Former Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler was sentenced to six months in jail on second-degree manslaughter charges Nov. 15 after he took a plea deal. It was 45 years ago that he fatally shot civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson at a protest that prompted the historic march in Selma called “Bloody Sunday.”
 Jimmie Lee Jackson |
These actions, along with mounting tensions caused by a determined civil rights movement, pressured lawmakers into passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This legislation, among other things, eliminated discriminatory literacy tests as a prerequisite for voting and established federal oversight of state elections in states with a history of preventing Blacks from voting.
Jimmie Lee Jackson, born in 1938 in Marion, Ala., hoped after graduating high school to start a new life away from the segregated Jim Crow-ruled South. These dreams were shattered when his father, an impoverished farmer and woodcutter, died. After returning home, Jackson became the youngest deacon at St. James Baptist Church in Marion. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would later deliver the eulogy at his funeral, Jackson joined the civil rights movement and became active in voter registration drives.
On Feb. 18, 1965, Jackson joined a group of other civil rights activists in a protest against the jailing of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference official. The demonstration took place at night, which was risky as police could more easily use and get away with state-sanctioned racism and violence.
Police attack protesters
This is exactly what happened. The street lights went out (some eyewitnesses say the police shot them out), and Alabama state troopers, led by the bigoted Col. Al Lingo, began attacking protesters. Some demonstrators, including Jackson’s mother, Viola, his grandfather and Jackson himself, were chased into Mack’s Café, where Viola Jackson was beaten by state troopers. When Jimmie Lee Jackson came to her aid, he was beaten and shot twice in the stomach by Fowler, who to this day claims he responded only in self-defense.
Jackson was sent to the Good Samaritan hospital in Selma. Subsequently, Col. Lingo had him arrested for assaulting a police officer. Jackson did not survive to stand trial, however. He died eight days later from an infection of the gunshot wounds.
In his powerful and impassioned eulogy following Jackson’s death, Dr. King admonished then-Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson over the blatantly racist, state-sanctioned violence against nonviolent and unarmed civil rights activists. This was not the first nor would it be the last time that bigots would use deadly force against brave activists fighting the brutal injustices of Jim Crow and the vicious racism common in the southern United States. King also took the opportunity to speak out against the imperialist and racist war in Vietnam.
After Jackson’s death, Officer Fowler was not even questioned by law enforcement on his use of deadly force. It would not be until 45 years later that he would be charged and sentenced to a short term in jail at age 77.
Partial justice
The Jackson family sees the conviction as only partial justice. They did not get the murder conviction they sought, but they did get some closure.
Many have reacted with outrage. “I don’t know of another civil rights era murder case that resulted in such a light sentence,” said Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. “This man still will have his right to vote,” while “Jimmie Lee Jackson gave his life for the right of blacks and other minorities to vote,” Turner explained. (BlackAmericaWeb.com)
The case had gone cold until it was resurrected in 2007 by District Attorney Michael Jackson, the first elected Black DA in Perry County. Unfortunately, there are still many other cold cases from the civil rights era, with those who fought for the freedom and liberation of Blacks against the brutally racist Jim Crow climate in the South left without justice, and their families without closure.
Even today, racism and police brutality have meant harassment, unfair prison sentences and even death to millions of people of color. Thanks to the sacrifices of martyrs like Jimmie Lee Jackson, we have come a long way in the struggle for the liberation of oppressed communities of color. We cannot forget, however, that we still have a long way to go.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands firmly on the side of Blacks, Latinos, Arab Americans, women, LGBT people and all other oppressed communities and works to unite all of us to fight our oppressors. We will never forget the sacrifices of people who have paid the ultimate price in these struggles, and it is our duty to end the oppression that made them pay this price.
