Willie Edwards Jr. (November 13, 1932 – January 23, 1957) was a 24-year-old
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, husband and father, who was murdered by members of the
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
Ku Klux Klan. He is buried at New Pleasant Valley Cemetery in
Letohatchee, Alabama
Letohatchee is an unincorporated community in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States. It has a very small population and four businesses. The community is part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In 1900 and 1917, whites committed ...
.
Murder
On the night of January 22, 1957, a small group of Klansmen gathered, armed with pistols and a rifle. They got into a car to look for Willie Edwards, an African American, who had recently been hired as a driver for
Winn-Dixie. They thought that he was sleeping with a white woman. Willie had come home from work and an hour later got a call from his boss asking to come back in because one of the other workers had called in sick. Edwards left to go to work on the afternoon of January 23, never to return home. It is thought he was abducted and beaten by the Klansmen as they drove him around Montgomery. Then they stopped at the Tyler-Goodwin Bridge, along the
Alabama River near Montgomery, and pointed a gun at Edwards, before commanding him to jump off the bridge. He fell 125 feet (38.1 m) to his death. Three months passed before his body was discovered washed up on the shores of the river. Officials stated that
decomposition
Decomposition or rot is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is e ...
made it impossible to determine the cause of his death.
Case reopened
In 1976, then State
Attorney General Bill Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama.
In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa. Having previously served as distric ...
re-opened the Edwards case.
Four people were arrested and charged with Edwards's murder: Sonny Kyle Livingston Jr. (38), Henry Alexander (46), James York (73), and Raymond Britt Jr. Britt broke the long silence with his
affidavit
An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...
(in exchange for immunity), dated February 20, 1976. In the statement to Attorney General Bill Baxley, Britt described how on the night of January 23, 1957, he along with three other men beat and forced Edwards to jump off the
Tyler-Goodwin Bridge into the
Alabama River. Alabama Judge
Frank Embry, however, dismissed the charges, even with Britt's sworn testimony, because no cause of death was ever established. He concluded that "merely forcing a person to jump from a bridge does not naturally and probably lead to the death of such person."
In 1997, Edwards's daughter, Malinda, requested the District Attorney, Ellen Brooks, to re-investigate her father's death. The District Attorney agreed and began working with the new medical examiner, Dr. James Lauridson. It was found that Edwards's death was caused by a forced jump into the
Alabama River in 1957. Therefore, Edwards's cause of death was changed from unknown to homicide. In 1999, the District Attorney presented the new case before a
Montgomery County Grand Jury, which subsequently affirmed that Edwards's death was indeed caused by the KKK, but declined to indict anyone specifically of the crime.
Notes
References
''Justice Still Absent in Bridge Death'', Major W. Cox, Montgomery Advertiser, March 2 1999(archived)
*''Suspects Bound In 1957 Slaying'', Montgomery Advertiser, February 27, 1976
''COLD CASE FILES: Episode 34'', The History Channel, December 23 2004(archived)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Willie
1932 births
1957 deaths
1957 murders in the United States
Deaths by person in Alabama
People from Lowndes County, Alabama
Ku Klux Klan crimes in Alabama
People murdered in Alabama
Racially motivated violence against African Americans
Murdered African-American people
January 1957 events in the United States
1957 in Alabama