Tonight is a night for rejoicing,” Jones said at his victory party Tuesday
evening to a cheering crowd. Referencing a famous Martin Luther King
quote, Jones said: “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends
toward justice. Tonight, you helped bend that moral arc a little closer to justice.”
WE WON!
#FlipAlabama#Legacy#DougJones “54 years ago Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole
Robertson & Carol Denise McNair killed by KKK in Birmingham Church
Bombing
Today Alabama sent the man who prosecuted their killers to the Senate – Doug Jones.
The vote has power” -tweeted by Ari Berman
Every Vote Matters which means every phone call made, every door
knocked, every post card sent, and every dollar donated….matters.
We won in Alabama because of tremendous grassroots energy and a long term broad ground game.
Thank you to all who helped make this happen. You are the true patriots! #KeepGoing #StrongerTogether #LoveAndKindness
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center in New York, Thursday, April 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
April Ryan speaks with Hillary Clinton who offers her take on the sexual assault allegations against US Senate candidate Roy Moore and President Trump. Read transcript and hear audio >>>>
There is a reason why, when you visit Hillary Clinton's Twitter account, this is the tweet pinned to the top. It has been pinned there for a year and two days as of this writing.
"To all the little girls watching...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful & deserving of every chance & opportunity in the world."
The entertainment industry is rife with allegations of routine sexual assault almost as a matter of business. Both men and women are standing up with accounts of past abuses. Action has been swift and uncompromising.
At the heart of government, however, there remains the habit of "iftrue." We will take down a TV president for sexual assault, but not a declared candidate.
By Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites
20-25 minutes
Leigh Corfman, left, in a photo from 1979, when she was about 14. At right, from top, Wendy Miller around age 16, Debbie Wesson Gibson around age 17 and Gloria Thacker Deason around age 18. (Family photos)
Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.
It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.
“He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her,’ ” says Corfman’s mother, Nancy Wells, 71. “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.” Read more >>>>
Sundry Republicans, many from Roy Moore's home state, went on cable in his defense this week. Needless to say, the defenses were pathetic. Attempts to philosophize the allegations range from laughable to blasphemous. Please spare us, you guys. You are embarrassing yourselves!
Let's take a look at the Democrat running against Roy Moore.
From left, Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14, and Cynthia Dianne Wesley, 14, were killed Sept. 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. (AP)
The case haunted Birmingham for years. Four black girls in Alabama had been killed in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church — a crime that shocked the country and helped fuel the civil rights movement.
Yet the men responsible — members of the Ku Klux Klan who’d boasted about their role — were never tried and convicted. That changed in 1977 when Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss, the suspected ringleader of the bombing, was put on trial.
At the time, Doug Jones, now a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in a hotly contested race Alabama, was a second-year law student. He skipped classes to sit in on the trial, watching in amazement as William Joseph Baxley II, then U.S. attorney in Alabama, presented evidence against Chambliss.
Baxley had received death threats from white supremacists, including an ugly letter from KKK Grand Dragon Edward R. Fields. Baxley responded with a one-sentence missive typed on official stationery: “Dear Dr. Fields, my response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is kiss my ass. Sincerely, Bill Baxley, Attorney General.”
As Jones watched the testimony in the Jefferson County Courthouse, it became clear that Chambliss did not act alone in the bombing. The four girls killed — 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Wesley — had been in the church basement preparing for Sunday service. Addie Mae’s sister, Sarah Jean Collins, who was 12 then, lost an eye in the explosion.
“As I gave my undivided attention to Baxley’s powerful closing argument,” Jones told a House crime subcommittee two decades later, “I never in my wildest imagination dreamed that one day this case and my legal career would come full circle, giving me the opportunity, some 24 years later to prosecute the two remaining suspects for a crime that many say changed the course of history.”
More than 20 years after Chambliss was convicted, Jones would become U.S. attorney in Alabama and set out to finish what Baxley started. He brought charges against two more Klan members, Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., and Bobby Frank Cherry. The prosecutions have helped make him a contender in his Senate race against Republican Roy Moore, a contr oversial former judge. On Thursday, Moore was accused by a woman of initiating a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 and he was 32 — allegations he called “completely false” and his campaign dismissed as “the very definition of fake news.” Read more >>>>
I remember that bombing and had traveled enough in the Jim Crow South by then to know that I had met little girls just like these four. Both Condoleeza Rice and Angela Davis knew these little girls. For many of us, these four deaths hit with a sickening thud. Much like the Sandy Hook deaths, these children's murders said we were not protecting our must vulnerable.
When an industry can take strong steps in the face of assaults on the most trusting and vulnerable and government makes excuses, e.g. the ballots are printed, have gone out, folks have voted early ... there must be questions.
This is a special election for pete's sake! It cannot be rescheduled? You cannot find a more honorable candidate and replace this child molester?
Apparently the answer to all of that is no.
I suggest: perhaps instead of a negative campaign against Roy Moore, child molester, a positive campaign in favor of Doug Jones, child defender, might be in order.
This is the last big 2017 election before mid-terms. Maybe we win by emphasizing being on the right side, against the domestic terrorist organization, for that is what the Klan is, that killed little girls in their church.
There is a plethora of evidence and opinion against the bad guy. We should be pushing the creds of the good guy who took up a case so cold that he himself did not remember the incident and brought the bad guys to justice.
This is for all the little girls because you matter. As Hillary says, "...you are valuable and powerful & deserving of every chance & opportunity in the world."
I pray that Alabamans will vote for the man who held those four lives in esteem high enough to cause him to go after their killers many years past than for the guy who sends his friends on TV to giggle to Jake Tapper about how silly it is to believe what little girls remember even when they are grown ... and Republican.
With Super Tuesday just around the corner, Hillary greeted voters in
Birmingham today and held a rally at Miles College in Fairfield. She
will return to South Carolina later for a Watch Party and to thank her
team there for what, we are pretty sure, will be a decisive victory for
all.
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets people at a
restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama February 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton orders a shot of
espresso as she greets people at Urban Standard coffee shop in
Birmingham, Alabama February 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Democratic
presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton waves to the crowd as she
arrives for a campaign event at Miles College Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016,
in Fairfield, Ala. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Audience
members cheer as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton is
introduced at a campaign event at Miles College Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016,
in Fairfield, Ala. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves to supporters
at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama February 27, 2016.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rallies with
supporters at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama February 27, 2016.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
People
cheer for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as she
rallies with supporters at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama February
27, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rallies with
supporters at Miles College in Fairfeild, Alabama February 27, 2016.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Democratic
presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton gestures to the crowd as she
takes the stage for a campaign event at Miles College Saturday, Feb. 27,
2016, in Fairfield, Ala. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
MONTGOMERY,
Alabama. — Some 60 decades after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus
seat to a white man, Hillary R. Clinton arrived here to commemorate the
bus boycott that began on Dec. 1, 1955......
Hillary R Clinton
delivered an address at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott in the
basement sixty years ago.....
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets and gives a thumbs-up to
Fred Gray, Rosa Parks former attorney, before speaking at the Dexter
Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, in
Montgomery, Ala. Mrs. Clinton's keynote address is part of a two-day
event put on by the National Bar Association in recognition of the 60th
anniversary of the Montgomery city bus boycott witch began after Rosa
Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. (AP Photo/ Hal Yeager)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she takes a seat before
speaking at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Tuesday,
Dec. 1, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. Mrs. Clinton's keynote address is part
of a two-day event put on by the National Bar Association in
recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Montgomery city bus boycott
witch began after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man.
(AP Photo/ Hal Yeager)
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is greeted by Fred D.
Gray, attorney for the late civil rights icon Rosa Parks, at the Dexter
Avenue Baptist church during the National Bar Association's 60th
anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
December 1, 2015. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during the
National Bar Association's 60th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama December 1, 2015. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during the
National Bar Association's 60th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama
December 1, 2015. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the
National Bar Association's 60th Anniversary of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL, December
1, 2015 REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
Members
of the church wait to see U.S. Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton speak at the National Bar Association's 60th Anniversary
of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, December 1, 2015.
REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
Members
of the church wait to see U.S. Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton speak at the National Bar Association's 60th Anniversary
of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, December 1, 2015.
REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
U.S.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (4th L) sings "We
Shall Overcome" with other speakers at the National Bar Association's
60th Anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott December 1, 2015 in
Montgomery, AL. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton laughs before she speaks
during a meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala.,
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. (AP Photo/ Mark Almond)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton waits to speak during a
meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala., Saturday,
Oct. 17, 2015. (AP Photo/ Mark Almond)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a meeting
of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 17,
2015. (AP Photo/ Mark Almond)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton waves as she speaks
during a meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala.,
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Clinton tells black Alabama Democrats that
she'd champion voting rights in the White House. She says Republicans
are dismantling the progress of the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/
Mark Almond)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a meeting
of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 17,
2015. Clinton tells black Alabama Democrats that she'd champion voting
rights in the White House. She says Republicans are dismantling the
progress of the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/ Mark Almond)
Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during the Alabama
Semi-Annual Democratic Conference on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, at the
Hyatt Regency Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala. (Albert Cesare /The
Montgomery Advertiser via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT
