SIMEON BOOKER, EMMETT TILL, CLYDE KENNARD, LAMAR SMITH, MISSISSIPPI

Simeon Booker, who died in December 2017. 

In 1955, in Mississippi, 14 year old Emmett Till was tortured and murdered by a group of white men.

Emmett Till, a Black kid, was lynched after a white woman said she was offended by him in her family's grocery store.

Simeon Booker, a Black journalist, wanted to expose the truth.

At the Emmett Till murder trial, journalist Simeon Booker was segregated from the regular reporter pool and forced to work at a small card table in the back of the courtroom.

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Two white men who were accused of murdering Emmett - and later admitted it in a Look Magazine interview - were acquitted in 1955 by an all-white, all-male jury, and so could not be retried.

The woman, who said she was offended by Emmett, was Carolyn Bryant Donham.

She now confesses that her allegations - that Emmett grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her - were false.

Woman Linked to 1955 Emmett Till Murder

Simeon Booker was a reporter for Jet and Ebony magazines. 

Booker covered the funeral of Emmett Till.

Booker stood beside Till's mother as she threw open the coffin and removed the rubber bag from her son's mutilated face.

Booker was often threatened and attacked by white fascists.

Emmett Till

1. Emmett Till was from Chicago.

In 1955, fourteen year old Emmett went to visit a small town in Mississippi.

He allegedly whistled at a woman outside a store.

A group of men later beat Emmett to a pulp, shot him dead and dumped him in a river.

The husband of the woman who had been allegedly whistled at, and his half brother, were arrested.

The evidence against them was 'pretty overwhelming'.

Emmett Till

The jury found the two men not guilty.

In 1956, the two men admitted in an interview with Look magazine that they had killed Emmett.

Emmett was black and the jury was white.

Clyde Kennard

2. In 1955, Clyde Kennard, a former army sergeant, tried to enrol at Mississippi Southern College in Mississippi.

He was sent away.

University officials planted illicit alcohol and stolen chicken feed in his car and had him charged with theft.

He died in prison.


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3. Lamar Smith was a 63-year-old black farmer and World War II veteran and organizer of black voter registration.

He was shot to death in broad daylight at close range on the lawn of the Lincoln County courthouse in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

Some reports say there were many white witnesses including the local sheriff who saw a white man covered with blood leaving the scene.

No witnesses would come forward and three men who had been arrested went free.

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HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY

Chicago policemen and a suspect.

How do you keep a country united?

Austin in Texas is much wealthier than Palm Bay in Florida.

The District of Columbia is much wealthier than Mississippi.

In the USA, there is a very big gap between rich and poor areas.

In Switzerland, Zug and is the richest canton.

But, none of the Swiss cantons is poor.

In the UK, London and Scotland are doing well.

Scotland rivalled only by London for inward investment.

But parts of the UK are becoming like Detroit.



The London government spends vast sums on transport in London and tiny sums on transport in the North East of England.

"Promised government spending on transport in the North East over the next two decades is £246 per person, compared with £4,893 per head in London."

The North East, unlike the of England, exports more than it imports!

England's northeast fears economic isolation - FT.com.



The journalist and economist John Kay has written about how to keep a country united

Kay writes about 'solidarity' - meaning mutual support.

Kay writes that in the USA "there is no explicit mechanism of redistribution of resources among states."

However, "Switzerland makes transfers from richer to poorer cantons."

Kay suggests that in countries such as the UK rural areas, and deprived urban communities, need more expenditure.

In Australia, a grants commission "attempts to parcel out central government funds on an objective basis to states and territories."

Switzerland is the country to copy?

SWITZERLAND has its problems with EVIL.



Switzerland is not perfect but it is peaceful and prosperous.

Switzerland is divided up into cantons and towns (communes). 

In Switzerland, the central government (federal government) is not given too much power; the cantons and towns have a lot of power; referendums are held.

The central government controls foreign policy, defense, the railways and the mint.

If the central government brings in a new policy, a referendum can be held to vote it down.

There is a six-month period during which a referendum can be called by any person or group able to get 50,000 signatures on a petition. 

A central government policy can be thrown out by a simple majority vote in a referendum.

The cantons and communes control economic policy, welfare policy, the police, education and so on. 

Each canton has its own parliament and constitution.

Switzerland spends a lot on welfare and education but manages to keep taxes relatively low. 

This is because there are no huge ministeries full of useless civil servants, or bureaucrats.

Cantons and large communes have referendums and 'initiatives'. An 'initiative' is when an ordinary citizen proposes a new policy or law.

Main source: ISIL -- The Swiss Cantonal System