Margaret Ann Knott
Age 19
A young Black woman who joined a peaceful protest
Butler, Alabama
September 11, 1971
In the summer of 1971, racial tension was mounting in the southwestern Alabama town of Butler. Members of the local Black community, specifically the Concerned Citizens of Choctaw County, had organized protests and boycotts of schools and white-owned businesses in response to a long history of racist practices, The New York Times reported that year. In a county split evenly between Black and white residents, but where the local government did not employ a single Black person, Black residents wanted greater representation in places of power.
Amid the unrest, 19-year-old Margaret Ann Knott joined a peaceful civil rights march followed by a sit-in demonstration at a Butler intersection. Knott was one of about 20 or 25 people sitting in the street when a white man drove toward the group with his car, the Selma Times-Journal reported. He struck Knott, who died in hospital the same day.
Initial Investigation
The man who killed Knott, 28-year-old Gladden Smith, was charged with murder and jailed. Alabama’s public safety director initially told reporters that Smith “took a run” at the protesters, but the official report by the county sheriff stated Smith “eased through the intersection at a safe rate of speed,” according to reports. A grand jury considered a second-degree manslaughter charge but did not indict Smith, according to media reports.
Decades later, in an interview with the Associated Press, Smith said he had a government job in Butler and was driving home from work when he encountered the sit-in demonstration. Smith said protesters swarmed his car and that he tried to ease through the crowd, which is when he ran over Knott. But the same story quoted another witness who said that Smith had “gunned it” through the crowd. That same 2014 Associated Press article cites witnesses who said protesters were chasing and hitting the car. It goes on to quote Smith as saying, “They were rocking that car trying to turn it over and everything … You get caught in a life-and-death situation and you have to make a decision.” Also interviewed for the article was Knott’s mother, who said she has forgiven Smith. She said, “I don’t hold it against him because I really don’t think he deliberately did it.”
Knott was honored as a civil rights martyr by clergymen and more than 1,000 mourners. They marched through Butler, past Smith’s home, to the intersection where Knott was struck, before traveling together to a small rural church for her funeral. She is remembered in a 2007 play, O, Mary, Don’t You Weep, and through the construction of the Margaret Ann Knott Memorial Bridge in 2017 near her hometown.
Till Act Status
Knott’s case was referred to the Department of Justice for review under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and was included in an annual report to Congress by the U.S. attorney general in 2019, at which time it remained open.
Case Status open
Themes
- Open Cases
- Women
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)