Potoooooooo
Contributor
http://www.queerty.com/jewel-thief-was-the-robin-hood-of-gay-liberation-20140623
Looking for a nice-time feel-good story? Check out our new hero, Eddie Sandifer. Back in the 1960s, he robbed a couple of jewelry stores in order to raise money for civil rights causes.
OK, so maybe nighttime burglary is kind of a problematic strategy, movement-wise. But Eddie’s heart was always in the right place, and his caper certainly sounds exciting.
Apparently he used to check out a store ahead of time, planning escape routes across train tracks. He would time his heists so that he could get across the tracks just before trains came by, so police would be unable to follow him. It’s like something out of a movie.
This all happened in Mississippi, during some of the hardest struggles of the civil rights era. The money that he raised went towards causes grass-roots organizations fighting for equality.
And LGBT liberation wasn’t his only cause. He was also active with the NAACP — though that group was reluctant to work with queers. (Of course, that’s changed very much these days.) He also advocated for the rights of seniors.
Looking for a nice-time feel-good story? Check out our new hero, Eddie Sandifer. Back in the 1960s, he robbed a couple of jewelry stores in order to raise money for civil rights causes.
OK, so maybe nighttime burglary is kind of a problematic strategy, movement-wise. But Eddie’s heart was always in the right place, and his caper certainly sounds exciting.
Apparently he used to check out a store ahead of time, planning escape routes across train tracks. He would time his heists so that he could get across the tracks just before trains came by, so police would be unable to follow him. It’s like something out of a movie.
This all happened in Mississippi, during some of the hardest struggles of the civil rights era. The money that he raised went towards causes grass-roots organizations fighting for equality.
And LGBT liberation wasn’t his only cause. He was also active with the NAACP — though that group was reluctant to work with queers. (Of course, that’s changed very much these days.) He also advocated for the rights of seniors.