dragged behind a vehicle. “The black cloud of suspicion and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the 35-year-old war veteran have started whisperings of a lynching,” the Chicago Defender reported in 1959.
Mixon’s family hired an attorney, who called on Mississippi’s then-governor for an investigation. The attorney also asked for an autopsy. Neither request was granted.
Till Act Status
The FBI opened a review of Mixon’s death in 2008, involving multiple interviews with Mixon’s surviving relatives, as well as with community and law enforcement members who might have known about his death. Family members said they suspected Mixon had been killed in retaliation for switching employers. They told the FBI that Mixon’s mother had examined his body and that she said he had been castrated.
At least one person cited a rumor that Mixon’s former employer had gathered a group of men to get Mixon drunk, and that they had taken him to the country, where Mixon was dragged behind a truck. Attempts to identify and track down Mixon’s former employers ultimately failed.
The FBI did obtain a copy of Mixon’s death certificate, which showed he had died at Coahoma County Hospital on October 23, 1959. The hospital was later acquired by Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, which routinely destroys medical records more than 15 years old. The doctor believed to have been in charge of Mixon’s care had since died.
Online searches and record requests turned up several historical newspaper articles about the death; however, the FBI said it was not able to find further records from state and law enforcement agencies, including Mississippi’s Department of Public Safety and the attorney general’s office.
Without witnesses or suspects, the Department of Justice closed its review in 2012. Even if the FBI had been able to identify living suspects, the DOJ concluded there was not enough evidence to prove Mixon’s death had violated federal criminal civil rights laws in 1959. Moreover, the DOJ memo stated, the relevant statute of limitations had long expired.
Case Status closed
Closed 08/13/2012
Themes
- Closed Cases
- Men
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)