(Introducing Bryan Case, candidate for the Travis County 167th District Court. We invite all candidates to post diaries and introduce themselves to our readers! - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Formation of a Passion for Justice (Part 1 on Why I am running for 167th District Court)
My commitment to fairness and equal treatment for all our people is rooted in my family's values of legal and social justice. It was during my Junior High days in the piney woods of Rusk, Texas that I first remember taking a strong stand for principle-- when I first personally encountered the ugliness of racism and bigotry of which I had not been aware existed in the small, East Texas town. Seeing racism from afar does not prepare one for the personal and emotional close-up experience. My own budding awareness of right and wrong in the 7th grade led me to slap an "LBJ for the USA" sticker on my school notebook. It had never crossed my mind that this would prompt some of my friends to throw racial slurs my way. Too ridiculous to warrant reply, I thought.
After weeks of laughing at them, one morning waiting for the bell to ring near the end of recess three friends and I were together. One started it, then the next, and the next; the laughing taunt, then the taunt followed by a quick jump and retreat, with me turning toward each in turn. This incident ended with quick dispersal of the taunters upon the hardest blow a skinny sixth-grader could land on a kid's shoulder/chest. It is to this day the only time I have slugged someone with all my strength out of anger. Later, in the 8th grade with the first black kid in our classroom, these same 100 students nominated and elected me class president, and thereafter through the 12th grade. Seems as though my class wanted someone with principle, willing to risk exclusion and friendship in order to get us through the coming tumultuous years. Several Democratic Clubs have heard this little story, thinking it quite quaint, I imagine, but never really understanding its significance.
Now, the rest of it. My father was a pastor in the small community of St. Amant, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the summer of 1955 when I was 3½ years old. Dad's family had all grown up about four miles from the small community of Caseyville, in western Lincoln County, Mississippi, 100 miles south of St. Amant.
(More below the jump.) |
Dad's 32-year-old senior sibling, Nelson Case, for the second time was running for Board of Supervisors (Commissioners Court) against the longstanding precinct Supervisor. Dad and six siblings grew up picking cotton with the black folk around Caseyville, and Nelson as an adult became close friends with 63-year-old Lamar "Ditney" Smith, a successful farmer, landowner, and leader in the black community surrounding Caseyville. In the summer of '55 Ditney was assisting Nelson by registering folks to vote absentee. The Ku Klux Klan was well-organized and active in Brookhaven and some of the eastern precincts. The Klan was very alarmed by this move to register black voters, and leading up to the August primary, rumor had it that both Ditney's and Nelson's lives were threatened.
Nelson Case did not stray our way much, but according to my mother he visited St. Amant twice in our three years there. I recall at least one of these visits. Even a 3½ year-old recognizes status in a large family, and Nelson had almost as much stature as my grandfather. One time Nelson visited because he feared for his life: he had heard of the threats and wanted to take my father's car in order to campaign more safely. The oldest of my 17 Case first-cousins remembers that at some point during this time Nelson was very troubled and would yell at the children whenever they were near windows in the house after dark.
Ditney Smith's ancestors had fought with the United States Colored Infantry out of Natchez, and later in life he, too, was drawn toward this noble, yet dangerous endeavor. Fear did not deter him from his mission. On August 13, 1955, Ditney drove a black couple to the Lincoln County courthouse to deliver their absentee ballots. While walking across the courthouse lawn, a group of white men confronted him. One of those men pulled a .38 and shot Ditney in the side, immediately killing him. Ditney was one of two black Mississippians killed in 1955 for registering blacks to vote. Three men were arrested in the following days and released on bail, but no witnesses would later appear before the Grand Jury, which voiced alarm at this miscarriage of justice. Ditney was buried in a Caseyville cemetery, and Uncle Nelson this time won the election by a comfortable margin. The grand jury returned no true-bills of indictment for this the very public murder of Ditney Smith. Dad moved our family to Texas two summers later, after accepting a job as Chaplain at Rusk State Hospital.
In my elementary school years I began asking Dad why nothing ever happened to the men who killed Ditney Smith: I don't know, son; and, They would not say which one shot him. Many of my best memories in life are the summer visits and Christmas celebrations at Granddad Case's leased home and acreage, which then contained a small dairy that was the main source of income. In my life I have traveled to Mississippi at least 50 times, and I do not remember a time when the sadness of this travesty and aftermath did not linger in the air and in my own mind.
If I were to pick a single incident that has influenced my life and career the most, the murder of Ditney Smith is unquestionably that event. Not simply because justice was left unsatisfied, for we all must learn to cope with unfairness inherent in life itself. The unfairness here, however, condemns not only the victim and the perpetrators, but the entire social structure of the community since the individuals who did not come forward were condemned to a lifetime of the shame that saps the spirit of its fiber. Thus, both the legal and personal failures live on and on, reducing the character of an entire community. Such is the lesson that I learned from the murder of Ditney Smith, and long ago resolved to spend my life and activities, even if small or isolated, to stopping as many links in as many chains of injustice as I could. My career and personal involvements attest to my efforts, perhaps sometimes more meager than I would have liked, to weaken, and indeed sometimes break, the chains of injustice that I have encountered.
The people of Travis County deserve a judge with the experience and judgment to apply the values of justice and fairness to each of our varied population groups. To the fortunate, and to the less so; both inside the courtroom and out. This Judge should have the legal background, and leadership abilities that will serve as a strong foundation when faced with decisions regarding our fundamental principles of fairness, equality and justice. This Judge should have an intimate understanding of and familiarity with the fact that all of our peoples desire and deserve the full measure of principled justice, even as taken for granted by many. As district judge I will work to see that the chains of injustice are breached and that the cornerstones of truth, fairness, justice and equality continue to anchor the foundation of freedom upon which we live.
Bryan Case
Most of the above material is taken from personal and family knowledge. Special thanks to Roberts and Klibanoff for including significant details about this event in their Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Race Beat, Alfred Knopf, Publisher, 2006. |
