John Thomas
Age 38
A Black campaigner for a Black mayoral candidate
West Point, Mississippi
August 15, 1970
John Thomas was an activist and antipoverty worker in Clay County, Mississippi, where he joined the historic campaign of a Black mayoral candidate for the city of West Point in 1970.
During the campaign, Thomas, who was Black, was known to drive a truck through town blasting the gospel tune “When Will We Get Paid for the Work We’ve Done?” His candidate, John Buffington, advanced to a runoff election that summer. Three days before the runoff, on August 15, 1970, Thomas was shot and killed while sitting in his truck at a West Point grocery store.
At least two people said they saw Seth “Sonny” P. Stanley, a white factory worker, shoot Thomas, according to a Department of Justice memo about the killing. According to a local media report, the owner of the grocery store ran out and asked, “What the hell happened?” to which Stanley replied that Thomas had “cussed” him. But Thomas’ father, who had been in the truck with his son, said he had heard no argument between the two before Stanley began shooting, according to the article.
Initial Investigation
Despite eyewitnesses to the incident, it was two days before Stanley was charged with Thomas’ murder. The local Black community, angered by how authorities were handling the case, rallied and called a boycott of white businesses that lasted for several months.
More than a year passed before Stanley stood trial, which took place over a single day in October 1971. Stanley testified he had shot Thomas in self-defense because Thomas had reached for a firearm. Law enforcement authorities did not find a weapon in Thomas’ truck, according to the DOJ memo. An all-white jury deliberated for about two hours before acquitting Stanley.
Till Act Status
The DOJ reviewed Thomas’ case but found that Stanley was dead and therefore could not be prosecuted.
If Stanley were still alive, the relevant statute of limitations for a federal prosecution had run out, and the double jeopardy clause would have prevented the state from prosecuting Stanley a second time, according to the DOJ memo. Stanley was the only suspect.
“Evidence that Thomas was unarmed when he was shot, coupled with the fact that he was an African American who took on an active political role in a mayoral campaign, might suggest that the killing was not done in self-defense and was, instead, a racially motivated murder,” the DOJ concluded. “Nonetheless, this matter does not constitute a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes.”
The DOJ closed the case on April 17, 2019.
Case Status closed
Closed 04/17/2019
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- 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)