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Indiana cities honoring victim of 1968 racial killing

Posted at 7:06 AM, Oct 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-31 07:06:20-04

RUSHVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- Two small central Indiana cities are honoring a woman whose killing nearly 50 years ago left a community branded as racist over her long-unsolved death.

An event Wednesday will put Carol Jenkins-Davis' name on a city park in her hometown of Rushville. A Thursday ceremony is planned to dedicate a memory stone outside City Hall in Martinsville, where the 21-year-old black woman was killed while selling encyclopedias in 1968.

Rushville Mayor Mike Pavey says the redesigned park will recognize Jenkins-Davis' life and help teach the value of inclusion and diversity.

Prosecutors in 2002 charged a 70-year-old white man from Indianapolis with murder after his daughter told investigators that at age 7 she saw him stab Jenkins-Davis while yelling racial slurs.

She told investigators her father was a violent drunk, and that he hated black people. She said her father laughed and said "She got what she deserved."

The suspect, Kenneth C. Richmond, died of cancer months after being charged.

In the video player above, watch RTV6 stories from 2000 and 2002 about the investigation.

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