In 1976 Frank J. Robinson went to the Palestine Texas metropolis council assembly.
“Testing 1-2-3.” Robinson recorded himself saying that as a result of this assembly was so necessary to him, he wished to protect it on his moveable cassette recorder.
“We are here, really not as plaintiffs, but we are here as citizens of Anderson County hoping to bring about single-member districts,” Robinson advised town council.
Robinson and different members of the native Black neighborhood have been there to drive town authorities to desert at-large council seats and undertake single-member districts.
“Once Robinson decided he would move forward with litigation there was really nothing that the city council would be able to do about it,” mentioned Larry Daves, a former civil rights lawyer in East Texas. Daves labored with Robinson on the Palestine City Council battle. He mentioned Robinson had outfoxed town council and town had no selection. They settled and agreed to his plan. This would enable Black elected illustration on the council for the primary time.
“The city council members were not happy. Probably extremely angry that Robinson and the other members of the Black community were pushing this issue,” mentioned Daves.
Days later Frank J. Robinson was discovered lifeless in his storage with a shotgun blast to the top. His death was dominated a suicide, however Daves mentioned he needs to be remembered as a martyr.
“Frank Robinson should be considered a civil rights hero. In that part of the world, they didn’t want him to be a martyr. They all preferred to have that history, remember him as having taken his own. But I’ll never believe he did,” mentioned Daves.
Dorothy Robinson, Frank’s spouse additionally by no means accepted that he would, with no notice or rationalization, all of a sudden take his personal life. But add to that, there have been witnesses who noticed and heard one thing nefarious the day Frank J. Robinson died.
According to the Texas Rangers report, that day a minimum of seven boys, who have been about 11 years outdated, have been enjoying soccer in a college yard subsequent to the Robinson home.
Several of the boys mentioned they noticed a white van drive as much as the Robinson house and two white males received out. The boys heard 4 shotgun blasts after which the van with a big radio antenna and a smoking muffler fled the Robinson home at a excessive price of velocity.
Initially police discovered three spent shotgun shells and later they found the fourth. The a number of photographs had not been reported within the news. It would have been unimaginable for the boys to have invented a lie that matched the information that had but to be established.
Today, over 45 years later, the reminiscences of many of these boys have pale and altered however some of the boys – now grown males – say they bear in mind quite a bit.
“He was murdered,” mentioned one, who didn’t wish to be recognized for concern of reprisals.
“A bunch of us had skipped lunch to start playing football and we saw a white van pull up. We all were kids of hunters. We knew what gun shots sounded like. And there were gunshots. People ran out. We testified to that along with several other students,” he mentioned.
The boys did testify within the Robinson public inquest, however the district lawyer centered on inconsistencies of their tales to discredit them and so they have been disregarded.
John Taylor mentioned he was additionally a pupil at the moment. However, he wasn’t listed within the Texas Rangers report. I spoke to him close to the Robinson home and overlooking the old-fashioned area, now deserted.
“We were out there on the field playing football. We saw that white van come up. I heard a ‘Boom! Boom!’ The next thing you know that white van took off. Come down this way and when that way. Never heard or seen anything else about it,” Taylor mentioned.
Dorothy Robinson would incessantly remark that this was a lead that police by no means investigated, as a substitute they mentioned Frank J. Robinson dedicated suicide.
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