Talk:Lynching of Mack Charles Parker

Untitled
The citation (pointing to UPI.com) seems to have nothing to do with Mack Charles Parker:

"A fellow prisoner told reporters that it was a dangerous situation because many of the men who lynched Parker had guns on them. " Fconaway (talk) 21:18, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Indictment?
The opening section indicated that a federal indictment was obtained, whereas the status section says that no indictments were ever issued. 203.27.72.5 (talk) 23:10, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Judge Sebe Dale requested that the court not indict the suspects. They never were. 173.51.123.97 (talk) 04:38, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Link that suspects' names appear in
Is this link of a city council meeting in 1977 that suspects' names show up in notable enough to include about their lives? Is it also notable to say that the farmer L.C. Davis has a street in Poplarville named after him? 173.51.123.97 (talk) 09:30, 12 January 2014 (UTC)


 * It seems it is the article for both Parker and the case. I'd suggest, Ideally, you'd have another article about the case, where you could go into (ref'd) detail about the suspects etc. As is, the article is called "Mack Charles Parker", so details of the suspects under this heading seems tangential and a bit coatrack. If you did create another article, I would then move all the case details over there so that the two articles don't pointlessly replicate themselves. If they did, you'd run the risk of one being deleted and a request made for the two to be merged. In terms of the linked council file, use of primary evidence as sources is not encouraged. Pulling out details (even really useful and interesting evidence) from public records comes perilously close to original research. I'd suggest using secondary sources to cover the material, if you can find them, newspapers, historical accounts, biographies and the like. Best wishes Span (talk) 14:30, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Controversy over whether Parker was innocent or not
Should it be noted that the book "Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker", written by Howard Smead; says he was probably not innocent, but deserved to have a fair trial; while mentioning that the Chicago Defender says that a white man in Poplarville believed Parker was innocent, which conflicts with Smead's book? 173.51.123.97 (talk) 22:57, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Sure, if there are good and specific references (page numbers, publication dates etc.) Wikipedia, however, does not set out to give our own judgement as to whether Parker was innocent or not, it's not our business. Offering conflicts of secondary evidence can be healthy. Giving different perspectives on the case seems valuable to me. We come at this only as encyclopaedia writers. Span (talk) 23:25, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Can anyone please cite the page of Smead's book that states that Parker was likely not innocent to provide different perspectives of the case? 173.51.123.97 (talk) 00:33, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Where did you get the info from? Smead's book is linked here for viewing. Span (talk) 00:39, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I found it in an article of "The Clarion Ledger". I finally cited the source. 173.51.123.97 (talk) 01:35, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * The Clarion Ledger source? Span (talk) 02:28, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, The link with his opinion in the Clarion Ledger newspaper has finally been cited. 173.51.123.97 (talk) 02:36, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi 97, personal blogs don't fly as sources (as they are self-published), see WP:RS for more details. If you add it, another editor may just come along later and remove it re the guidelines. As we want to make the article strong and long standing, I think it's best to add strong sources. This is the actual Clarion article. I have added that instead of the blog. I hope that works for you. Span (talk) 02:52, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I only cited the blog because it contains the actual article published by the newspaper where I could see everything. 173.51.123.97 (talk) 02:59, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Sure. I get that. It's great for reading the full text. 03:26, 13 January 2014 (UTC)