Cager Lee Jr., 87, Jimmie Lee Jackson’s uncle, speaks about his nephew. Photo: Bill Wilson/The Anniston Star
CHOCCOLOCCO — Cager Lee Jr. is a man of the earth, a farmer down in the soil scrabbling and scratching with honesty to earn a place more for his family than for himself in this world.

At 87, he sits now, easy and quiet, on a couch in the cool of his daughter’s home on a hot day fit for plowing, sipping ice water and speaking of the distant past.