[Letter from John H. Sanders and Mario Marcel Salas to Benjamin Hooks - 1979] Page: 1 of 6
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ORGANIZATIONS UNITED
PRESIDENT: JOHN H. SANDERS
VICE PRESIDENT:
SECRETARY: BETTY ROBERTS
TREASURER: PEGGY GREENE
PARLIAMENTARIAN: LILLIAN SUTTON TAYLOR
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER: MARIO SALAS
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER:
TOMMY "T.C." CALVERT
FOR
Neighborhoods
EASTSIDE DEVELOPMENT
A. Phillip Randolph Institute—Black Coalition on Mass
Media—f r—Healy Murphy
Center—Jacobs Chapel United Methodist Church—
San Antonio Voters Action League—Second Baptist
Church Athletic Commission—Texas Black Caucus—
Young Mens Christian Association.
POST OFFICE BOX 2001
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78297
Benjamin Hooks
National NAACP-President
1719 Broadway
Few York, New York 10019
Dear Sir,
We ere writing you this letter in protest of the actions of S*L
Deckard, who sits on the national board# Our organization has been
working on a very important civil rights case in which two security
guards murdered in cold blood a Black man by the name of Webb Eugene
Boyd. Re was killed in the parking lot of Shoppers World Center on
December the 1$th 1978. Since that time the defense attorney for the
two security guards, Fred Semaan has used every trick in the book
and out of the book to get these guards aquitei# during the course
of the trial Mr« Semaan constantly referred to the deceased as "the
Black man" in an attempt to prejudiced the jury which did not have
one Black on it«
Webb Eugene Boyd was called a "nigger" before being killed and
after he had been shot in the chest and was lying in the front seat
of his automobile* dying or possibly already dead* one of the officers
came up and pumped another bullet into the bottom side of -r# Boyc!
after pushing him over# This senseless murder was protested in a
number of press conferences in which the local chapter of the i\AACP
supported us. Mr. Charles Hudspeth was very supportive as the local
president of the NAACPf as were State Representative Lou 1 elle Sutton,
City Councilman Joe Webb and many other groups# Please see the
enclosed news clippings pertainfcnfcoto this.
During the course of the trial all of the Blacks rere removed
from the courtroom through a legal move by Mr* Semaan thereby denying
them their constitutional right to attend a public trial. ±he judge
in the trial, A1 Klien, was apparently in cohoots with the defense
and allowed this to happen* The trial is now scheduled to begin in
October after they were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and
sentenced to six years, since a retrial was granted because of a
"misplaced statement" that came up "missing" that the defense claimed
*A CITIZENS ACTION & CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS NO. I'
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Sanders, John H. & Salas, Mario Marcel. [Letter from John H. Sanders and Mario Marcel Salas to Benjamin Hooks - 1979], letter, 1979; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth290909/m1/1/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UT San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.