User:Jordanspen/sandbox

Article Evaluation -- Terry stop

A Terry stop is the act of detaining someone for a brief period of time due to reasonable suspicion. In this case, the police have to think that the person they've stopped has recently committed a crime or will commit a crime in the near future. At this point, the police do not have enough evidence to arrest the person, so they are limited to conduct a pat-down of the person's outer garments. Police are subject to pat down for weapons, but can utilize the "Plain View Doctrine" to seize other contraband. Traffic stops are essentially Terry stops because the police are temporarily holding the driver and his or her passengers during the duration of the "stop". If the driver and/or passengers seem armed and dangerous, the police can order them out of the vehicle without violating the Fourth Amendment. At the most, the police can search the passenger's side of the vehicle. However, the police need a warrant, probable cause, or the driver's permission to conduct a full search of the vehicle.

Evaluation Questions: Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Everything in the article was relevant to the topic. Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? There are no claims that make the article heavily biased toward a particular position. Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? The article seems to overrepresent the viewpoint of a police officer. Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? The only external link on the page works and supports the claims in the article.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? Most of the facts that are referenced come from reliable Wikipedia pages.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? The information seems up to date due to the fact that the page was last edited in September 2016.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? The Talk page consists of a personal experience with the Terry frisk. 

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? The article does not have a rating but is included in two WikiProjects. How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? We haven't discussed Terry stops in class yet.

Topic Justification -- Murder of Maceo Snipes

Maceo Snipes was the first and only black man to vote in Taylor County's primary election in Georgia. He was mortally wounded after casting his ballot, and eventually killed by four white men on his way home. The Wikipedia Article on the murder of Maceo Snipes does not contain that much information about the incident. First off, his named is spelled wrong in the article, and it does not provide details on the murder. Important details such as the name of the white men can be added to the article. In the original article, it does not give any background information about Maceo Snipes either.

This topic is relevant to human rights because it deals with violation of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution. After the Civil War, freed men were granted the right to vote. Although Maceo Snipes was a free man, he was killed because he was a black man trying to exercise his right. From what I've researched, Snipes was killed the day after he cast his vote. Four white men pulled up to his house and called him outside. Snipes and the white men got in a confrontation. One of the men, Edward Williamson, shot snipes in the back. Williamson happened to also be a WWII veteran like Snipes. All the white men were suspected members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Article Outline -- Murder of Maceo Snipes

Sterling, Erica. “Maceo Snipes.” The Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, Emory University, 24 Jan. 2016, scholarblogs.emory.edu/emorycoldcases/maceo-snipes/.

I. Background Information

  A. First black man to vote in Taylor County, Georgia 
      1. He casted his first vote in the 1946 Democratic primary for governor
      2. Before 1946, the state of Georgia only allowed whites to vote in the Democratic primaries 
      3. Snipes was a WWII veteran 
  B. KKK Threats 
      1. The Ku Klux Klan had made threats to any black person who thought about voting in the run-up up to the July 17 primary 
      

II. Day after Primary Voting

 A. Four white men arrive at Snipes' home 
     1. The men were suspected to be members of the KKK
     2. Edward Williamson shot Snipes in the back 
     3. Williamson was also a WWII veteran 
 B. Medical Neglect in the Hospital 
    1. Snipes was able to walk 3 miles to the home of Homer Chapman for help
    2. Chapman owned the land where Snipes and his mother were sharecroppers 
    3. Chapman took Snipes to the hospital
    4. Snipes did not receive medical help until after 6 hours 
    5. Transfusion was "impossible" because the hospital did not have any "black blood"  
C. Maceo Snipes Death
    1. Maceo Snipes did from his injuries two days later on July 20 
    2. The community was threatened to not go to Snipes' funeral 
    3. The funeral home director and Snipes' uncle buried his corpse at an unmarked grave in Butler Cemetery

III. Impact on Society

 A. Coroner's Verdict 
    1. Williamson told the jury that Snipes had owed him $10. 
    2. Williamson and Linwood Harvey went to Snipes house to "collect the debt"
    3. Williamson claimed that Snipes had a knife, so he shot him twice in self-defense

B. Newspapers

   1. The Norfolk Journal and Guide mentioned Snipes murder and four other racial killings 
   2. The Chicago Defender added Snipes story along with some Mississippi cases, titling the headline "Mania Grips Dixie; Three New Deaths Revealed"
   3. The New York Amsterdam News had a call for action, demanding that the Georgia lynchers be brought to justice 

C. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  1. The young Morehouse college student was deeply disturbed by the Snipes murder
  2. MLK wrote a letter to the editor, criticizing southern white hypocrisy and the "white distortion of black interests".

My Contribution Outline -- Murder of Maceo Snipes

I. Prior Information

• - Maceo Snipes was the first and only African American to vote in the primary in Taylor County, Georgia
• - The day after voting, he was dragged from his home by four white men, and shot in the back

II. Information to be Added

• - Firstly, the initial author misspells Maceo Snipes' name wrong and pronounces it as "Macio"
• - Only white men were allowed to vote in the Georgia state primaries
• - Maceo Snipes was a WWII veteran
• - Williamson, who was also a WWII veteran, shot Snipes in the back in Butler, Georgia
• - The four white men were all suspected members of the KKK
• - Homer Chapman, the landowner, assisted Snipes to the hospital 3 miles away
• - Snipes did not receive any medical help for six hours
• - He died in the hospital from his injuries two days later
• - The FBI began investigation on August 22, 1946
• - Williamson and Harvey were the only two white men identified in the car
• - The FBI failed to identify the other two white men who were in the car with Williamson and Harvey
• - In defense, Williamson claimed to have attempted to collect a $10 debt from Snipes
• - On July 29, 1946, Williamson was exonerated from the charges of killing Maceo Snipes
• - Williamson claimed that Snipes pulled out a knife, so he shot him in self defense
• - 61 years later, Snipes received a military burial with an empty casket
• - No one knows exactly where Snipes' body was buried
• - Newspaper articles that mentioned Snipes' murder and related civil rights murders

III. Sources utilized

• - Gamondi , Cristina. “Maceo Snipes - Notice to Close File.” The United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, 18 July 1946, www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/maceo-snipes-notice-close-file.
• - Novotny, Patrick. “Georgia's 1946 Governor's Race.” This Georgia Rising: Education, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Change in Georgia in the 1940s, Mercer University Press, 2007, pp. 198–201.
• - “Maceo Snipes Receives Proper Burial 61 Years Later.” WTVM.com - Columbus, GA - News, Weather, Sports - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports, WTVM, 21 July 2007, www.wtvm.com/story/6822510/maceo-snipes-receives-proper-burial-61-years-later.
• - Sterling, Erica. “Maceo Snipes.” The Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, Emory University, 24 Jan. 2016, scholarblogs.emory.edu/emorycoldcases/maceo-snipes/.

Contribution Draft -- Murder of Maceo Snipes

On July 18 1946, Macio Snipes was fatally shot in the back hours after casting his vote in the Georgia Democratic primary. Snipes was the first and only African American to vote in a Democratic primary. During this time the KKK were a in prime period of their movement. The Ku Klux Klan is notorious for encouraging extremist practices of white supremacy in the Southern United States. They were responsible for multiple lynchings of black people who decided to vote following Snipes' murder. For example, two black couples were lynched five days later Prior to the election, they made threats to lynch any black person who dared to cast a vote. Snipes and his mother were both sharecroppers on Homer Chapman's land in Butler, Georgia. The day after Snipes casted his vote, four white men pulled up to the land Chapman rented to him. All of the four white men were suspected KKK members. Two of the men were later identified as Edward Williamson and Linwood Harvey. Williamson and Snipes both happened to be WWII veterans .

When the four white men pulled up outside of Macio's grandfather's house, they asked Macio's mother to call him outside. They confronted him and it ended in Williamson shooting Macio in the back. After the men left, he and his mother walked to Chapman's house. Chapman helped them walk 3 miles to the hospital in Butler. The hospital staff did not treat Snipes until six hours later. By then, he needed a blood transfusion. The staff claimed that they did not have any "black blood". Two days later, Snipes died in the hospital from his injuries. Williamson was an initial suspect in the investigation. In front of a coroner's jury, he claimed that Macio owed him a $10 debt. Supposedly, Williamson and Harvey went to Macio to confront him on his debt. Williamson said that Macio had pulled out a knife, so he shot Macio twice in the back, claiming self defense. Coroner J.D. Cooke and a jury declared Williamson's actions as justified. Williamson was exonerated on his charges on July 29, 1946 .

The Butler funeral director and Snipes' uncle buried Macio at an unmarked grave in the Butler cemetery. Today, know one knows exactly where Macio's body is buried. He did not receive a proper empty casket burial until 61 years later. Macio's story, along with the murder of the two black couples received a lot of attention in the newspapers, such as the Atlanta Constitution. While studying at Morehouse, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter in response to the newspaper's remarks on the killings of Macio Snipes and the two black couples. His family was left with an empty grave and no justice.