Walter Morrison's Case Analysis

This chapter discusses when Bryan met Walter McMillian, a hardworking but undereducated man who became romantically and sexually involved with a white woman, named Karen. Interracial relations were illegal all the way up to the mid-1900s, while the law attempted to justify this injustice with “separate but equal” rhetoric. Once the woman’s husband found out, the incident was taken to court where Walter was also present and thus ostracised by the community. The judge for Walter’s case even personally called Bryan and threatened him in hopes he would quit the case, however Bryan was up for the challenge, no matter how hard the judge made it for him. The woman also started using drugs, and started hanging out with a troubled man named Ralph Meyers, and were even suspected to be involved in a murder of a lower class woman named Vickie Pittman.

This case did not get nearly as much attention as the murder case of Ronda Morrison, which was also occurring during the same time, simply because Morrison came from a more respected, higher class family.

However, both women were white which sparked the immediate interest to swiftly solve the case. Meyers told the police different stories about who was involved with the murders, finally implicating Karen and Walter. The police then prompted Ralph to meet up with Walter to see if he was telling the truth this time, but when the meeting occurred, Walter was clearly confused, as he had never even met this man before. However, the police were receiving growing pressures from the public to solve the case, so although they had no evidence nor any reason to assume Walter was involved, because of his background of violating the interracial law, “that was evidence enough.” This was simply because he was deemed deviant and dangerous because of his sexual background, as most black men are stereotypically

depicted.
One of the things that stuck out the most so far from reading this book is the fact that the author has not mentioned what these men are convicted of, but rather recounts their whole story and history. This is in order for the reader to decide their own truth, without imposition of labeled biases such as “murderer” or “thief” that the prison systems often imply. I found it also interesting that Walter McMillian’s case is easily researchable on Google, and I wonder if this coverage increased after the release of Stevenson’s book, or if it was because black exonerated men from death row is very rare. Interracial marriage illegalization, along with the illegalization of interracial relationships, not only stems from racist ideals, but also from greed that comes with the need to preserve whites’ money from being shared to those of color, especially if offspring are produced. I was interested in the part of the chapter that discussed To Kill a Mockingbird because this is a highly raved about book, especially in the public schools systems, and a book that I also read as a senior in high school. However, instructors who assign these books, along with the readers themselves, fail to realize the racist and stereotypical rhetoric that is used, one of which emphasizes the “white savior complex” from the white lawyer defending the black accused rapist.