Willie Countryman

Case summary

Incident

Around 1 a.m. on May 25, 1958, Willie “Wootie” Countryman was standing outside his home in Dawson, Georgia, conversing with his partner, Mary Robinson. Two days earlier, the couple, both of whom were Black, had been arguing by the side of the road when a white police officer stopped, asked what was wrong, and ordered Robinson into the car. She was jailed overnight and released in the morning. When Robinson and Countryman met around 7 p.m. on May 24 to see a movie, Robinson said she told Countryman that white Dawson police officer Harold Jones had warned her “not to be seen” at Countryman’s house again. Countryman determined “it would be best” not for them to see a movie together and they parted ways. Several hours later, Robinson dropped by Countryman’s home to talk.

Robinson told the FBI that as she and Countryman stood outside chatting, they heard a noise from the back of the house. Countryman went to investigate. Robinson stated she heard the sound of a fall followed by a gunshot and then heard Countryman say, “I’m sorry I didn’t know it was you all.” Though it was dark, Robinson said, she observed two police officers in the backyard–one by a tree and another by a small outbuilding.

Countryman’s neighbors — his cousin Odell Williams and wife Ollie — lived in the abutting house. They shared a backyard, divided by a fence. The Williamses said they were hosting several people at their home that evening, and Ollie Williams and a friend were in the yard by their outhouse when they heard the gunshot. Odell and Ollie Williams went to see what happened and observed a body on the ground. They told the FBI that one of the officers announced it was Countryman.

The two white officers in the yard were Weyman Burchle Cherry and Robert Hancock. Cherry, one of the officers who had arrested and participated in the fatal beating of Black Dawson resident James Brazier a month prior, had shot and wounded another Black Dawsonian, Willie “Tobe” Latimer, the night before. Cherry and Hancock told the FBI they had parked their car and walked through Countryman’s yard on foot to investigate “a disturbance.” According to Cherry, Countryman jumped out from behind a tree and swung at him with a knife, slicing his cap. Cherry said he ran and Countryman lunged at him, so he shot Countryman in the stomach.

Hancock said he called Moore’s Funeral Home for an ambulance and alerted Chief of Police Howard Lee. Joseph Moore, Black proprietor of the funeral home, arrived with two employees, Harrison Powell and Ernest Johnson. Lee, who had arrived shortly before, and Cherry told the FBI that when Powell and Johnson lifted Countryman onto the stretcher, they observed a knife under his body. Powell said he noticed a knife on the stretcher once Countryman had been lifted, but never saw one on the ground. Moore, the Williamses, and Hancock all stated they did not see a knife at the scene.

Powell transported Countryman to Terrell County Hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival.

Aftermath

Dr. Charles Ward, the same physician who had attended to Brazier, told the FBI that he conducted a partial autopsy and determined that Countryman died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Though several witnesses stated Countryman had not been drinking alcohol that evening, Ward stated that the “odor of moonshine whiskey was quite prominent” in the abdominal cavity fluid.

A coroner’s jury convened on May 26 and determined Cherry acted “in line of duty and in self-defense.”

On May 28, local Masonic lodge leader John Wesley Dobbs forwarded to the FBI a May 25 letter he received from the “Law, Justice, Order” group, composed of Black leaders in Terrell County, imploring an investigation into police violence in Dawson. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI subsequently launched an investigation into the killings of Countryman and Brazier, the shooting of Latimer, and several other instances of law enforcement assaults on Black residents of Dawson.

Countryman was buried at Sardis Cemetery in Dawson on April 30.

The FBI began interviewing witnesses on June 4. Several witnesses stated in their FBI interviews that Countryman never carried a knife. When asked to produce the knife to FBI agents, Cherry was unable to locate it. He told the FBI that he still had the cap but it had been cleaned, commenting that he “guessed he should have left it as it was” so that agents could see the dirt that was on it.

The NAACP launched its own investigation in June, determining that the only two trees in Countryman’s yard–pecan and peach trees–were, as Ollie Williams stated in her NAACP affidavit, too small “for a man to hide behind.” Odell Williams told the NAACP that he observed both officers turn Countryman over and go through his pockets, finding nothing.

Reporter Robert E. Lee Baker interviewed local law enforcement for a Washington Post article on Dawson that was published on June 8. Of Countryman, Lee told Baker, “He had only been arrested twice before and seemed to be a good n–.” Lee said his “informants” told him that “Countryman had sworn to ‘get’ Cherry for Brazier’s death.”

A federal grand jury convened in Macon on Aug. 4. On Aug. 8, the jury declined to indict Cherry, Hancock, or any other law enforcement officer alleged to have violated the civil rights of Black victims in Dawson.

The DOJ closed Countryman’s file on April 10, 1959.

In August 1960, the President’s Civil Rights Commission (CRC) conducted a field investigation in Terrell County. When they interviewed Cherry in the presence of Dawson Mayor James Raines, Cherry said he heard from “a colored informant” that Countryman had planned to kill him “before the week was out.” Raines “interrupted” Cherry to explain that the shooting “occurred at a very tense time,” adding that “race relations had deteriorated sadly since the Brazier killing and other events.” The mayor then clarified to the CRC that he had been made aware of rumors of “a Negro plot to kill ‘a policeman.’”

Cherry died in 1970, Hancock in 1991.

Following the DOJ's 2007 Cold Case Initiative and the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, the DOJ reopened Countryman’s case. The FBI reviewed the 1958 case file, conducted interviews, and searched for death certificates. Determining that both subjects were deceased, the DOJ closed Countryman’s case on April 6, 2009.

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:

Archival Sources

• Donald L. Hollowell Collection; Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History; Atlanta, Georgia
• NAACP Papers: Legal Department, 1956-1965, General Administrative File, Crime: General, June-Dec. 1958; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C
• Records of the Selective Service System, 1926–1975; Record Group 147; National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
• United States Commission on Civil Rights Records: Justice Program; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts
• United States Commission on Civil Rights Records: Legal; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts

Genealogical Records

• Population Schedule for Terrell County, Georgia, United States Federal Census, 1950

Newspaper Articles

• “3 Freed After Civil Rights Statute Probe,” Atlanta Daily World, August 10, 1958
• “13 Killed in Traffic, Including Police Chief,” The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), October 26, 1970
• “Despair Drove Dawson People to Talk to ‘Post’ Reporter,” Atlanta Daily World, June 13, 1958
• “Fail to Indict in Race Deaths,” Chicago Defender, August 16, 1958
• “FBI Probes Terrell County Fear, Intimidation Cases,” Atlanta Daily World, June 11, 1958
• “FBI Sifts Charges of Police Murders of Georgia Negroes,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 17, 1958
• “Grand Jury Declines to Indict Policemen in Death of Negroes,” Macon News (Macon, GA), August 9, 1958
• “Jury Bars Action in Negro Deaths,” The New York Times, August 10, 1958
• “Macon Jury Won’t Indict 3 Policemen,” The Atlanta Journal (Atlanta, GA), August 9, 1958
• “No Indictments Found in Georgia Beatings,” Washington Post, August 9, 1958
• “Police Chief Loses Life in Accident,” The Columbus Ledger (Columbus, GA), October 25, 1970
• “Policemen ‘No Billed’ in Civil Rights Case,” The Atlanta Journal, August 10, 1958
• “President Disturbed by Violence Against Negro in Southland,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 21, 1958
• “Second Man Dies in Dawson After ‘Arrest Attempt,’” Atlanta Daily World, May 27, 1958
• “Terror in Georgia,” The Washington Post, June 9, 1958
• Trezzvant Anderson, “Dawson, Ga. Mystery Cracked,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), February 16, 1963
• Robert E. Lee Baker, “Death and Violence Terrorize Negroes of Georgia Town,” Washington Post, June 8, 1958
• Virginia Gardner, “Georgia Uses Cops’ Bullets Against Ballots,” Daily World (New York, NY), June 22, 1958
• Louis Lautier, “Diggs Asks Probe of Ga. Terrorism,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 21, 1958
• —, “Rights Commission Runs from Troubles,” Call and Post (Cleveland, OH), June 21, 1958
• —, “White Writer Exposes Massacre of Negroes,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 14, 1958
• Jack Nelson, “Dawson Officials Deny Capital Paper ‘Fear’ Story,” Atlanta Constitution, June 9, 1958