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- Description is exactly "A Series of documents chronicling the shooting of Autry Broaden by Officer MJ Mitchell on January 5, 1927.
According to noted Yale Professor of Music and Sheffield, Alabama native Willie Ruff on pages 22-23 of his autobiography A Call to Assembly, no doubt working from memory:
"Once she had settled in Sheffield, Mr. Autry [sic] Broaden, her second husband, the man Mama always called the best of them, came into her life. He, she said, was a good provider and a balm for the scars of her earlier married hell. But a year after their marriage and shortly after the birth of their baby girl, Mary Louise, Mr. Broaden was shot to death by Sheffield's police. It was, the police said, a case of mistaken identity. Back then, in 1926, the police and the municipalities of our South were routinely not required to make restitution or assume liabilities for Negroes killed under those conditions. So, with one more infant to raise, Mama pressed on, alone and in worse straits than before."
Two Alabama newspapers chronicled Autrey Broaden's (ca. 1894-1927) shooting however the papers both alleged that Broaden had been shot after he fired on undercover officer MJ Mitchell before striking him with his fist in an attempt to evade being arrested for "violating the prohibition law." Supposedly Mitchell fired twice, killing Broaden. Officers waiting nearby heard the noise and responded to the scene, notifying Colbert County Sheriff Cobb, "the occurrence being thrown open to any investigation necessary." Apparently no charges were filed against Mitchell.
This incident hasn't been located in any papers from the Tri-Cities as of yet.
On 10 July, 1926 at the Colbert County Courthouse in Tuscumbia, Manie Mallory married Autrey Broaden, with Probate Judge N P Tompkins performing the ceremony. At the time of his marriage Autrey worked as a "cement finisher."
Autrey Broaden (ca. 1894-1927) was a son of Ben Broaden (ca.1853-aft. 1920) and Fannie Somerhill (ca. 1852-aft. 1900), farmers of the Pride's neighborhood of Colbert County, Alabama."
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