Fears of a black planet: Blog #2 The Atlanta Child Murders

                 In Keeping with my theme of “fears of a black planet”, today I want to look into and discuss the Atlanta child murders.  In the late seventies and early eighties, the city of Atlanta was booming.   Companies such as Coca-Cola, Cox Communications and Delta Airlines were now calling Atlanta home and the black population was rapidly increasing. Yet despite the city’s economic growth, many of its black residents were poor.  We all know that poverty breeds crime, and Atlanta eventually became one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country.  The crime levels reached its peak when a series of murders of black children began to surface on the south side of Atlanta.  The Atlanta Child Murders claimed the lives of 28 young victims from 1979 to 1981.  All victims were mostly male and mostly African American.  The killings were connected to a number of conspiracy theories.

The first of two conspiracy theories is that the FBI had a hidden agenda and they were to blame for dragging their feet with regards to the case.  The black community was very upset with the police and their lack of plausible suspects.

                  The second conspiracy theory, and the one that goes with “Fears of a black planet” is that the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was involved.  The belief was that the KKK was behind the murders because they wanted to exterminate young blacks in Atlanta.  Many people believed that the city’s law enforcement along with the White Supremacists had come up with a secret plan to terrorize the growing population of blacks in Atlanta.  This particular theory was so compelling that Jimmy Carter, who was the President of the United States at the time of the murders, ordered the FBI to pursue this theory in their investigations of the murders.

                  America was so desperate to solve these murders that even celebrities such as Muhammad Ali and Burt Reynolds were donating money to help find the killer.

                  On June 21, 1981, the Atlanta Police stated that they had found a serial killer suspect.  Wayne Williams was arrested and charged with the murder of two adults.  While in custody for those two murders, police performed multiple polygraph tests, all of which indicated that Wayne was being deceptive in his answers.  They also found matches between the fibers found on the young black male victims and the fibers found on Williams’ home and cars.  A number of witness also came forward who swore they saw Williams with a various number of those victims.  On January 6, 1982 Williams was convicted and sentenced to life.

                  On May 6, 2005, the DeKalb County, Georgia, Police Chief ordered the reopening of the murder cases of five boys who were killed in 1981 that had been pinned on Williams.  In June of 2007 DNA test were published but they failed to exonerate Williams.

                  At 52 years old, Wayne still maintains his innocence. Many still believe that he was railroaded into confessing those crimes and that the KKK were the actual child murders.

What do you think?

                  I think that sometimes people believe that conspiracy theories are NEVER true.  But of course actual conspiracies do exist.  Spies, Mafia, and terrorists are real.  Both the FBI and CIA have a history of doing unsuspecting things to Americans.  Once you have seen what an institution is capable of, it becomes much easier to believe in conspiracy theories.  And sometimes your imagination will be a little right.

                                                           Works Cited

Manual-Logan, Ruth. "Black Conspiracy Theories 101: Atlanta Child Murders." News One, News One, 14 June 2012, newsone.com/2020573/black-urban-legends-atlanta-child-murders/.

Walker, Jesse. "Conspiracies: Five Things They Don't Want You to Know- The Boston Globe." Boston Globe, 20 Oct. 2013, www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/19/conspiracies-five-things-they-dont-want-you-to-know.