• Timothy Hood

     
  • "On February 8, 1946, Timothy Hood, 23 year-old honorably discharged Marine veteran, was arrested and shot to death by Brighton Police Chief G.B. Fant in Bessemer, Alabama. Shortly after boarding a streetcar, Hood moved a Jim Crow sign separating whites from blacks to relieve congestion. When conductor William R. Weeks told him to stop, Hood stood his ground. Weeks fired five shots at Hood. Although two of the bullets hit him, Hood escaped. Chief Fant arrested Hood and placed him in the back of his police car where Fant shot Hood in the head. Fant later claimed that Hood was reaching for a weapon. The shooting was ruled a "justifiable homicide" by the Jefferson County Coroner, T.J. McCollum. No legal action was taken." (Timothy Hood Collection, Northeastern University: )
     
    Organizations like the NAACP, the Student Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), the Alabama Veterans Association, and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, along with prominent members of the Black community around Bessemer, including in Birmingham, became involved in demanding justice for Hood's murder. Not only had he been shot at by the streetcar conductor and shot dead by the police chief, the coroner determined his death to be 'justifiable homicide'. The protests yielded no consequences for those involved.