Why his erasure matters

Just about every source of information about nazi serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin gets the name of one of his victims wrong. In my search for information about the man who was murdered in Falls Church, Virginia in August of 1979, I came up mostly empty. We've erased a man from the story of his own murder because it's easier to tell a story about a racist than it is to talk about racism.

Sources:

Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011

Moon, V. The middleburg mystique: A peek inside the gates of Middleburg, Virginia. Waverley Lee Media, LLC. 2016

Matthew Exline, We Have Been Waiting Too Long: The Struggle Against Racial Segregation in Loudoun County, Virginia. Have History Will Travel Press, 2020.

Carole Townsend, Blood in the Soil. Skyhorse, 2016

Douglas, John E., Ann W. Burgess, et al. Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. John Wiley and Sons, 2006.

The Study of the Operation of Segregated Schools in Loudoun County, Virginia conducted by Teachers in the Movement Oral History Project Research Team University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development
https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/214704/The-Study-of-the-Operation-of-Segregated-Schools-in-Loudoun-County-Virginia_FINAL 

https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/index.cfm?fa=newsinfo.displayContent&theFile=content/deathPenalty/trial

https://www.aclunorcal.org/app/uploads/2010/03/costs_of_death_penalty_trials.pdf

https://fds.duke.edu/db?attachment-34--1667-view-301

https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/259-0162-0007_ShilohBaptistChurch_2017_NRHP_FINAL.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/04/26/middleburg/74b1854a-dca2-4b45-8bc5-7999ab4e015c/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/05/loudoun-county-segregated-schools-reparations/ 

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/constitution1902.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/08/21/turner-raymond-elton/4ae0ab2f-ef82-477d-a8f8-39ababc4c72c/ 

https://edwinwashingtonproject.org/files/original/62047/1014789_EWP_2-5A_Yr_1930_CountyWide_on_Gibbons_Lot.pdf

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