Mortal Evidence by Cyril H. Wecht

Author:Cyril H. Wecht
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781615920549
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2018-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

We are a humble people, bringing the things we could carry. Peace and harmony we offered. They came into our church and we welcomed them. Then beneath their smiling faces came the anger hidden deep. They watched our homes, harassed our children, and followed behind us in the street. Should we stay and give a fight or give up what's our own? Should we stand up and be recognized or bend beneath the white's bar?

The letter, which was later introduced as evidence in court, became a rallying point for church members, who started training in the martial arts. The church adopted a “Commando Code” for its members to learn and recite: “I am a commando for Christ. I serve in the holiness which guards the saints and God's Valley and God's way of life. If I am captured, I will resist by every means available, I am willing to give my life.”10

But the church and its members were not without blame. On several occasions, church members surrounded the cars of police officers simply trying to do their duties, including officers who were sympathetic to the causes of the church. The officers said they felt that the church members were trying to intimidate them and prevent them from enforcing state laws.

The church suffered tremendously when a television crew that had been reporting the tensions in Miracle Valley stopped along Highway 92, which runs through the center of the community. While videotaping the landscape, the photographer was attacked by five female church members who hit him with hammers and clubs. The entire event was captured on video and replayed over and over on the local television news. It was clear on the tape that the photographer did not instigate the confrontation, nor did he do anything to anger the women.

The next Sunday morning, Rev. Frances Thomas preached that “these niggers are not going to run. Reporters try to make us look like criminals,” according to court records. Clearly, neither the church nor the local authorities were willing to accept responsibility for their shortcomings or wrongdoings.

In September 1981 a series of events rippled through the church and local community that would lay the basis for the tragic events that would occur a year later. It started the night of September 7, when police received calls that shots had been fired from a vehicle cruising the Valley. Deputies and state patrol officers, including state officer Thad Hall, raced into the Valley. The church's armed force moved quickly to seal off all roads going in and out of the Valley. No one was allowed to leave.

Just as the officers arrived, the church's security force stopped a pickup truck. The passenger, a drunken white woman, started using racially offensive language toward the church's security guards. One of the black security guards, obviously offended and aggravated, told the white woman she should step outside the vehicle. That's when Officer Hall immediately intervened. He told the church member to back away, that he would take care of it. Hall later testified that the church member obeyed, and that was the extent of the confrontation.

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