Johnnie Robinson – Daily Northwest Alabamian Article, “Shot by Policeman”

Description

September 22, 1963 article from the Daily Northwest Alabamian reporting on the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Johnnie Robinson and the separate killing of 13-year-old Virgil Ware. The article states that Coroner J. O. Butler intended to request a grand-jury investigation into Robinson’s death and that his preliminary investigation indicated Robinson died from a shotgun blast fired by Birmingham police officer Jack Parker.

The article also reports that some testimony indicated Parker fired while performing his duties as a city police officer and includes criticism from the Rev. A. D. King questioning the necessity of shooting Robinson in the back during an alleged rock-throwing incident. The clipping is valuable as a contemporaneous account of the developing legal inquiry and public response to Robinson’s death, but statements concerning the circumstances of the shooting should be understood as newspaper reporting rather than independently established findings of the repository.