Mattie Green
Age 32
A Black wife and mother of six who worked multiple jobs
Ringgold, Georgia
May 19, 1960
Mattie Green lived in a small house with her husband and six children, in their northwestern Georgia hometown of Ringgold. The couple worked multiple jobs and reportedly had plans to expand the house to accommodate their growing family.
As the Greens slept on May 19, 1960, a dynamite explosion erupted beneath the home. Newspaper photos at the time depicted a wreckage. Green’s husband and children survived, but falling debris fatally crushed the 32-year-old mother.
Initial Investigation
The Greens were well-liked in Ringgold, and hundreds of people attended Mattie’s funeral at a small Black church — most standing outside, the Alabama Tribune reported in 1960. Georgia’s then-governor, Ernest Vandiver, offered a $500 reward for information.
The Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation picked up the initial investigation, with help from the FBI. Newspapers at the time said investigators did not publicly establish a motive, although the Catoosa County sheriff was quoted suggesting theories, including that the murder involved a racial angle or perhaps a personal grudge.
A redacted FBI document from 1960 mentioned two similar bombings near Ringgold, “possibly instigated by a radical splinter group of the Dixie Klan.” According to the document, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation suspected the explosion at the Greens’ home was connected.
Till Act Status
As part of the Department of Justice’s Cold Case Initiative, the FBI opened an investigation into the circumstances of Mattie’s death in 2009. The FBI interviewed more than 20 people from Ringgold, including Mattie’s surviving relatives and neighbors.
During the interviews, two deceased Ringgold residents — Lester Waters and W.E. Waters — emerged as potential subjects. Both were rumored to be involved in the killing, and Lester had been active in the KKK and was close to the local sheriff, according to relatives.
Without living subjects to pursue, the Department of Justice decided to close the case in 2012. In a memo, the DOJ wrote that the FBI investigation had “produced few evidentiary leads” and that, even if another subject could be identified, the relevant statute of limitations had expired.
DOJ documentation spells the victim’s last name as “Greene.” It has been corrected here based on contemporaneous news reports.
Case Status closed
Closed 05/04/2012
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed 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)