1959 Murder Of Black Teenager In Mississippi Draws New Attention

The Justice Department recently asked Mississippi prosecutors to consider pressing state charges in a murder of a black teenager by a group of white teenagers nearly 60 years ago.

William Roy Prather was 15 years old in 1959 when white teenagers in Corinth, Mississippi, shot and killed him on Halloween night. One of the perpetrators served less than a year in prison. Others received probation, or no punishment at all.

High school teacher Gennella Graham learned about the case, and her connection to Prather, while taking a course in local history. Here & Now's Lisa Mullins talks with Graham about what happened.

On her reaction to finding out she was related to Prather

"It was very shocking. I was researching for this assignment, and I was checking a couple of different websites, and I went to, I believe it was crmvet.org, because my instructors had told me that to research racial crimes that had taken place during the civil rights movement in my state, in my town … I was on that website, and I typed in, 'Corinth, Mississippi,' and one name popped up on the screen, and I was like ... 'Well, I know of some Prathers, so I'm just going to check with my aunt to see if maybe she knows some information about this person,' because his death or even his life had taken place before I was born, so I knew that my aunt would probably remember him, and that's when she informed me that, yeah, he was indeed our cousin."

"She said when she saw his body in the casket, that even though he was 15 when he was killed, he looked like a 97-year-old, because both his eyes had been shot out."

Gennella Graham

On the details of Prather's murder

"William Roy Prather was just out with a friend of his, and just on Halloween night, like most teenagers, he was just out and about, and this group of eight white boys were out, and I guess it was some type of Halloween prank, you know, just playing around, doing different things.

"I'm not sure of all the details as far as what happened, but as I recall it, they threw something into a crowd, and there was some black kids out, and I believe they said that someone had thrown something back at them — the white boys said that. So they went, and they got a shotgun. They came back, and in this process, William Roy Prather was shot in the head, and he was killed.

"He had a friend that was there with him — Lavelle Powell I believe was his name — and his ear drums were damaged from the shooting.

"My aunt told me — and this is when he was in the mortuary, which is still across the street from my aunt’s childhood home — she remembered going across the street and seeing his body, because his mother allowed the casket to be opened. She said when she saw his body in the casket that even though he was 15 when he was killed, he looked like a 97-year-old, because both his eyes had been shot out."

On whether she would like to speak with the man who murdered Prather

"I have no desire to talk with him. If anything, I would like to talk with my other family members. Even though I'm a distant relative to William Prather, I would really like to talk with them and just see how they're doing and what their feelings are. But as far as the other men, I have no desire to talk with them."

"I feel compelled to not only make [my students] aware of it, but to also explain the importance of research and knowing your history, knowing your town — the good, the bad, all of that."

Gennella Graham, on teaching this history

On whether, as an educator, she teaches her students about the racist, violent history of the area

"I feel compelled to not only make them aware of it, but to also explain the importance of research and knowing your history, knowing your town — the good, the bad, all of that — especially since the story was published on the front page of the newspaper. And I knew that even if my students didn't read it, their parents or their family members would, so I wanted to make them aware of this story.

"I've spoken with all of my classes except for about two about it, but that's still my plan, to speak with them about it, also invite them to use those research engines that I use in my class from last summer so that they can research different articles, not only about this area, but I might even have some students who are not from here, so they would have an opportunity to research different crimes or just a different type of information from other areas."

On why researching history and genealogy and teaching about it is important to her

"It's important to me, because, like I said, it was a shock, and I didn't know anything like that case existed, because we didn't have those kind of conversations in my household, and I just feel as though my students need to be well-rounded, they need to be aware, and if there's any way that I can introduce those type of conversations in my classroom and we have that open and safe forum to talk about it, I want that to take place. And I pray that my students will grow from the process."