Nathan Johnson Jr.

Age 34

A Black man who drove a Cadillac

Alabaster, Alabama

May 8, 1966

On the evening of May 8, 1966, a white Alabama State Trooper arrested Nathan Johnson Jr., who was Black, for driving under the influence. The trooper, James Bonard Fowler, had recently been cleared in the on-duty shooting death of another Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson. A state grand jury had declined to indict Fowler for killing Jackson during a civil rights protest in Marion, Alabama, the previous year.

According to a 2011 Department of Justice memo about the case, Fowler said he took Johnson to a police station in Alabaster, just south of Birmingham. There, he escorted the 34-year-old to the chief’s office, so that Johnson could make a phone call. Fowler said Johnson was intoxicated and that he started yelling at the phone operator, at which point Fowler tried to take the receiver. A scuffle ensued, and Johnson allegedly hit Fowler with a club, which is when Fowler said he drew his revolver and shot Johnson multiple times.

Initial Investigation

An autopsy performed the day after the shooting found that Johnson had bled out from three gunshot wounds to the torso, according to the 2011 DOJ memo. A toxicological analysis showed that he had a blood alcohol content of 0.3%.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Alabama Department of Public Safety investigated the killing and turned over their findings to the Shelby County Coroner, who concluded Fowler had acted in self-defense and that the homicide was justified.

The FBI opened its own investigation in 1966, during which it reviewed the state investigation but then closed the case again after just over a month.

Till Act Status

Decades passed without movement on the case until, in 2005, Fowler admitted to a journalist from The Anniston Star that he had shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in 1965. In 2007, Fowler was indicted by a grand jury for killing Jackson. In 2010, Fowler pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of Jackson, and was sentenced to six months in prison.

The Jackson case attracted fresh attention to Johnson’s case, and details of Johnson’s death soon emerged from an old law enforcement file, The Anniston Star reported in 2007. The FBI reopened Johnson’s case, based on the media coverage.

During its most recent investigation, the FBI interviewed two eyewitnesses and reviewed reports from the media, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Alabama Department of Public Safety. The two witnesses alleged Fowler had placed a club on a desk in the police chief’s office and that he provoked Johnson into hitting him with it. But the Department of Justice cited “serious credibility concerns regarding these witnesses” and as such decided, “these statements do not constitute sufficiently reliable evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal civil rights violation,” according to the 2011 DOJ memo. The case was closed again in 2011.

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)