Speaker 1: Pushkin Before we begin, a warning this episode contains material
Speaker 1: that may be upsetting to some listeners. The facts of
Speaker 1: the case in State v. Johnson, as described by the
Speaker 1: alleged victim, are as follows. She was thirty two years old.
Speaker 1: She was a nurse's aid at Talmidge Memorial Hospital. She
Speaker 1: says she left work alone on the evening of January
Speaker 1: twenty sixth at eleven p m. While she was getting
Speaker 1: in her car, the accused, Nathaniel Johnson, seized her and
Speaker 1: threatened to kill her if she did not get into
Speaker 1: his car. She got away, screamed for help. He caught her.
Speaker 1: She told him to take her money and leave her alone,
Speaker 1: but he replied, I don't want money, I want you.
Speaker 1: The victim's description of what happened that night is very graphic.
Speaker 1: It goes on for several pages. I'm giving you an
Speaker 1: abridged version, but it's still very disturbing, so please keep
Speaker 1: that in mind. As you'll see, understanding exactly what the
Speaker 1: defendant was accused of in this instance is crucial. She
Speaker 1: got away and ran screaming onto the lawn of the hospital,
Speaker 1: where he once again caught her and dragged her to
Speaker 1: his car. He knocked her down, repeatedly slapped her in
Speaker 1: the face, and told her to shut up or he
Speaker 1: would kill her. Johnson placed his knee on her chest,
Speaker 1: pinning her down, put his hand on her throat, into
Speaker 1: the trachea, and kept bearing down on it, telling her
Speaker 1: to quit screaming. He closed her nostrils with his other hand,
Speaker 1: and since she could not get air, she lost consciousness.
Speaker 1: When she came to, she realized that she was in
Speaker 1: the back of a moving automobile. He finally stopped his
Speaker 1: car on a dirt road, pushed her out onto the ground,
Speaker 1: and raped her. He took a shot of whiskey and
Speaker 1: asked her if she drank. She replied that she did not,
Speaker 1: that she was a Sunday school teacher. He raped her
Speaker 1: a second time they drove back into town. He took
Speaker 1: her wallet, wrote down her name, address, telephone number, and
Speaker 1: her husband's name on a piece of paper, and put
Speaker 1: it in his pocket. Pictures taken of the victim immediately
Speaker 1: after the assault and placed in evidence without objection I'm
Speaker 1: quoting now show several severe scratches and bruises on her face, head,
Speaker 1: and throat, and testimony offered by the state shows that
Speaker 1: her clothing was badly torn and bloody. End of quote.
Speaker 1: The alleged perpetrator, Nathaniel Johnson, was arrested. The victim picked
Speaker 1: him out of a lineup. He confessed, he was tried,
Speaker 1: he was convicted. Here's my question, how do you feel
Speaker 1: about the case of State v. Johnson. We have a victim,
Speaker 1: we have physical evidence, we have a positive identification, we
Speaker 1: have a confession. Do you know all you need to know?
Speaker 1: My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History,
Speaker 1: my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. In the course
Speaker 1: of this season, I have been preoccupied with the subject
Speaker 1: of power, the particular power of friendship, the way shifts
Speaker 1: in power change the way we remember the past. And
Speaker 1: with this episode and the next one, I want to
Speaker 1: return to that subject one more time and focus on
Speaker 1: our reluctance to acknowledge the role of the way we
Speaker 1: pretend that we can make sense of the world without
Speaker 1: first clarifying who has the power and who does not.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example of what I mean
Speaker 1: about the complicating effects of power. It's from Well into
Speaker 1: the trial of Nathaniel Johnson. One after another, witnesses against
Speaker 1: Johnson have presented devastating evidence. One of the arresting officers
Speaker 1: is testifying about what Nathaniel Johnson said in his confession.
Speaker 1: It's a small moment and slips out seemingly without anyone
Speaker 1: remarking on it. This is what the officer says. Nathaniel
Speaker 1: Johnson told us that after he had intercourse with this
Speaker 1: lady there, that she asked him for a cigarette. He
Speaker 1: said he gave her a cigarette and said he took
Speaker 1: one and smoked it himself, and said they threw the
Speaker 1: butts down there. We found three butts there at this
Speaker 1: pla at the scene, we found three butts there? Does
Speaker 1: that fact strike you as strange? Is it commonplace for
Speaker 1: two people to share a cigarette after a brutal rape?
Speaker 1: And how about this? It also slips out in the
Speaker 1: trial without comment. The police chief, a man named George Mutimer,
Speaker 1: tells the court about Nathaniel Johnson's confession. Johnson's talked about
Speaker 1: driving with the victim in his car. They fought, she resisted,
Speaker 1: he was apparently choking her. And then Mutimer testifies, and
Speaker 1: I'm quoting, he said at that time that he drove off,
Speaker 1: went to a little side road off the New Savannah
Speaker 1: Road and parked, and he claims that she said it
Speaker 1: was too close to the road. He drove on maybe
Speaker 1: half a city block further and parked. Why is the
Speaker 1: victim complaining to her rapist that he's parked too close
Speaker 1: to the road. Then there's a prosecution's star witness, a
Speaker 1: Missus Bailey. She testifies that three years earlier, Nathaniel Johnson
Speaker 1: had come up to her while she was sitting in
Speaker 1: a park car and he tried to assault her. Reading
Speaker 1: now from the transcript, the prosecutor asks, Missus Bailey, you
Speaker 1: testified that this man grabbed you round the throat and
Speaker 1: you screamed and somebody came out of the door. I
Speaker 1: believe Missus Bailey, Yes, sir, prosecutor. Did you see where
Speaker 1: he went, Missus Bailey, I saw him run down the road, Prosecutor,
Speaker 1: How fast was he going? Bailey? Mighty fast. Nathaniel Johnson
Speaker 1: happens to be an army veteran who lost part of
Speaker 1: his foot in combat, broke both legs, both arms, his shoulder,
Speaker 1: broke his collar bone, six bullets in his hip. He
Speaker 1: spent two years in a rehab hospital recovering. I don't
Speaker 1: see him running mighty fast anywhere. At the very end
Speaker 1: of the trial, Nathaniel Johnson finally speaks. He's not very coherent.
Speaker 1: He knows he's going to get convicted. He's confessed. He
Speaker 1: starts out by saying that he had a statement he
Speaker 1: wanted to make, but he's decided against giving it. Again
Speaker 1: from the court transcript, Missus Nathaniel Johnson, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just don't feel that it was. It would be,
Speaker 1: it would be well, it would be, you know, for
Speaker 1: me to say it, but to tell the truth about
Speaker 1: it well makes you wonder. Trial is over. He's already confessed.
Speaker 1: Why is he hemming and hawing? He goes on, I
Speaker 1: am here to say to day that I am not
Speaker 1: guilty of rape. I won't give this statement which would
Speaker 1: run the facts down on what really happened in everything
Speaker 1: to keep from bringing a disturbment in a century of
Speaker 1: colored and white at this time, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be responsible for it. Nathaniel Johnson wanted to avoid bringing
Speaker 1: a disturbment between colored and white. I asked you at
Speaker 1: the beginning, how sure you were about the guilty verdict
Speaker 1: against Nathaniel Johnson. We had a victim, we had physical evidence,
Speaker 1: we had a positive identification, we had a confession. That
Speaker 1: sounds like enough, But that little reference to colored and
Speaker 1: white is a reminder that I left out almost all
Speaker 1: of the details having to do with power. Where did
Speaker 1: the rape allegedly take place, Well, let me tell you
Speaker 1: in Augusta, Georgia, a South Okay, when did it allegedly
Speaker 1: take place? Nineteen fifty nine, a very different era in
Speaker 1: a place like Augusta, Georgia. And the most crucial fact,
Speaker 1: colored and white. The accuser was white, her alleged assailant,
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Johnson was black. After his arrest, Johnson has taken
Speaker 1: to the interrogation room at the police station with the
Speaker 1: arresting officer, Holly Tebow. Tebow's not getting anywhere, so he
Speaker 1: calls in Chief Mutimer. At the trial Tebo says they
Speaker 1: do that quite frequently because whenever they call him Mutimer,
Speaker 1: most of the people talk. Then Tebow goes on. Chief
Speaker 1: Mutimer stayed in the interrogation room with him for some time,
Speaker 1: and he came out and shook his head and said, Holly,
Speaker 1: he told me about it. And I went back and
Speaker 1: there in the interrogation room, and he was crying. Nathaniel
Speaker 1: was crying. The chief of police, who was really good
Speaker 1: at making people talk, disappears alone into the interrogation room
Speaker 1: with Johnson for a few hours, no lawyers in sight,
Speaker 1: and when he emerges, he has a confession. Let me
Speaker 1: read to you again from Nathaniel Johnson's closing statement, only
Speaker 1: this time keep in mind who he is, where he is,
Speaker 1: and when it is. Johnson says, I am not guilty
Speaker 1: of rape. And the statement I have is a true statement.
Speaker 1: But the shape of the courtroom to the community and
Speaker 1: citizens of this town colored in white, I think I
Speaker 1: would bring a big confusion between them. And I know
Speaker 1: rape is a serious charge, and I know it is
Speaker 1: more serious by a colored man being accused of rape
Speaker 1: by a white woman. And so I want to leave
Speaker 1: it in y'all's hands and trust you all to do
Speaker 1: what the Lord and justice of it. And I am
Speaker 1: not guilty of rape in my heart. That is the
Speaker 1: truth from God. If you don't know, it's Georgia, it's
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, and that Nathaniel Johnson is black and
Speaker 1: his victim is white, what do you know nothing? In Georgia,
Speaker 1: there is a lineage of civil rights lawyers, a tradition
Speaker 1: it begins the man named eight Walden born in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty five to two former slaves in Fort Valley, Georgia.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, and Austin Thomas Walden, who
Speaker 1: finished University of Michigan in nineteen twelve, would come to
Speaker 1: my church for the Saints to see your best hour.
Speaker 1: And I sang in the Saints to see you acquire.
Speaker 1: And I would hear him speak about segregation, and he
Speaker 1: would say, I'll be glad when you had dead, you
Speaker 1: rascal you. So I grew up wanting to be a
Speaker 1: lawyer like Austin T. Walden. Vernon Jordan, one of the
Speaker 1: legends of a civil rights movement. He's had an extraordinary career.
Speaker 1: He ran the Urban League for years. He was a
Speaker 1: close confident under President Clinton, a deal maker on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: He's eighty one years old. He must be six foot
Speaker 1: four and peck Southern manners, a long and passive face.
Speaker 1: When he talks to you, he leans down from his
Speaker 1: great height and lowers his voice. So in nineteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: as a very young lawyer, I was asked to give
Speaker 1: the Emancipation Proclamation Day speech. I went to see Jordan
Speaker 1: in his office in Rockefeller Center. I wore a suit.
Speaker 1: I was told I had to. Vernon likes people to
Speaker 1: dress properly. He began by describing his induction into the
Speaker 1: Civil Rights Fraternity. The day that Georgia NAACP asked him
Speaker 1: to speak, Walden was on this poolpit with braces on
Speaker 1: his legs. He could hardly move. And when back when
Speaker 1: I finished, Walden struggle up to me and said he
Speaker 1: had a home run. Son, you hit a home run.
Speaker 1: That was the laying on of hand, as that was
Speaker 1: the blessing in the lineage of civil rights lawyers at
Speaker 1: Walden came first. Next in line was a man named
Speaker 1: Donald L. Hollowell, another legend. I will have much much
Speaker 1: more to say about holliwell in the next episode. Vernon
Speaker 1: Jordan was inspired by Walden, and straight out of law
Speaker 1: school he went to work for Hollowell. He was a
Speaker 1: disciple of two of the greats. And I went to
Speaker 1: see Jordan to learn what being a disciple in Georgia
Speaker 1: in those years meant. What did you learn? What were
Speaker 1: you up against? There were very few black lawyers in
Speaker 1: the South in those years. If you were black and
Speaker 1: in trouble, you rarely had one of your own to
Speaker 1: represent you. Justice is supposed to be blind, which is
Speaker 1: another way of saying that we're supposed to close our
Speaker 1: eyes when we enter a courtroom and not notice a
Speaker 1: fact like race. In nineteen fifty nine, Donald Hollowell and
Speaker 1: Vernon Jordan had their eyes wide open. They watched what
Speaker 1: was happening Nathaniel Johnson and Augusta with growing alarm. And
Speaker 1: he was given a white quarter pointed lawyer who convinced him,
Speaker 1: given the circumstances of a black man being accused by
Speaker 1: a white woman of rape, said to him, the best
Speaker 1: way to stay out of the electric chair is to
Speaker 1: plead guilty, have her corroborate your guilty. Plead and you'll
Speaker 1: get life. And he went for it. He did not
Speaker 1: get life, He got the electric chair. To put that
Speaker 1: in perspective, there was a case in Atlanta right around
Speaker 1: the same time as Johnson's only that involved a white
Speaker 1: man convicted of raping his black maid. He broke down
Speaker 1: the bathroom door and attacked her. He got two to
Speaker 1: five years. White on black rape was a two to
Speaker 1: five year crime in a state of Georgia. Johnson faced
Speaker 1: the death penalty. So when Johnson says in his final statement,
Speaker 1: I know rape is a serious charge, and I know
Speaker 1: it is more serious by a colored man being accused
Speaker 1: of rape by a white woman. That's what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: There's one set of rules for white people and another
Speaker 1: for black people, and the standards for legal representation those
Speaker 1: are different too. The White Court upon It lawyer the
Speaker 1: night before he was to be executed, got drunk and
Speaker 1: an augusta bar bar a paper from the bartender, wrote
Speaker 1: out a rid of pabeus corpus and went to the
Speaker 1: judge to argue that Nathaniel Johnson's writes under the Fifth
Speaker 1: Amendment had been bow lady. As it turns out, that's
Speaker 1: the wrong amendment. Under those circumstances, the lawyers should have
Speaker 1: raised the Fourteenth Amendment. But the lawyer's writing an appeal
Speaker 1: while he's drunk, and it's not at all clear that
Speaker 1: he cares that much, since if you read the trial transcript,
Speaker 1: Johnson's lawyer barely ever said anything. And it went up
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court on social ira, which was denied.
Speaker 1: And then mister Hallowell, my boss, was hired, and I
Speaker 1: went with him to see Nathaniel Johnson and the Readsville
Speaker 1: State Prison. He was a very handsome, cruel prisoner. Hallowell
Speaker 1: and Jordan were brought in by the NAACP to try
Speaker 1: and win a stay of execution. One last Hail Mary,
Speaker 1: How old was he? But spend thirty to thirty two
Speaker 1: something like that. Jordan and Hallowell sit down with Johnson
Speaker 1: and start to piece together Johnson's version of what happened
Speaker 1: that night. It's a very different story. He was having
Speaker 1: a relationship with this woman, this white woman, and the
Speaker 1: relationship was put together by a black assistant nurse at
Speaker 1: the hospital and Augusta and he would go and pick
Speaker 1: her up and they would go out on the roads
Speaker 1: and do their business. In the version of events that
Speaker 1: got Johnson convicted, the victim had never seen him before.
Speaker 1: But Nathaniel Johnson told Jordan and holliwell, they'd been spotted together.
Speaker 1: One night. They were out on the road and the
Speaker 1: car got stuck in the mud, and a group of
Speaker 1: white hunters were crossing the road, and she gets out
Speaker 1: and says, I'm taking my yard man home. And we
Speaker 1: got stuck in the mud, and these white hunters pushed
Speaker 1: the car out of the mud. If you read the
Speaker 1: official account of the case, it says that the victim
Speaker 1: reported her alleged assault to the police in the early
Speaker 1: hours of the morning on January twenty seventh, after she
Speaker 1: gets home. Then it goes on to say crucially that
Speaker 1: the police arrest Johnson that same night. Think about that
Speaker 1: Augusta at the time is a city of seventy thousand people,
Speaker 1: roughly half black. So we are asked to believe that,
Speaker 1: in the course of a couple of hours, without benefit
Speaker 1: of daylight, the police were able to correctly locate, in
Speaker 1: a community of thirty five thousand African Americans a suspect,
Speaker 1: and that they did this with no more than the
Speaker 1: description of his automobile from a badly traumatized rape victim.
Speaker 1: Because she'd never met him before, and so after a
Speaker 1: visit on the dark road, she said to him that
Speaker 1: she was pregnant, and a disagreement ensued. They had a fight.
Speaker 1: It beat her up. That's how she ended up with
Speaker 1: all those injuries. Johnson had physical power over her, but
Speaker 1: she had far greater power over him. In that time
Speaker 1: and place, a white woman had the power of life
Speaker 1: and death over a black man. She went home and
Speaker 1: told her husband that she had been raped, and they
Speaker 1: went in Nathaniel Johnson's house in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: illegal arrest, the illegal searcher and s illegal attention, all
Speaker 1: of that. When you saw him, did he think that
Speaker 1: he had a chance. He was just scared to death.
Speaker 1: He was just scared to death, and we were his
Speaker 1: only hope. We were his only hope. And so Halliwell
Speaker 1: and Jordan set out to save Nathaniel Johnson's life anyway
Speaker 1: they can stay the execution, fight for a new trial.
Speaker 1: Jordan was fresh out of law school, full of righteous
Speaker 1: anger and idealism, and I remember going into his cell
Speaker 1: with him and mister Halliwell. Halliwell said, we're going to
Speaker 1: see the local judge here. Then we will drive to
Speaker 1: Atlanta and we will go to see the Chief Justice
Speaker 1: of Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Governor, and the
Speaker 1: Board of Partning pro It was the beginning of the
Speaker 1: apprenticeship of Vernon Jordan. And that's when mister Halliwell put
Speaker 1: me on the case and we went to Brunswick, Georgia,
Speaker 1: which I never forget. That Federal District judge there began
Speaker 1: the case by asking when is the execution schedule? And
Speaker 1: they said tomorrow morning, your honor, So he listened to
Speaker 1: the state attorney. As he listened to mister holliwell, and
Speaker 1: I remember him saying, justice delayed is justice denied. And
Speaker 1: we drove from Brunswick after he refused to stay the execution,
Speaker 1: from Brunswick, Georgia to Atlanta. That's when it was all
Speaker 1: two highways. I did the driving, and we ended up
Speaker 1: and the chambers of the Chief Justice. And he walked
Speaker 1: in and say, sees man. He said, son, where did
Speaker 1: you play basketball? And I said, mister Chief Justice, We're
Speaker 1: not here to talk about where I played basketball. We're
Speaker 1: here about the life from Nathaniel Johnson. He's odd that
Speaker 1: color bar went out there on that road and raped
Speaker 1: that woman out. Don't want to hear about that. We
Speaker 1: then go from his chambers to the next bill where
Speaker 1: the Attorney General was. Secretary picks up the phone and
Speaker 1: says to the Attorney General, Miss attorney General, they had
Speaker 1: two boys out here to see you. The Attorney General
Speaker 1: of Georgia, Henry Neil, did not invite us into his office.
Speaker 1: He came out and stood behind the secretary's desk and
Speaker 1: said that the governor was out of town and the
Speaker 1: governor would not stay the execution, and we left and
Speaker 1: went to the Board of Pardoning Paroles. And as we
Speaker 1: walked in the door, he said, Hallowell, you're too late.
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Johnson is on his way to the electric chair.
Speaker 1: There was nothing more for them to do. I said,
Speaker 1: Miss Hallowell, I would like to have the rest of
Speaker 1: the day off. He said fine. And I had on
Speaker 1: a light bage has spell suit that I had gotten
Speaker 1: for graduation, and I walked down Hunter Street home. It
Speaker 1: was eighty five ninety degrees in Atlanta, and I'm walking
Speaker 1: alone thinking what I had just witnessed, thinked about the
Speaker 1: first time I saw him, and thinked about seeing him
Speaker 1: the night before he died. And I just walked home crying.
Speaker 1: It's the only time in my eighty one years that
Speaker 1: I can remember losing control and just urinated all over
Speaker 1: myself on my brand new Baige suit. I remember that
Speaker 1: as bivid is. I see you right now. When Vernon
Speaker 1: Jordan told me the story of Nathaniel Johnson, the first
Speaker 1: thing I thought about was Harper Lee's classic To Kill
Speaker 1: a Mockingbird, the book every American child reads in middle school. Now, Mala,
Speaker 1: suppose you tell us just what happened? It tells the
Speaker 1: same basic story. Right, I was sitting on the porch, Jenny,
Speaker 1: come along the Jim Crow South. A black man named
Speaker 1: Tom Robinson accused of rape by a white woman, Mayella Yuele,
Speaker 1: And I turn around it and for I know what
Speaker 1: he's on me. But Tom Robinson's lawyer, Atticus Finch, is white,
Speaker 1: which of course changes everything. Finch addresses an all male,
Speaker 1: all white jury men just like him, So what does
Speaker 1: he do? He puts Robinson on the stand and has
Speaker 1: him talk about all the ways in which Mayella eu
Speaker 1: will try to trap him. Tom, were you acquainted with
Speaker 1: Mayella Violet Euel? I had to pass her place going
Speaker 1: to in front of the field every day. Robinson says,
Speaker 1: he just happened to be walking by Mayella's house. She
Speaker 1: asks him to come in and help her dismantle a
Speaker 1: piece of furniture. Then she hugs him around the waist. Scared,
Speaker 1: miss old ban, I hop down and turn the tail
Speaker 1: under Atticas Finch's careful direction. Robinson then says, one more thing.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you've watched the famous Greggory
Speaker 1: Peck movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird, the one
Speaker 1: you've been hearing, you won't find these lines. Here's how
Speaker 1: it's originally written. She reached up and kissed me on
Speaker 1: the side of the face. She says, she never kissed
Speaker 1: a grown man before, and she might as well kiss
Speaker 1: a nigger. She says, what her papa do to her
Speaker 1: don't count. She says, kiss me back, nigger. I say,
Speaker 1: miss Maella, let me out of here, and I tried
Speaker 1: to run, but she got her back to the door
Speaker 1: and I had to push her. I don't want to
Speaker 1: harm her, mister Finch, and I say, let me pass.
Speaker 1: But just when I say it, mister Yule Yonder hollered
Speaker 1: through a window. What did he say? Tom Robinson shut
Speaker 1: his eyes tight. He says, you goddamn whore. I'll kill you.
Speaker 1: In his summation to the court, Alicas Finch says she
Speaker 1: knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because
Speaker 1: her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking,
Speaker 1: she persisted in breaking it. He's saying she wanted it,
Speaker 1: not only that. When he has Tom Robinson dropped that
Speaker 1: little bit about she says that what her papa due
Speaker 1: to her don't count. He's accusing her of incest. Finch
Speaker 1: is offering his fellow white men on the jury at choice.
Speaker 1: He says, Look, you can act as white people and
Speaker 1: enforce your power against black people, or you can act
Speaker 1: as men and enforce the power of your gender against women.
Speaker 1: Atticus Finch gets an awful lot of love. But when
Speaker 1: I read that book, all I could think was he's
Speaker 1: just telling them, don't be racist, be sexist. That might
Speaker 1: be a good argument in the moment, but it's not
Speaker 1: especially noble. When Vernon Jordan is walking through the streets
Speaker 1: of Atlanta with that humiliating stain spreading down his beige suit,
Speaker 1: he knows he doesn't have the same freedom that an
Speaker 1: Atticas Finch has. Finch is to say whatever he wants
Speaker 1: to the jury. That's the privilege of his race and position,
Speaker 1: but Jordan is powerless. That's also why Nathaniel Johnson didn't
Speaker 1: even bother to defend himself in court. He said, I
Speaker 1: know the truth, but what's the point. Remember what Johnson said,
Speaker 1: I would say that the reason I won't give this statement,
Speaker 1: which would run the facts down on what really happened
Speaker 1: in everything, to keep from bringing a disturbment in a
Speaker 1: century of colored and white at this time, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be responsible for it. When you went on
Speaker 1: those rounds, was no one interested in hearing the facts
Speaker 1: of the case. No. That includes the federal district judge.
Speaker 1: That includes a local judge in Reesville, the Chief Justice,
Speaker 1: the Attorney General, and the board of part in paroles.
Speaker 1: It was over, it was done. Do you think they
Speaker 1: honestly believed it was a case of rape or do
Speaker 1: you think that they didn't matter. It was a white
Speaker 1: woman and a black man, a black man doing something
Speaker 1: that was out of the question in the South, and
Speaker 1: the court upointent lawyer had to know that it was
Speaker 1: a consensual relationship. Yeah, so it's just a kind of
Speaker 1: They weren't even going to the trouble of thinking it's true.
Speaker 1: Nobody was interested in justice. Everyone went on with their lives,
Speaker 1: the judges, the Attorney general, the lawyers. It takes time
Speaker 1: to unravel the truth in situations where one side has
Speaker 1: all the power. Nobody had the time. The trial transcript
Speaker 1: of the Johnson case in the Georgia archives looks like
Speaker 1: it's never been touched. I don't even know where he's buried.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know how to look for the grave of
Speaker 1: someone nobody remembers executed half a century ago. All that's
Speaker 1: left a one man's memories. Did you ever meet the accuser?
Speaker 1: I never did. The word is that after he died,
Speaker 1: that the white lady went around to black churches and
Speaker 1: asked forgiveness. Revisionist History is produced by Mail La Belle
Speaker 1: and Jacob Smith, with Camille Baptista, Stephanie Daniel, and Ciomara
Speaker 1: Martinez wife. Our editor is Julia Barton. Flawn Williams is
Speaker 1: our engineer. Original music by Luis Guerra. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Andy Bowers and Jacob Weisberger. Panoply, I'm Malcolm Gladwell