[Post updated 1/24 to add a link] 

With each passing year, the absurdity of the Little Rascals charges has become more obvious. But no admission of error has ever come from prosecutors, police, interviewers or parents.

From an N&O op-ed by Lew Powell, a retired Charlotte Observer journalist who maintains an excellent site dedicated to the Little Rascals case.

It can be hard, in calmer times, to imagine the power of a moral panic like the one in Edenton, itself part of a broader national hysteria. Lisa and I wrote about the case and in our reporting found a community where rational people seemed afraid to dissent from the fantastical narrative. As young parents ourselves we were sympathetic to the families we met, but clearly things had gone very wrong in Chowan County. 

Certainly the State of North Carolina did not appreciate our efforts, as the letter above from the state DOJ shows; Mr. Hart seems to remain a part of our state's top legal team. (I hope to post our pre-web article soon. Here's a PDF of the 1993 Elle article.)

More than a year ago, Powell petitioned Attorney General Roy Cooper to acknowledge the injustice done to the Edenton Seven. Cooper has not responded.

Comments

[Hugh]

Interesting that the letter writer chose to start the first three paragraphs with "I".

Is he trying to tell us something?

[Chip Berry]

“I Believe the Children” bumper stickers were still common in Manhattan Beach when I moved to California in the late 1980’s. Among the claims we were to believe was that rabbits and other pets were sacrificed by men in black robes on the altar of the bucolic Saint Cross by the Sea Episcopal Church. Despite warnings from well-intentioned neighbors, we chose to join the Saint Cross parish and sent our young children to the Sunday school and the mothers morning out program. We would have had no reservations sending Katie and Walker to their preschool, had it not been closed during the hysteria. Father Eales, the church staff, and congregation all were battered by the absurd allegations, yet I’ve never met such warm, friendly, and caring people.
Moral panics are fueled by sensationalist media, and I would argue that the environment today is ripe for a repeat of the type of hysteria experienced in the 1980’s. I’m not sure we really do live in calmer times.