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 (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. 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 The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka. The river flows west to Selma, then southwest until, about from Mobile, it un ...

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 In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

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 district a ...

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 statemen ...

(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 Judge

Frank Embry Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curre ...

, 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

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