Jo Etha Collier
Age 18
A Black college-bound student who graduated with honors
Drew, Mississippi
May 25, 1971
Jo Etha Collier was a Black student at an integrated high school in Drew, Mississippi — an 18-year-old track star celebrated by classmates for her school spirit. She graduated with honors on May 25, 1971, and headed home with her diploma and class photo in hand. The only daughter among eight children, Collier planned to study physical education at college that fall, The New York Times reported in 1971.
She had stopped by a small grocery store with friends when a car drove past, and a pistol shot rang out. Collier, in her bright yellow graduation dress, crumpled to the ground, according to The New York Times. She died the same night.
Initial Investigation
More than 1,000 people attended a funeral service at Collier’s high school. Her death triggered protests in Drew and a neighboring city. In response, police enforced a strict curfew, according to media reports at the time.
Although Collier was not known to be politically involved, local Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader of the civil and voting rights movement, told reporters Collier’s race was enough of a target. “I believe they had watched this girl, because she was Black and smart,” Hamer told The New York Times in 1971. “This was too much because they don’t want to believe that Black people have the capacity.”
Police soon arrested and charged three young white men for the murder: brothers Wesley and Wayne Parks, both in their 20s, as well as their 19-year-old nephew, Allen Wilkerson. Police did not offer a motive.
With the men in jail, FBI agents arrived in Drew on a presidential order to investigate whether there had been a civil rights violation that would establish federal jurisdiction.
Wesley Parks, accused of firing the fatal shot while out driving with his brother and nephew, was ultimately prosecuted in a state court. At his trial in October 1971, Parks testified he had been drunk and did not remember shooting Collier. According to a legal document associated with the case, testimony during the trial alleged Wesley had flashed a pistol and made “unfriendly remarks” to a group of Black boys earlier in the evening.
Four white and eight Black jurors deliberated for just over an hour before returning a manslaughter verdict. Parks was sentenced to a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The district attorney dropped charges against Wayne Parks and Wilkerson the following spring.
Till Act Status
The Department of Justice, based on a referral, opened a review of Collier’s case under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Her name first appeared on a list of cases being re-examined by the department in 2019.
According to a Department of Justice report made public after FRONTLINE’s publication, this case has been closed.
Case Status open**This case has been closed since FRONTLINE's original publication.
Themes
- Open Cases
- Women
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)