Thurgood Marshall to Eleanor Roosevelt
Thurgood Marshall to Eleanor Roosevelt
28 October 1946 [New York City]
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:
I returned to the office a few days ago and have gone over the correspondence between you and Attorney General Tom Clark, concerning the Grand Jury investigation of the Columbia, Tennessee, case.
In the first place, Mr. Clark takes the position throughout the letter that there is no positive identification of any of the state officials responsible for the destruction of property and other items. I have always been surprised at these statements because the United States Department of Justice never seems to have any hesitancy in admitting its inability to perform its functions in regard to Negroes' rights. The F.B.I. has one of the finest records of any investigating organization that we know of. They have been able to ferret out spies and other espionage agents, saboteurs, well-known gangsters such as Dillinger, etc., and I know of no instance where they have been unable to get positive identification of criminals or to build up cases where there has been a violation of federal law except where the victims are Negroes. A huge National Guard Unit was present on the scene when this property was destroyed. There were also a tremendous number of Highway Patrolmen. There were large numbers of white former mob members standing around, and now the Department of Justice says they cannot get a single person to identify at least one person guilty of what can only be termed as "wholesale destruction of people's property".
Either the Department of Justice, including the F.B.I., fell down on the job of investigating the case or they deliberately closed their eyes. However, I would not be completely frank unless I admitted that I did not expect a whole-hearted attempt by the Department of Justice to bring about any convictions of any state officers in Senator McKellar's home state.3 I am always aware of at least one other very important case where a sheriff killed at least one Negro without cause and the Department of Justice found itself unable to prosecute because it was, I imagine, too close to Boss Crump's territory. This was, of course, before Attorney General Clark's term of office.
As to the Grand Jury investigation itself, there are several questions which Attorney General Clark has ignored, one of which is that the Negro witnesses who were the victims were placed before the Grand Jury without any consultation whatsoever with any lawyer of the United States Department of Justice. In all of my years of practice, I have never heard of a prosecuting attorney presenting a complaining witness, or witnesses, to a Grand Jury without first talking with him. It has also never been satisfactorily explained to me why it was necessary to hear all of the state officials accused of committing the crimes before hearing from the complaining witnesses. It has never been satisfactorily explained to me why the Negro complaining witnesses before the Grand Jury were required to stand around in the hall waiting day after day to be called in. It likewise has never been satisfactorily explained to me why the Federal Government permitted one of its witnesses, while waiting to testify before the Grand Jury, to be carried away by state officers to be questioned for a long time and otherwise threatened. It is also an anomaly to consider the all-white jury investigating an occurrence between white and colored people where the whole question was as to whether the Negro or the white group was responsible.
Last, but not least, it has never been satisfactorily explained to me why the Attorney General, while conversant with the conditions in Nashville, and especially in view of the fact that the United States District Attorney was a resident of Columbia, Tennessee, who had already issued a statement that no federal rights had been violated, did not proceed by the filing of an information rather than by having a Grand Jury investigation.4 I do not think there is any doubt that the Grand Jury investigation turned out to be an investigation not of a violation of the civil rights of Negroes, but an investigation of organizations and other matters foreign to the subject.5
As to the Grand Jury report, I think we can gather from the admissions of Mr. Bomar at the Columbia trials that there can be no question that federal civil rights were violated.6 If the Department of Justice would only go after Mr. Bomar as they should, I have no doubt, after observing him at the earlier portions of the Columbia trial, that he would "tell it all".
Sincerely yours,
TLS AERP, FDRL
"I communicated the contents of your letter about the Columbia, Tennessee case to Mr. Thurgood Marshall of the N.A.A.C.P.," wrote ER in her final letter to Tom Clark on the Columbia case. "Enclosed is a memo of part of his reply and I am sending it to you so you will know how he feels." Clark once again wrote ER to assure her that he and his department did everything within their power to uncover and prosecute any civil rights violations in Columbia.7
ER then forwarded a copy of this letter to Thurgood Marshall.8