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Minkah / Santos Rodriguez and Michael Morehead

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Interviewer: In 1973, Santos Rodriguez was murdered. Were you a part of the demonstrations that happened after his murder? Minkah: I was in that march. Interviewer: Do you remember what happened during that march? Can you describe a little bit of the atmosphere, what you saw, who else was there what other organizations? Minkah: First of all, first of all it was a peaceful march and- Interviewer: Right. Minkah: There was a lady, got hold of a bullhorn, and she was shouting somebody, her son, somebody, something happened, she was, and the police with the police cars there they let her get on top of the car. With the bullhorn. And she pumped the crowd up, in a while, and, it took attention away from the actual speakers, which is up on the steps of the courthouse, on Harwood. And so the attack squad waited on the ground up there, coming around the corner, and so, handful of police was there and pretty soon somebody took the policeman's hat, threw it in the air, and I think he took his gun, started kicking him, stuff like that, and they started beating up police around there. And so, me and, I forget the other guy's name, we left, I never was so much for marches anyway, so we started getting out of there but first- the mob crowd got to a certain point enough that it's just going to have to will/wear itself out, because I was trying to get the people to not follow the police back around to the other side where they got the attack squad around there which, you know. And then they was, they was asking me, 'But do you think it was right?' I said 'No it wasn't right at all' and I gave the form to somebody else and I left. You know. So that was the only time in the history of Dallas that an officer had been indicted for shooting somebody on duty. The first, first time. And he still only got five years. He killed a couple of people before then. Interviewer: I was gonna say, it's my understanding that he had killed- Minkah: He killed Michael Morehead, you know, and he's a killer. And see back then these killers could stay on the force. And whoever said, 'hey, you killed somebody and we know you killed somebody, you're gonna patrol back around here.' No, no. That can't be. We shouldn't let it happen. Interviewer: Do you know the story of Michael Morehead because I feel like that story is almost glossed over a lot of times. Minkah: I wasn't here at that time, I got home right after it happened. But I met his family and everything, in fact, his sister was a member of our organization. Interviewer: Which one? Minkah: Rita Morehead, think it was Rita Morehead. Interviewer: Ok. And which organization? Minkah: The Andrea(?) Davis party. Interviewer: Ok. Minkah: She... Interviewer: Is she still around? Minkah: I don't know. Interviewer: Ok. Minkah: I don't know. But, I think he was chasing Michael, shot him down, I understand he went and shot over him while he was down on the ground. And see there was another officer named him Mad Dog, we called him Mad Dog, M.D. And he shot somebody, and it was about his third time shooting somebody. And I got a witness, I got an affidavit from a witness saying that he was at the police station, and when he was sitting down there, in, so he had his head down, you know, kind of like almost distraught a little bit I guess, and one of the older officers went by and cheered him up. He patted him on the shoulder and said 'Don't worry, M.D., you just shot a nigger in the line of duty.' That was the word of the day back then.

Interview Interview with Fahim Minkah
Subjects Police and Law Enforcement › Police Brutality
Police and Law Enforcement › Community Relations and Law Enforcement
Direct Action › Marches
Tags Rodriguez, Santos
Fort Worth National Bank
Cain, Darrell
Morehead, Michael
Morehead, Rita
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Interview date 2017-08-26
Interview source CRBB Summer 2017
Interviewees Minkah, Fahim
Interviewers Bynum, Katherine
Locations Dallas, TX
Duration 00:04:14
Citation "Santos Rodriguez and Michael Morehead," from Fahim Minkah oral history interview with Katherine Bynum,  August 26, 2017, Glenn Heights, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/7293/santos-rodriguez-and-michael-morehead, accessed March 18, 2024