Biography
Eddie James Carthan was elected in 1977 as the first Black mayor of Tchula, Mississippi since Reconstruction — and his term provoked a campaign of prosecutions that civil-rights groups nationwide denounced as a racist frame-up. After Carthan tried to install his own appointee as police chief in 1980 (over a rival, white chief the aldermen had appointed), he was beaten by police at City Hall, charged with assault, convicted, sentenced to three years, and forced from office. In 1981 he was charged with capital murder for allegedly hiring gunmen to kill a Tchula alderman and political rival, and faced the death penalty. A national "Free Eddie Carthan" campaign drew support from civil-rights, labor, and church organizations, and in 1982 a jury acquitted him of the murder. Carthan maintained throughout that he had been targeted by the local white power structure; after his acquittal he traveled the country supporting other frame-up victims.