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.
News & Letters, August–September 1982: His first-person testimony describes the paving, child-care, medical and transport programs introduced during his 1977 mayoral term and the white power structure’s retaliation. He explicitly dates his and six fellow Black officials’ conviction and nominal three-year sentences to May 1, 1981, following their arrest of rival white police chief Andrews. He describes a simple-assault-on-police-officer accusation and challenges the prosecution account. These are attributed testimony and sentence facts; they do not establish actual service of the three-year term. The native date is 1981, correcting OCR1961. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/news-and-letters/1980s/1982-08-09.pdf#page=8
Photograph source
The photograph is the original image attached to the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond's named account of the Free Eddie Carthan Campaign, written by longtime organizer Rev. David Billings. The organization describes its own involvement in that campaign; the image asset is explicitly named for Eddie Carthan. This provenance identifies the subject in the same Tchula mayor/campaign context, without relying on facial comparison. The source's 387 by 549 pixel image is preserved without additional crop, enhancement or reconstruction. Photograph date, photographer and reuse license remain unestablished. The source is used here for photograph provenance; its broad retrospective statements are not substituted for court records or the separately documented state and federal custody chronology.
Source: Rev. David Billings, The Free Eddie Carthan Campaign, PISAB; original attached image.
Transfers do not establish initial imprisonment
Contemporary March 4, 1983 reporting dates Carthan's transfer to Parchman to February 1. The April 15 report dates departure from Parchman to March 11, detention at the Jackson city jail, and transfer to the federal prison at Maxwell Air Force Base to March 25. These are changes of institution while already in custody, not first-arrest dates or releases to freedom. The reports therefore do not fill the missing initial incarceration date or justify a complete time-served calculation. The previously established October 13, 1983 final federal release remains intact. The separate state assault sentence and federal prosecution are not treated as one newly imposed sentence at transfer.
Sources: Harry Ring, The Militant, March 4, 1983, page 16; George Johnson, The Militant, April 15, 1983, page 16. Complete original pages visually checked; these reports are used for transfer chronology, not to overwrite the separately documented statutory charges.