James Powell
Age 15
A Black teen attending summer school
New York, New York
July 16, 1964
In the summer of 1964, James Powell, a Black 15-year-old, was attending summer school classes at Robert Wagner Junior High School in New York City. According to both a Department of Justice memo and news reports from the time, on the morning of July 16, many of the summer school students were gathered outside the school while a superintendent for nearby buildings was watering plants.
Whether intentionally or not, the superintendent reportedly sprayed some of the students with water. At that point, many students reportedly began to throw bottles and garbage can lids at the superintendent, and he took cover inside one of the buildings. According to the DOJ memo, Powell approached the building carrying a knife, and by many witness accounts, stated that he planned to harm the superintendent.
It was at that point Thomas Gilligan, a white off-duty New York Police Department lieutenant who was at a nearby repair shop, approached Powell and the building the superintendent had entered. While there were dozens of witnesses, reports of what happened next vary. But it is undisputed that Gilligan fired three times and killed Powell.
Initial Investigation
The New York Police Department and the Office of the District Attorney of New York County (DAO) started an investigation immediately after the shooting. According to the DOJ memo, there were conflicting accounts of what happened leading up to the shooting. Gilligan contended he verbally identified himself to Powell as a police officer and told Powell to drop the knife, but that Powell came at him with the knife, causing an abrasion Gilligan’s right arm.
Gilligan said he fired one warning shot then two more shots only after Powell continued to lunge at him. Gilligan said he fired in self-defense. Some witnesses corroborated Gilligan’s version, as did the result of the medical examination. A number of witnesses, however, stated that Gilligan never identified himself as a police officer and that he shot Powell in the back after the victim was already on the ground.
The DAO presented evidence to a state grand jury over 15 sessions. After hearing testimony from 45 witnesses, the grand jury, which included two Black jurors, decided not to indict Gilligan. The police department’s civil complaint review board also cleared Gilligan of wrongdoing.
Powell’s killing sparked protests in Harlem and Brooklyn that lasted six nights and prompted the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to undertake its own investigation. Three attorneys and four law students interviewed 20 witnesses, five of whom had not been interviewed by the DAO. CORE concluded that Gilligan, a highly trained officer who previously had been commended for disarming adult offenders, shot Powell needlessly.
Till Act Status
The FBI reopened the case in February 2009. While records show that the New York Division of the FBI opened a case in July 1964 that referenced Gilligan, the file was destroyed in October 1978 for unknown reasons. On February 10, 2010, the FBI traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to view relevant CORE documents and found nine documents relevant to Powell’s death.
According to the Department of Justice memo, Gilligan was still alive at the time of the investigation, and the FBI went to his home on November 21, 2011, to question him. The memo, however, provides no further details of the meeting.
The case was closed on February 9, 2012. The DOJ found “insufficient evidence in this matter to prove a federal criminal civil rights violation beyond a reasonable doubt.” The memo also cited a lack of evidence that Gilligan “acted willfully, that is, with a bad purpose to violate the law. … Certainly, it may be argued that [Gilligan] used poor judgment in firing at Powell, given Powell’s age and the size discrepancy between them. Nonetheless, mistake, fear, misperception, or even poor judgment, does not constitute willful conduct prosecutable under the statute.”
Case Status closed
Closed 02/09/2012
Themes
- Children
- Closed Cases
- Closed with Living Subject
- Deaths Involving Law Enforcement
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)