thank you very much evan perez. and outfront now, derek johnson, the president of the mississippi state naacp. derek, thank you for being with me tonight. you just heard the details of otis bird s death, we re now reporting we believe that his name is otis bird. he was found a quarter mile from his home in the woods hanging with bedsheets around his neck as you just heard the sheriff say. does this sound to you like a hate crime? well anytime you find an african-american hung from a tree in the woods, it has the specter of a hate crime. we are proceeding cautiously with our judgment. we are hoping that federal and local investigators do a thorough investigation and if it is in fact found to be a crime, we would like for them to pursue this in a matter in which if the perpetrators committed this crime because of racial hate that they be charged as such. sheriff lucas, the local sheriff of claiborne county as the
president of the naacp, i m sure he ll do a thorough investigation and we ll be very concerned with the outcome. we have been pleased in the recent past of the local fbi agents who work really hard to bring the perpetrators of the james craig anderson murder to trial and the judge sentenced those individuals with a racial hate crime. so in the state of mississippi, in claiborne county we want to make sure it was not a racial hate crime. at this point, we are confident in the individuals who are doing the investigation. but we are standing by waiting to hear the outcome of the investigation. well of course as you say, when anyone hears the circumstance you hear about a black man hanging from a tree the images given the historical past you know, the potential here is pretty horrifying. what we understand and you just heard evan perez reporting this according to police records, boyd was convicted in 1980 for the murder. that murder happened to be the murder of a white woman.
could this be retaliation? well it could be. you can name it retaliation, you can name it anything. but if the purpose of the murder was based on someone killing mr. bird because of his race that s a racial hate crime. and we want to make sure that if in fact that was the case individuals are fully prosecuted. the naacp, we was established as an organization to advocate for anti-lynching. we cannot stand by in 2015 and watch a lynching if in fact that s what happened and be silent. all right, derrick johnson, thank you very much. and i want to bring in now, tom fuentes, the former fbi assistant director. tom, you know derrick just using the word there, which i had mentioned, the word lynching. that s the word that comes to mind when you first hear about an african-american man hanging from a tree by bedsheets. we do not know in this case if this was a racial hate crime, if
growing in mississippi. and we in mississippi do have a voice. what are the chances of you getting what are the chances, betty, of you getting a vote in the workplace? i don t think it s a chance where nissan is concerned. but with us as a union, that want to unionize, i believe it s a great opportunity for us. and we will get there. okay. because we will never stop. derrick, what is the naacp doing to help these workers? well, we ve joined with pastors from across the state. we ve organized committee. as we ve received calls, we re working with workers over their concerns. we re showing the workers that we have support. we re gathered here tonight at tupelo college because we understand that workers need support. they are an important part of our community. they are parishioners in our church, they are members of the naacp, they are human beings. and if workers in brazil can organize who work for nissan, if workers who japan who are nissan workers, if workers in south
i think it s unfair and unfathomable that a company from outside of the united states come to mississippi and treat workers as unamerican. it is unfortunate that we can sit here today in the state that has a long history of exploiting workers for cheap labor to allow an international company to exploit our workers. we will not stand for it. as clergy, we will not stand for it as naacp, and we willstan stand with the workers. okay. it s a story to follow. i know that danny glover is involved in this as far as telling the global story about how other countries are treating workers, and yet it seems to be getting worse for workers in this country. all you want is your voices heard and an opportunity for a vote in the workplace. it s a story we ll follow. betty jones and derrick johnson and all the folks down this in canton, mississippi, i really appreciate it. you got one more thing to say, derrick? ed, i want people to go to underneaththehood.org, the committee.