Arthur James Hill

Age 27

A Black man who stopped for gas

Villa Rica, Georgia

August 20, 1965

On August 20, 1965, 27-year-old Arthur James Hill and three other people had stopped for gas in Villa Rica, Georgia, west of Atlanta, when one of Hill’s companions became involved in an argument with a white man. As another white man approached, Hill, who was Black, tried to intervene. A gas station employee then started firing a pistol at the group. He hit Hill and one of the people Hill had been traveling with, a 25-year-old woman, who survived. Hill died before he could reach a hospital.

Initial Investigation

According to a 1965 Atlanta Constitution article about the incident, the gas station employee was arrested and jailed without bond. The man was identified as both Buner and Buna Lee Green in articles and other documents.

According to a 2011 Department of Justice memo, the Carrol County Georgian reported in October 1965 that Green had been indicted for manslaughter, as well as assault with intent to murder, for killing Hill and wounding Hill’s companion. The same newspaper later reported that, in a subsequent state trial, two white men testified that someone in Hill’s group had called them names while stopped at a red light. The men said they followed Hill’s group to a gas station, where they argued until the gas station employee intervened. At the trial, the employee reportedly gave an unsworn statement that Hill had refused to leave the property and that he believed Hill had a weapon. Green was acquitted of all charges.

The Department of Justice memo does not state whether there were legal consequences for the other two white men involved.

Till Act Status

In 2008 the FBI opened an investigation into Hill’s death. During the investigation, the FBI found and interviewed the surviving victim of the 1965 shooting that had killed Hill. She said the group had been en route to the hospital because another person in their party had been suffering kidney problems. She said she had not seen the two other white men who were involved since the day of the shooting but did remember seeing the gas station employee in court, according to a DOJ memo.

An FBI agent searched various databases and read old newspaper articles about the incident. The agent also found an indictment and verdict form, as well as the death certificate of a man called Buner Lee Green, who fit the description of the gas station employee. Green died in 1973, which the Department of Justice cited as the reason it couldn’t pursue a prosecution when it closed the case in 2011. The DOJ memo did not state whether the agent tried to track down the two other men who were involved.

Un(re)solved

Begin the full experience

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)