Joseph Edwards
Age 21
A young Black man who just bought a new Buick
Vidalia, Louisiana
July 12, 1964
Joseph Edwards lived in Natchez, Mississippi, on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River. He had a job across the water, at the Shamrock Motel in Vidalia, Louisiana, and in early July 1964, he bought a white and green Buick that he drove to work. Edwards was last seen on July 12 or 13, and sometime the following week, the Buick was found abandoned near a local bowling alley. Edwards hasn’t been seen since.
Initial Investigation
Local authorities did not investigate the disappearance in 1964. The FBI conducted a limited investigation but did not launch a full-scale effort until about three years later, after an informant in another case suggested Edwards had fallen victim to the Silver Dollar Group, a local splinter of the Ku Klux Klan.
Members of the Silver Dollar Group would reportedly meet at a coffee shop in the motel where Edwards worked as a porter. The FBI investigation concluded Edwards may have become a target for allegedly trying to kiss a white colleague in July 1964. The young woman told her boyfriend, who reported the incident to police in Vidalia. When she declined to press charges, the police chief turned to members of the Silver Dollar Group, according to one witness cited in a Department of Justice memo about the case.
Edwards’ mother reported him missing on July 19, shortly before his Buick was found abandoned. The FBI interviewed a man who said that around that time, at night near the bowling alley, he had witnessed a white Oldsmobile pull over a beige and green Buick. A large white man sat behind the steering wheel of the Oldsmobile, while two or three men gathered around the driver’s door of the Buick, the man told the FBI. He said there was just one man in the Buick.
During its investigation, the FBI learned that the leader of the Silver Dollar Group had bought a white Oldsmobile several weeks before Edwards disappeared. The Vidalia Police Department also used a white Oldsmobile in 1964.
The FBI looked into reports that, while fishing, three men had discovered what appeared to be rotting flesh in the Mississippi River near Vidalia, several months after Edwards disappeared. One of the men said they took a small sample to local police, but it’s unclear what happened to the sample.
After months of interviews with hundreds of witnesses, compiled in a 620-page case file, the FBI was unable to substantiate any theories. Edwards is presumed dead, likely murdered, although his body was never found.
Till Act Status
The FBI revisited Edwards’ disappearance in 2010, under the Department of Justice’s Cold Case Initiative and the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Over a multiyear review, the FBI learned that none of the potential suspects from its original case file were still alive.
Moreover, none of the various theories, rumors or allegations about Edwards’ disappearance were supported by “sufficient credible or corroborated evidence,” according to the Department of Justice, which closed the case in 2013.
Case Status closed
Closed 02/20/2013
Themes
- Closed Cases
- 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)