The Honorable Johnnie Walls Jr: For the People
By Mike Alexander
JA Guest Writer
When I learned that former Mississippi State Senator and Circuit Judge Johnnie Walls Jr. had passed on May 10, I was immediately taken back to before he became the outstanding legislator and jurist many probably know him as today. Walls, 80, served 18 years in the Mississippi State Senate, then six years on the 11th District Circuit Court, before retiring in 2016. He served two terms as the State Chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party. He was a statesman whose legacy as a jurist and senator will certainly endure.
And yet, acknowledgement of Walls’ many contributions to improving the state of Mississippi would not be complete without a brief retelling of some of his work before he ran for political office. A native of Clarksdale, MS, a 1968 graduate of Jackson State and Ole Miss Law School in 1971, as an outspoken young attorney, Walls was a principal in major litigation to improve civil rights, including that which made possible the election of the first Black Congressman in Mississippi since Reconstruction, Mike Espy.
As an attorney for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, he used his legal skills to work on cases to desegregate schools and public accommodations, fight against police brutality and employment discrimination, and to equalize municipal services for neglected Black communities. All of this endeared him to Blacks in Mississippi who faced grinding oppression, even worse than they face today. But as one might have suspected, it made him a nemesis to the wealthy white power structure that benefitted from the economic and social injustices that characterized, then and now, life in the Mississippi Delta.
This writer first met attorney Walls in 1982, during his courageous defense of former Tchula, Mississippi, Mayor Eddie Carthan and his brother Joseph Carthan, who had been falsely accused of murder of a political adversary in Holmes County. This was no ordinary trial, and thankfully Walls proved to be no ordinary lawyer. The attempt to frame the Carthans was in many ways a continuation of the decades long fight by those racist white Mississippians who were determined to keep Black people disenfranchised and out of power.
To frame Carthan, the local DA made deals with two men who had already been convicted of killing Tchula alderman Roosevelt Granderson. Carthan had been elected mayor of Tchula in 1977, an 80% Black town in Holmes County that had never had a Black mayor. His election, and insistence on using his office to actually improve services and jobs for the long neglected Black majority made Carthan an enemy of the state, and they struck at him, and his key supporters who became known as the Tchula 7, with a vengeance, accusing them of assaulting police officers, while stating publicly they would “never let a n..ger run the town.”
But the most serious charge, which carried the death penalty, was for murder. That ignited marches and rallies in support of Carthan across the county and state, and galvanized support from national Black leaders like Joseph Lowery, Dick Gregory, Nelson Johnson, and many others. And it created an almost surreal scene, like something out of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in the Holmes County courthouse as the tense racially charged trial commenced amidst death and bomb threats.
A crucial portion of the trial, which took four whole days, was jury selection. In vetting jurors Walls meticulously walked each one through their obligations, ensuring each understood that they alone must make up his or her mind about the case, and not succumb to any pressure whether from another juror or, more likely given the stakes in the trial, their white employer. With the county’s overwhelming Black population the jurors ended up all Black, and Walls had skillfully assured they were the kind of Black people courageous enough to think for themselves, not something to be taken for granted in a state where violence and intimidation were common against those who “got out of line.”
In effect, Walls’ strategy was to put the state of Mississippi, with its brutal history of racism, injustice, and terrorism against Black people, on trial. In cross-examination he destroyed the prosecution’s key witnesses, pointing out contradictions between their stories as well as what they said to police and later, when clearly coached, on the stand. When the jury found Carthan not guilty after a 17-day trial, shouts of hallelujah rang out from the packed courthouse. Justice at last, rolled down in Mississippi. Black people shouting, crying tears of joy, had never seen a Black attorney like Johnnie Walls thoroughly dismantle and embarrass prosecutors abusing their power to try and silence a Black leader.
Speaking to jubilant supporters, Walls called the verdict “the people’s victory,” chastised Mississippi for jailing countless Black men and women keeping them from voting, and said this is what can be accomplished when people stick together. Without the people, he said, “I wouldn’t have been able to even go to law school. I can never forget that in court.” The victory in one of the most racially charged, highly publicized trials in Mississippi history propelled Walls to eventually move into the political arena where he continued to fight for change, and for justice.
Today, when the present Administration in Washington, supported by cohorts in Mississippi, is intent on dictating what can be taught about Black history, it is vital that the exploits of Johnnie Walls and his co-counsels in the Carthan case never be forgotten. Johnnie Walls has earned his wings. May he forever rest in peace.
