Frank Manning

Case summary

Incident

On March 24, 1940, Frank Manning was with a group of Black people in Chadbourn, North Carolina. According to a NAACP report, a white police officer with the Chadbourn Police Department, Pete Kellihan, was called to “stop a disturbance in the Negro section” of town. Newspapers reported that Kellihan had joined the Chadbourn police force that week. Eyewitnesses told the NAACP that Kellihan got out of his car and shot into a crowd of Black people as they fled.

Kellihan shot Manning in the back of the head, killing him. Before the coroner arrived, witnesses saw Kellihan turn Manning over onto his back and then return him facedown. Newspapers reported Kellihan told a coroner’s jury that Manning had a knife and cut Kellihan’s leather jacket before Kellihan shot him. Eyewitnesses wrote the NAACP that they believed Kellihan placed a knife under Manning when he turned him over in order to create an alibi.

Newspapers reported that Manning had worked for D.F. Ward, a white farmer in the area. He did not have relatives come to claim his body, so Ward buried him.

Aftermath

The next day, a coroner’s jury found that Kellihan had acted in self-defense.

On March 27 and again on March 29, Junius E. Clarke, a Black resident of Chadbourn, wrote to Thurgood Marshall, general counsel of the NAACP, on behalf of a group of concerned Black residents and asked for assistance in getting justice in Manning’s case. They wrote that they had “fear for [their] lives” if “this flagrant and wanton murder goes unpunished” and Kellihan remained on the force. Clarke mentioned that Kellihan had been dismissed from several other police forces in the area for killing Black people. Marshall wrote North Carolina Gov. Clyde R. Hoey on April 3 to request an investigation by the North Carolina attorney general “because of the fact that there is much evidence tending to establish the fact that this killing was unjustified.” David Sinclair, an attorney in Wilmington, North Carolina, wrote Marshall on April 7 and introduced himself as the chief prosecuting attorney of the Eighth Judicial District of North Carolina. Sinclair told Marshall that he was investigating the Manning case at the request of Hoey and asked for the names of witnesses from the NAACP, which Marshall provided, as did Clarke in other communications with Sinclair.

On May 8, Sinclair wrote Marshall that he made a “thorough investigation” into Manning’s death and presented it to a grand jury between April 29 and May 6, calling “between 20 and 30 witnesses.” Sinclair said “each and every witness” was questioned by the grand jury, who ultimately found “that the killing of Frank Manning was perfectly justifiable by the officer and done in the line of duty.” Marshall responded inquiring if the investigation revealed “sufficient evidence to warrant a recommendation by you for the dismissal” of Kellihan from the police force.

On May 31, Clarke wrote Marshall about the grand jury proceedings. He said that the grand jury examined 13 witnesses, only two of whom were eyewitnesses, even though there were other eyewitnesses present via summons. The grand jury also summoned all signatories of Clarke’s letter to Marshall. When Clarke testified, grand jurors asked him questions including, “Don’t you know white people of Chadbourn will have it in for you?” and “Don’t you know Officer Kellihan can handle you for writing that letter [to Marshall]?” Grand jurors told Clarke, “You all are conspiring to damage this officer’s character. It is a conspiracy between you all.” They ordered him not to write Marshall again and stated, “Mr. Kellihan was right in killing the n—.” The grand jury also threatened to have another Black witness, Lee Battle, arrested during his testimony. According to Clarke, Sinclair was not present for the grand jury hearing and “evinced very little interest in this hearing or case.” Clarke wrote Marshall that it was “street report” that he was a “marked man” because of his advocacy in the Manning case and organizing work with Black residents. He continued, “However, I am being careful not to travel alone at night, notwithstanding this rumor, I shall continue to report things that are of vital concern to my race.”

On June 7, Sinclair wrote Marshall that he did not “want to be bothered with you or your Association any more” and told Marshall, “Frankly, I think you are running a racket.”

On June 28, Marshall wrote O. John Rogge, assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), and shared materials relating to Manning’s death. Referencing a previous conversation with Rogge about the DOJ considering police brutality cases, Marshall wrote, “The action of the Grand Jury in intimidating witnesses rather than in seeking to investigate the particular killing is an example of the type of justice given Negroes in many sections of the country.” On July 22, Rogge responded to Marshall and asked for evidence of other acts of violence by Kellihan in his capacity as a police officer and said that the material gathered by the NAACP on Manning “is being given careful perusal.”

On Sept. 17, Marshall wrote to several people in Whiteville, North Carolina on the recommendation of Clarke, asking for details about Kellihan’s previous racist violence. Marshall wrote Rogge on Sept. 24, forwarding information from Reverend J.D. Francis that Kellihan was removed from the Whiteville police force after killing a Black person.

There is no record of a DOJ follow-up on Kellihan. The Chadbourn branch of the NAACP opposed Sinclair’s reelection on the basis of his “deplorable” handling of the Manning case. Sinclair lost the primary in June 1942.

In addition to the killing reported by Francis, the Whiteville News Reporter reported that Kellihan shot and killed another Black man, Sidney Cooper, while on duty with the Fair Bluff police on Sept. 27, 1938. Kellihan had joined the department a month prior. Newspaper reporting indicates he stayed on the Fair Bluff force until at least March 1939.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Genealogical Records

• Death Certificates for Columbus County, North Carolina, United States, 1940
• North Carolina, United States, Death Index, 1940

News Coverage

• “Chadbourn Negro Slain by Officer,” News Reporter (Whiteville, NC), March 25, 1940
• “Coroner’s Jury Exonerates Cop,” Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), March 27, 1940
• “Fire Discovered in Storage House,” News Reporter (Whiteville, NC), December 1, 1938
• “Jury Exonerates Chadbourn Officer in Killing Negro,” Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), March 27, 1940
• “Kellihan Freed in Slaying Case,” Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), March 26, 1940
• “Kellihan Joins Fair Bluff Cops,” News Reporter (Whiteville, NC), August 25, 1938
• “Moore Defeats David Sinclair,” Winston Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), June 28, 1942
• “Officer is Freed in Negro’s Death,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), March 26, 1940
• “Piccolo Robbed at Fair Bluff,” News Reporter (Whiteville, NC), March 23, 1939
• “Police Officer Slays Negro Making Attack on Him,” News Reporter (Whiteville, NC), September 28, 1938