Friends,
Last year, three of my students and I helped get the Mississippi Burning Case reopened.
This year, three different students and I are trying to right one of the most tragic wrongs of the Civil Rights Era: the case of Clyde Kennard. Our website is www.clydekennard.org
Clyde Kennard was an African American man who attempted to quietly integrate the University of Southern Mississippi in the late 1950s. After being denied three times, he was framed for a crime he did not commit and was sentenced to prison.
Isn't that the exact reverse of the American dream? Sent to prison because he wanted to go to college.
Working with the law school at Northwestern University, we have absolute and irrefutable evidence that Clyde Kennard was innocent. Only one man ever testified against him. Under oath, in front of a judge, that same man has admitted he lied.
"Kennard did not ask me to steal, Kennard did not ask me to break-in to the Co-op, Kennard did not ask me to do anything illegal".
The document has been sent to Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. The Governor has the legal power to posthumously pardon Clyde Kennard and clear his name. That is all his family wants. No money. No vengeance. Just clearing the name of a good man. Simple justice.
YOU CAN HELP. Go to our website: www.clydekennard.org
You can send a pre-written e-mail to the Attorney General of Mississippi, calling for Clyde Kennard's name to be cleared. If you live in Illinois, you can ask Gov. Blagojevich to get involved. (Kennard was from Chicago) Again, you just have to cut and paste a letter. It takes less than two minutes to do the right thing.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone you know who might help. Post it on your blog or on any website where people would be interested. Using people power, we can rewrite history!
Thank you,
Barry Bradford
Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self respect springs.
— Joan Didion "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"
Copyright © 2006
Last Modified: February 23, 2006.
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