[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3739]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING MR. CLINTON AND MRS. BEULAH MELTON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 4, 2014

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, this month is Black History 
month and I rise to honor two members of African American black 
history. They were two innocent lives cut short, Mr. Clinton Melton and 
his wife, Mrs. Beulah Melton of Glendora (Tallahatchie County), 
Mississippi.
  Being a part of history does not always require some extraordinary 
feat but sometimes simply being innocent and unjustly victimized. This 
is the case, Mr. Speaker with Mr. Melton and his wife, Mrs. Melton. 
They were two young African Americans living in the small town of 
Glendora, MS working hard and raising their four children. He was a gas 
station attendant but her occupation was never mentioned because her 
murder was covered up and only mentioned as a reckless driving incident 
and not really spoken of.
  Clinton Melton, Murdered: On December 3, 1955, Mr. Melton, a 33 year 
old gas station attendant of Lee McGarrh Firestone gas station in 
Glendora, went outside to gas up the car that Elmer Otis Kimball was 
driving. The car belonged to J.W. Milam, who had been acquitted on 
September 23, 1955 for the mutilation and murder of Emmett Louis Till.
  The story goes that Mr. Kimball asked for $2 worth of gas but because 
the amount Mr. Melton actually put in the car was not $2 (amount 
unknown) he was killed. Mr. Kimball had become enraged about the gas, 
and very loud and publicly vowed to return and kill Mr. Melton--a 
promise he kept, returning shortly thereafter leaving only to retrieve 
his shotgun. Mr. Clinton Melton was killed instantly in front of three 
witnesses (the owner, a friend, and a bystander) leaving behind his 
young wife and children.
  The trial of Elmer Otis Kimball, as in the Emmett Till's murder trial 
held at the Sumner Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi (Tallahatchie 
County), resulted in yet another ``not guilty'' verdict.
  Beulah Clinton, Murdered: She was a wife and mother of four who 
didn't deserve being murdered and forgotten about. Therefore Mr. 
Speaker, I rise today to also make sure her life is not forgotten by 
telling her story. At that time, the acquittal and humiliation of the 
Emmett Till murder trial was a fresh wound in Glendora, home of the 
murdered, and across entire Tallahatchie County. But, as a mother and 
wife, Mrs. Melton would not let that stop her. In March, 1956 one day, 
while out driving in an effort to gather information for the upcoming 
murder trial of her husband, Mrs. Melton was forced off the road into a 
bayou. In the car she had two of her small children, Debris and Clinton 
Melton, Jr. Both were rescued by a relative who saw the car while 
driving by.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the late Mr. 
Clinton and Mrs. Beulah Melton for Black History Month, whose lives 
were cut short for no justifiable reason from the Mississippi Second 
Congressional District.

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