"Well, we were just riding along there and I don't know how it came up, but somebody said, 'Let's get a n-----,' and the gun was lying in the seat," said J.W. Rich to police in a statement made in August 1964. He was one of the four men in the car. "It was all a joke . . . I saw three n------walking down the side of the road and I picked up the gun and the gun was fired by accident."...and the three young white men just drove away leaving the victim of their "joke".
Johnnie Mae nearly bled to death on the side of the road before a "colored only" ambulance could reach her. Inside the ambulance, which was a hearse with no medical equipment, dispatched by a black funeral home, was the blood soaked white shirt and black-and-white skirt of the victim. A .22-caliber bullet was lodged in her pelvis, fired by a 22-year-old white man she had never met. Later at the hospital as her husband assured her that "everything was going to be alright", Johnnie Mae Chappell died....died because her skin was Black.
Eventually, Rich was arrested and charged with manslaughter since the murder weapon was not found, but all charges were dropped against the other men in the car. Rich served three years in prison
In 2000, Johnnie Mae Chappell was recognized as a civil rights martyr.
(Information for bio obtained from research of newspaper articles dating from 1964 until 2008.)
"Well, we were just riding along there and I don't know how it came up, but somebody said, 'Let's get a n-----,' and the gun was lying in the seat," said J.W. Rich to police in a statement made in August 1964. He was one of the four men in the car. "It was all a joke . . . I saw three n------walking down the side of the road and I picked up the gun and the gun was fired by accident."...and the three young white men just drove away leaving the victim of their "joke".
Johnnie Mae nearly bled to death on the side of the road before a "colored only" ambulance could reach her. Inside the ambulance, which was a hearse with no medical equipment, dispatched by a black funeral home, was the blood soaked white shirt and black-and-white skirt of the victim. A .22-caliber bullet was lodged in her pelvis, fired by a 22-year-old white man she had never met. Later at the hospital as her husband assured her that "everything was going to be alright", Johnnie Mae Chappell died....died because her skin was Black.
Eventually, Rich was arrested and charged with manslaughter since the murder weapon was not found, but all charges were dropped against the other men in the car. Rich served three years in prison
In 2000, Johnnie Mae Chappell was recognized as a civil rights martyr.
(Information for bio obtained from research of newspaper articles dating from 1964 until 2008.)
Inscription
"In loving memory of our mother and brother" "We will understand it bye and bye"