We look at the history and dangers of interracial dating in the South.

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On the left is Billey Joe Johnson Jr. in a high school yearbook. On the right is the couple at their 10th grade prom. Credit: Courtesy of the Johnson family


** Mississippi Goddam Episode 5: Star Crossed
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I’m pacing as the phone rings. This is the third time in three years I’ve been this close to reaching Hannah Hollinghead, the former girlfriend of Billey Joe Johnson Jr. The ringing stops, and I hear a tentative, “Hello.” I ask if she knows who I am. She definitely does.

If you’ve been following our serial investigation, Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe ([link removed]) , you know why I’ve been trying to reach Hollinghead for so long. She told police that she was one of the last people to see Johnson alive. He died during a traffic stop just minutes after she said he drove away from her trailer on the morning of Dec. 8, 2008.

When I reach Hollinghead, she isn’t ready for a recorded interview. But we talk for nearly 30 minutes. She tells me Johnson was her first love. They met during their freshman year of high school and dated on and off for about two years. It was a complicated relationship. First, because he was Black and she was White. A lot of people in town held a bigoted view of interracial dating, even in 2008. And she says her parents didn’t approve of him because of the way he treated her.

In this week’s episode, Star Crossed ([link removed]) , we look at the history and dangers of interracial dating in the South. We dig into why Hollinghead’s parents didn’t want her to date Johnson, and we delve into another emotionally charged topic: suicide. The Department of Justice reviewed the case and found that Johnson had killed himself. Investigators failed to explore that possibility by interviewing close friends and family about his state of mind. So we do that work.

This is one of the hardest episodes for us to work on. We confront so many hard issues. But we try to approach all of them with empathy and respect and through the rigorous lens of investigative journalism.

I hope you’ll listen to Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe ([link removed]) and tell us how we did. Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Light,

Al Letson
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