Thom Hartmann & Lamar Waldron: After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice

Published on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice
by Lamar Waldron & Thom Hartmann


A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. But there is finally a way for citizens to not only right that wrong, but bring closure to the most tragic chapter of American presidential history.

After an outstanding career in law enforcement, Abraham Bolden was appointed by JFK to be the first African American presidential Secret Service agent, where he served with distinction. He was part of the Secret Service effort that prevented JFK's assassination in Chicago, three weeks before Dallas. But Bolden was framed by the Mafia and arrested on the very day he went to Washington to tell the Warren Commission staff about the Chicago attempt against JFK.

Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, despite glaring problems with his prosecution. His arrest resulted from accusations by two criminals Bolden had sent to prison. In Bolden's first trial, an apparently biased judge told the jury that Bolden guilty, even before they began their deliberations. Though granted a new trial because of that, the same problematic judge was assigned to oversee Bolden's second trial, which resulted in his conviction. Later, the main witness against Bolden admitted committing perjury against him. A key member of the prosecution even took the fifth when asked about the perjury. Yet Bolden's appeals were denied, and he had to serve hard time in prison, and today is considered a convicted felon.

After the release of four million pages of JFK assassination files in the 1990s, it became clear that Bolden--and the official secrecy surrounding the Chicago attempt against JFK--were due to National Security concerns about Cuba, that were unknown to Bolden, the press, Congress, and the public not just in 1963, but for the next four decades. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/10-10

We knew about the Cuba angle at the time, though. Within a year of JFK's assasination, there were many people, I.F. Stone among them, saying that things pointed to the mob who had lost their casinos in Cuba, along w/ the Cuba section of the CIA which included many formerly wealthy Cuban expatriots, as being the perpetrators of it. This seemed particularly likely given the odds that JFK had gotten mob assistance in winning the WVa primary (remember his father--JFK might not have needed the help, but that isn't the point). They felt double-crossed when after the Bay of Pigs fiasco he shut down further attempts at a military takeover cloaked as an insurrection.

So Bolden may have been thrown under the bus by the same malefactors who had his President murdered. The story does give additional credence to the idea that people in high places were involved in okaying and covering up the JFK assasination.