By Angie Thompson, Senior Reporter
TIFTON — A Willacoochee native and his long-time friend have won two prestigious awards for the documentary "A Cross Burning in Willacoochee." The two men, then a couple, were victims in 1993 of what would now be considered a hate crime.
Roy Kirkland and Doug Sebastian now work as filmmakers in Valdosta. In 1993, the two moved into Kirkland's family home in Willacoochee from Tifton after his father died and his mother decided to move. They had lived in Tifton before, Kirkland said, and never had any problems with anyone here concerning their sexual orientation.
"We had jobs in Tifton and had good jobs," Kirkland said. "Everyone knew we were gay and it was no big deal."
Once in the Kirkland family home, the couple experienced several incidences of their mailbox being knocked down. They didn't know how heated some in the small town were becoming over their same-sex relationship until they heard a knock on their door one morning and opened the door to find a 7-foot-tall cross burning in their yard. According to the documentary, the couple pleaded for law enforcement to help them, but help did not come and their home mysteriously burned to the ground in August 1993.
For months the two lived in Ramada Inn in Tifton and battled their insurance company to settle the claim on their home. Kirkland said local attorney Melinda Phillips helped them with mounting paperwork and it wasn't until the state's insurance commissioner stepped in that they settled with the insurance company and moved to Valdosta.
Kirkland said he was moving to a second location in Valdosta and unloading boxes and putting things on shelves when a box fell and hit him on the head.
"It spilled out and it was all the newspapers and the audio death threat and all that happened in 1993," Kirkland said. "The more I looked at it the more I wanted to keep reading. I started having questions."
Kirkland said that, at that time, he had never received anything finalizing the case from the GBI. It was after paying $50 that he received the 15-page report from the agency.
"It was basically what people had read in the newspapers," Kirkland said. "The only thing pertaining to the case was the measurement of the cross that was built, but there was no mention of the audio death threat tape and no mention of the destruction of the mailboxes and no mention of the cross burning."
Kirkland said he was afraid to talk about the incidents for 15 years but then he decided that a documentary might lead to some final answers.
The film won "Best Documentary" at the New York International Film Festival and an Encore showing at the Atlanta Film Festival. Kirkland and Sebastian have returned to south Georgia to promote their film.
For more information on the documentary or to purchase a copy, visit www.acrossburning.com.
To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.
