die from one of the bombs that was exploding in birmingham. so i found myself for many years after that, probably about 20 depressionering from at a time where we didn't call it depression, but it took a long time to sort through the things that had happened here in birmingham and to understand them and to put them in perspective. what made me decide to write the book was just the resurgence of mean-spiritedness that i began to see. i really felt that america had reached a crossroads many years after the bombing of the church. i really felt that america had looked back and had looked at all the mistakes we had made in our country and that they were committed to moving forward in a positive way for all of its citizens. when i began to realize and to see things that were contradictory to that, i decided that perhaps we had forgotten many of the lessons we have learned.

in many cases we had not talked those lessons, but in other cases we have forgotten. i decided that i would go back and recapture the memories of a 14-year-old from the bombing of the church. the 16th street baptist church bombing, louisiana shoe shop owner frank morris and his store were set on fire. he died four days later. up next on c-span, a look into the murder of frank morris and the investigation of the crime. >> a year ago the fbi began a nationwide initiative to identify these cold cases. we asked our 50 six field officers to re-examine their unsolved civil rights cases and determine which ones could still be liable for prosecution. began, we initiative have been provided with information regarding nearly 800

such cases. each will need to be assessed for its investigative and legal viability, but the cases in which we can move forward, we will move forward. in 2007, the fbi announced it was reopening about 100 unsolved murders that happened during the 1950's and 1960's. one of those murders occurred in faraday, louisiana in 1964. one journalist and a group of journalism students from louisiana state university are working with the fbi to help solve this and other cases. >> frank morris owned a shoe shop in faraday. in 1964 he was 51. he was able to do something that was really unique for the day. loyal white a very and black clientele. suddenly, in 1964 that became a klan. they the

became resolved that they were not going to allow civil rights to come to this area. the problem for them became that frank morris, when white women would drive up to the shop and oftentimes frank would walk out to the ladies car and take the order, just because of the racial sensitivity of the day. white women would not have to come into a shop and sit down where other black man might be sitting around. it was a social taboo. that, coupled with the fact that frank had apparently had some run-ins with police man, a deputy namedth frank lauter. he was called big frank. he was six feet four inches him weighed pounds -- 265 pounds. yeah terrell -- had a terrible reputation for meanness. >> this -- these are some of the

photocopies of the stories that i got from the national archives. this is interesting because frank to lauter, who was one of the people who stanley believes is involved in the frank morris case actually was never arrested or indicted for anything in connection to that case. he was indicted for being involved in a beating of a white male, actually. informantsfbi's best actually gave this interview. in here he talks about how they actually went to the king hotel and ended up beating william davis. wascally, frank delauter not somebody anybody in the town wanted to mess with. he was big, he was mean. he's basically somebody right out of a storybook. you could not make up some of the things he did.

he obviously had no problem taking someone down to a jail and beating the living daylights out of them for something that he couldn't even prove. >> some shoes are brought in, either cowboy boots or shoes. frank morris told frank delauter i'm not going to do any more you pay you until me. he was this huge, violent deputy. frank morris was being uppity. he was a black man talking that way to a white man. we pretty well believe for traitor tot was a the arson. frank said that he was asleep in a small tiny back room in the back of his shack. sometime after midnight, he heard glass breaking and he got up and walked to the front of the shop and saw two men, two white men, one had a shotgun,

the other had a gasoline can and was spreading fuel on the outside of the shop. frank confronted the two men, ask them what are you all doing, quit that. he said something happened, somebody threw a or something. two policemen, they had left town and the towns on patrol car. they had driven on most of the day which was about nine or 10 miles away. one of the officers told me, of course the one that was alive said that when they arrived they noticed that the shoe shop was on fire.

in fact, it look like an pieces of there were cinderblock, material all out in the street. as they rounded the front of the shop they saw frank coming out the back or. frank was completely naked. shortsburned his boxer and his t-shirt off of him. bleeding, pieces of skin were fallen off his body. everywhere he walked he left a trail of muddy footprints. the two officers took him and put him into their car and took him to the hospital which was about a mile away. a short time later, the fbi was notified and an agent came out of alexandria and actually interviewed frank

morris on an ibm dictaphone. that is why we have an account of what frank saw that night. the interesting thing about this is that the fbi actually destroyed that recording back in the 1970's. i guess they never thought that the case would be opened again. towas very disappointing learn that we would not hear his voice. maybe we could pick up some evidence.

>> this is the hospital that he went with. this truth to be fatal. it was thought for a while but he never really identified anyone while he was in the hospital that did this. she named both of the people that she said that he told her did it. the names are redacted in the final score whatever reason. she identified two potential suspects as well as an interesting motivation. in some casual way, she did business in his shop on a fairly regular basis. she came in and kind of opposition to him at which point he told her that he would call her.

he did notoes that necessarily call her but somehow -- it could have been the straw that broke the camels back as far as the attack on morris's shop. it is another little piece in the potential motivation as to why someone would want to burn frank shop down because he was an affable guy, everybody seem to like him. the motivation there is racial but why exactly frank. something that frank has been struggling to understand. >> he probably suspected that the frank was responsible, however, there is no question that he was easily identifiable. frank morris saw him standing outside of the shop, it would have been a mistaken. i don't believe that frank was standing out there. thosem very impressed by

guys, those fbi guys out in the field. happenedce the fire into 65, they were really heavily. still unable to make a case. the primary problem was that they can never find witness that said they heard the perpetrators say i did it. even their best informants, no one would say that. no one pretended to know who actually did it although everyone suspected somebody. , so the case just went cold. >> this is in a profile that we found that was interesting. it is addressed to mr. hoover. 18, 1964 on aer cold night at about 1:00 in the morning. the kkk burned down frank morris's shop.

as of now, we have not heard what happened to the killer. it is possible that they will get away with this act without being exposed even though the police were part of the gang that committed this terrible act. your office is our only hope. >> why is this significant to you? >> it goes to show the feltessness that they -- ng this time stupid they fell during this time. hard it wase of how

to live in concordia at the time. >> they open the doors wide open and said i will do anything to help you. the fact that the grand jury was convened and part of this mission to look into the frank morris case is really significant. a small step towards justice. thank god we are there now. what we've got to do is continue the momentum and continue to push the federal government to resolve this case.

>> c-span's american history tour focuses on native americans. we start off with the level of the biddle big horn. a tour of a new mexico pueblo. 9000-year-old native american autographs in montana. in american history tour continues on c-span. the 1957 desegregation of central high school is well known. little-known school was desegregated, north high school. the lesser-known story of north little rock high school.