James Brazier
Age 31
A Black husband and father who worked to buy two new cars
Dawson, Georgia
April 20, 1958
James Brazier and his wife, Hattie, lived with their four children in a small home in southwest Georgia. The couple, who were Black, worked multiple jobs and together earned more money than the average local white family, including members of the police force, according to research by Emory University students.
The Braziers’ relative wealth, particularly their purchase of two new cars, aggravated at least one local police officer, according to Hattie. In a sworn statement to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, she alleged that in late 1957, Dawson Police Officer Weyman Burchle Cherry had stopped her husband and charged him with driving under the influence and speeding. She testified that Cherry had beaten James Brazier and, using a racial epithet, complained that Brazier could afford new cars while “we can’t hardly live,” and said, “I’ll get you yet.”
A few months later, on April 20, 1958, James drove past the scene of his own father’s arrest in Dawson, Georgia. According to police, James stopped and interfered. James was subsequently arrested at his home by Dawson police officers Cherry and Randolph McDonald. Cherry beat James on the head with a club, claiming self-defense, according to a Department of Justice memo about the case.
The officers took Brazier to the Terrell County Jail, where a doctor examined his injuries and recommended he be placed in a private cell and woken up every two hours, according to the memo. The memo says Brazier’s condition worsened overnight and that he was unable to answer a judge’s questions the following day. James Brazier died in a hospital on April 25, 1958. An autopsy showed he had “cerebral necrosis” from head trauma.
Initial Investigation
Before Brazier died, his father filed a complaint with the FBI, which opened a case. One month into the investigation, Cherry shot and killed another local Black man, Willie Countryman, resulting in an additional FBI investigation.
In August 1958, the Department of Justice presented a federal grand jury with criminal civil rights charges relating to Brazier’s and Countryman’s cases, as well as three other incidents. Cherry faced charges for fatally beating Brazier and fatally shooting Countryman, in addition to two unrelated violent incidents in which the victims survived. McDonald faced charges in Brazier’s case, as well as in another non-fatal beating. For all five cases, the grand jury declined to return indictments.
In the years that followed Brazier’s death, his widow prepared and filed a federal civil lawsuit against the officers, alleging wrongful death and seeking damages. Before the trial, a key witness who had been in jail with Brazier was found dead under suspicious circumstances. A jury ruled against Hattie Brazier’s suit.
Till Act Status
In 2008 the FBI opened a review of the case, retrieving its old case file, interviewing law enforcement officials and searching Georgia death records. Those records revealed that both Cherry and McDonald were dead. Without any living subjects to prosecute, the Department of Justice closed the case in April 2009.
Case Status closed
Closed 04/06/2009
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed Cases
- Deaths Involving Law Enforcement
- Men
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)