William Henry Lee
Age Unknown
A Black man who worked in a factory and had a long commute
Rankin County, Mississippi
February 25, 1965
William Henry Lee lived in Goshen Springs, Mississippi, but worked about an hour’s drive southwest, at the Storkline Factory in Jackson.
Lee was last seen alive late February 24, 1965, leaving the factory in Jackson, according to a Department of Justice memo. Historical weather reports show Lee likely drove into rain and snow that night. He never made it home. Lee’s body was found the next day near railroad tracks in Rankin County, Mississippi, between Goshen Springs and nearby Fannin. He was fully clothed and had a small amount of blood on his lower lip, according to the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. Lee appeared otherwise uninjured. A flashlight lay near his body, identical to one he usually kept in his car.
Initial Investigation
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department handled the initial investigation. A doctor who examined Lee’s body said he did not find signs of violence and that the cause of death was “unknown.” A coroner’s inquest returned a verdict that Lee’s death was natural. His body was embalmed the same day.
Someone discovered Lee’s car the following evening, its battery low and a broken fan belt left lying in the front seat. The sheriff’s department concluded that Lee had died of natural causes while walking home along the railroad tracks after leaving behind his disabled car.
Two civil rights groups, the Council of Federated Organizations and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, reported Lee’s death to federal authorities. The FBI also received a petition from more than 90 Mississippi residents asking for an investigation. After the bureau opened a preliminary investigation, it received a complaint from a group self-identified as the Scott County Movement, which alleged Lee had been killed and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department had not properly investigated the matter.
According to the complaint, the sheriff’s department had moved Lee’s car before any evidence could be gathered. The complaint also said that Lee was embalmed before a proper autopsy could be performed. Moreover, the complaint alleged that a later autopsy had taken place at a Forest, Mississippi, funeral home, and it had determined Lee died by strangulation, likely from inhaling gasoline. The doctor reportedly did not find cuts, bruises or other signs of trauma but said the autopsy was hampered by the fact that Lee had already been embalmed. The complaint also ventured that Lee may have been targeted and killed after being mistaken for a local civil rights worker who owned a similar car.
The FBI interviewed the Rankin County sheriff, who said Lee had once attended a meeting about voter registration and another time had been in contact with a civil rights worker. The sheriff said no autopsy was performed. It’s unclear whether FBI investigators inquired at the Forest funeral home, but the agents concluded there hadn’t been foul play and closed the case.
Till Act Status
The FBI reopened Lee’s case in 2008, under the Department of Justice’s Cold Case Initiative and the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. The bureau reviewed its 1965 investigation and reached out to various Mississippi state agencies for more information. The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office said its records did not include case files or other references to Lee. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation provided a case report from February 25, 1965, that said a coroner’s inquest had determined Lee had died of natural causes. The report also said there was no autopsy and that the body had been sent to a funeral home in Forest, Mississippi.
FBI investigators then contacted two funeral homes in Forest, but neither had burial records for Lee from 1965. The investigators did find Lee’s death certificate, which said that his cause of death was unknown but was probably freezing by exposure.
The Department of Justice closed the case in 2011, concluding there was not enough evidence to disprove the original findings by both local and federal investigators that Lee had died of natural causes.
Case Status closed
Closed 05/05/2011
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)