For you as the author, walk us through that. Mississippi native Oprah Winfrey narrates a presentation on the 1955 death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was visiting family in Mississippi. Few civil rights workers ever set foot in Clarke County. You know, getting back to the story a little bit, I am very intrigued by how this story sort of came to you. And he was troubled by that because his role had been secret for all of these years and he didnt want that to be part of his legacy. Wilkie: It helps to have some familiarity with the story and idea because, you know, I lived in Mississippi and was a young journalist in the 60s. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The American Civil War (1861-1865) left Mississippi in chaos with its social structures overturned and its economy in ruins. It was difficult to trim the list to just 10 names. Don't eat chain restaurants, there. And that just seemed to finally close the closest circle on what I was trying to write about. She returned to private practice after a lengthy career in public service. To recognize the anniversary, the USA TODAY Network is naming 10 women from eachstate andthe District of Columbia who havemade significant contributions to their states and country. The images are projected at an angle, so viewers unconsciously must tilt their necks, like those of the victims. So thats thats how I approached it. The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War Victoria Bynum traces the origins and legacy of the Jones County uprising from the American Revolution to the modern civil rights movement. It uses multimedia theatres showing archival footage of trials, protests and funerals, and artefacts like hooded Ku Klux Klan robes, a burned cross and the Enfield rifle that took Evers life. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and later moved with her family to New Orleans. Sitemap | When visitors are drawn by the music to the centre gallery, they trip electronic sensors. She was inspired to become an educator herself and attended Alcorn State University, where she met her husband, Medgar Evers. McCartys generosity earned her an honorary degree from Harvard University and the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Bill Clinton. Box 1468 Laurel, MS 39441 Phone: 601-428-0527 Jones County Circuit Court Website Clerk Circuit Court has marriage records from 1882 and court records from 1907. The introductory gallery explains how enslaved Africans were first brought to the territory by colonialists in the 17th Century and explores the violence they faced. We work to provide free, accessible news for everyone to create a more informed Mississippi and hold public officials accountable. Wilkie: Thank you, Adam Vernon Dahmer was probably better known in south Mississippi at the time that he was active. The third person whos a major figure in the book is a man named Tom Landrum who was, you know, he was at the time a 33-year youth court counselor in Jones County. Bell dont want no picture took. And I knew right away, you know, who they were and what they were up to. A generation later, during World War II, local whites again relied on racial terrorism to prop up an order they claimed was under unprecedented attack. Weve waited a long time for it, said Reuben Anderson, Mississippi's first African-American Supreme Court Justice, explaining that it has been a 40-year effort to get the political support and funding to open the nations only state-run civil rights museum. So, his wife who had typed up all of his notes and journals that were sent to the FBI, she had very wisely saved carbon copies of them. I had written several stories leading up to the trial and then covered every minute of the trial and its aftermath, which, the trial itself lasted at least a week as I recall. In the process, they fixed outside attention on problems that persisted in the wake of the soaring speeches and legislative victories of the civil rights era. By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with Mississippi Today. Click here to visit Mississippi Historical Markers. You have to credit Mississippi Today. And they said, Mr. Laurel has been the birthplace of many who would rise to great celebrity including Lance Bass of the pop group NSYNC. The mayor-council form of government is essentially a "strong mayor" form of government made available by the legislature in 1973 and approved by the Department of Justice in August 1976. You know, if theres anything that distinguishes this book from so many other good books had been written about this period, its that I hope it did it justice in kind of describing in great detail, the actual meetings and the actual people in it and their crazy characteristics and their incredible stupidity and foolishness. Job Openings | It was really Bowers chief lieutenant testified on behalf of Bowers, so I had seen these characters in action, too. With 60 years of dedication to our clients, we'll help you, too. At 19, she married Jeremiah Blackwell and the couple moved to Mayersville and started a family. Born in Shubuta, Mississippi, Oseola McCarty had to drop out of school in the sixth grade to help support her family by taking up her aunts work as a washerwoman. #1 Civil Cover Sheet, #2 Exhibit A-Entire State Court File) (CS) Others were so troubled that they had gone so far as to commit murders and drop out of the klan. Existing civil service laws apply in a mayor Ahistorical marker at Sunflower County Courthouse honors Hamers civil rights contributions. Although the stories are grim, there is the sound of hope in the air. More died in the following decades of protest. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. At the far end of the hundred-foot deck, the forest swallowed up a dirt road that used to lead somewhere. Civil rights advocate, first Black woman to receive law degree from the University of Mississippi. He was the imperial wizard of the White Knights and they were the worst of the worst of the klan. We just keep it for stringing up [n*****s]. Whites had to mob blacks from time to time, he explained, to keep them in line. The group included residents of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas, but was led by Laurel, Mississippi native, Judith Toombs Hilbun. Ganucheau: As a journalist, you know, the Landrum papers I know were sort of, the key part of your storytelling and your reporting and writing process, but besides just the Landrum papers, what else went into this? I certainly became aware of him following the murder. We had to choose from dozens of nominees, like Grammy Award-winning songwriter Tena Clark; pioneering women like Dr. Mary Clark, who became a physician in the 1950s, when few women were in the medical field;Abbie Rogers, who established a program for children and adults with mental challenges in the 1960s; and Olympic Medal-winningathletes like Ruthie Bolton and Tori Bowie. I n June 1966, a black civil rights worker in Clarke County, Mississippi, met a fresh recruit at the local bus station. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a fraternal organization that promotes white supremacy. 2023 The City of Laurel, Mississippi | According to the complaint, Dotson was allegedly assaulted by the sheriff in the parking Lot of Lowes in Laurel, MS on New Year's Eve Day. I do think that the genesis of it is compelling. So that was going to be the beginning of that book, and it was going to end with the trial and conviction of Sam Bowers. It was there she would spend nearly 70 years washing and ironing clothes to earn a living. He had deep roots in the southern MississippiNew Orleans area on both sides of his family. Lightning Smith in the other car thinks it must be to police. Hattiesburg is great. Their mugshots now line museum walls, and an interactive gallery reveals the stories of many, including Georgia congressman John Lewis, then a 21-year-old college student. We also represent cases where government workers have lost their jobs after standing up for their constitutional rights. Sources used in the Women of the Century list project includenewspaper articles, state archives, historical websites, encyclopedias and other resources. Throughout the galleries, small immersive theatres cover key moments from the modern civil rights era, which gained a foothold as African-American soldiers stationed overseas during the Second World War returned to find discrimination and segregation back home. It seemed a road to nowhere, or at least nowhere one might want to go. And as readers now, as we are going through this work of yours, as were sort of learning more about the story of Tom Landrum and Vernon Dahmer and what happens in the late 60s in Laurel, what do you think we should take from it? Curtis Wilkie, a native of Pike County, Mississippi, covered many civil rights happenings in Mississippi during the 1960s. Hes the author of several books, including The Road to Camelot: Inside JFKs Five-Year Campaign, The Fall of the House of Zeus and Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South.. A number of Erie education, government, civil rights, health, and business leaders have family roots in the Mississippi city off Laurel. Mississippi women have flourished in politics, law and sports. and up . Years of traffic rumbling across the bridge had worn parallel streaks into the deck, and heavy runner boards covered holes in rotted planks. USA TODAY Network reporters Ellen Ciurczak and Cam Bonelli contributed to this report. Later as a correspondent for the Boston Globe, he continued to cover the later days of the movement, and many of the continued civil rights stories in Mississippi and across the South over the next few decades. And today, of course, were here to talk about Curtiss newest book, When Evil Lived in Laurel: The White Knights and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer. Curtis, its an honor for me to be talking with you about your latest book, about your latest work. The timing seems appropriate, though. Now closed to traffic, the Hanging Bridge still stands. (Jones County) (1965) After passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Laurel Leader Call reported that while 99.9 percent of whites in Jones County were . Government | Wilkie: I guess thats a good thing. Biography of Charles Marsh. You know, one thing that came through in this book this sort of inside, you know, behind the scenes, look at the workings of the klan at the time showed just kind of how inept and unintelligent these people were. And if it were not such a tragedy, itd be, you know, great comedy. City of Laurel, P.O. One character, Billy Roy Pitts, loved cowboy movies so he had styled himself a quick draw pistol, a holster, and he put his pistol in it. Shubuta Bridges Toll Stands at Six Lynch Victims, the Chicago Defender announced. Mr. Evers's wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams,. According to Sheriff Berlin, Dotson was panhandling and approached him in an aggressive manner. Action Center | Were proud to share Laurel with all! I seem to recall FBI files, you had to pore over many interviews. So itd been going on in this state for 70 or 80 years until, the 1960s Vernon Dahmer dedicated his life to, and it cost him his life. Myrlie Louise Beasley was born in Vicksburg and raised by her grandmother, a retired teacher. Curtis I know I talked to you many times about it. LAUREL, MS (WDAM) - One of Laurel's longest sitting councilmen has lived through and even helped change the face of racism in Jones County. If a councilman moves from his ward, the vacancy is filled in the manner established by Miss. What did that moment mean to you? Bowers was truly an evil guy. From 1935-41, she led a plant and animal survey funded by the Works Progress Administration, to preserve and display specimens throughout the state. The structure was not just a monument but also an altar to white supremacy, as the journalist put it, a place to offer as sacrifices anyone who threatened that power. In fact, I wrote a book 20 years ago called Dixie, and it was my intention when I started writing that book that the book would open with the trial of (Byron) De La Beckwith, who had murdered Medgar Evers, and it took more than 30 years to finally convict him, but that was done in 1994 in Jackson. In both of these pivotal moments, national attention and protest politics collided at a lonely river bridge, where the pervasive violence of the twentieth-century South rose sharply and tellingly to the surface. There's noone way to describe a Mississippi woman. They were in two cars, four people in each car, one car burned a grocery down. I thought it was just so very applicable here that, you know, you had a situation that involved certainly evil, but it also involved some very good people and two good men, who would have been Vernon Dahmer and Tom Landrum. O On a June night in 1963,. Mississippi was a key battleground in the fight against segregation (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images). Blackwell got involved in civil rights because she saw how her son was attending school in the same decrepit conditions she had as a child. Filing 2 ANSWER to Complaint by City of Laurel, Mississippi, Clint Hedgepeth, Justin Landrum, Josh Welch, John Windsor. She was the first Black judge in the state. Her philanthropic effortsgained national attention and inspired others to donate to the school. She also spent time in private law practice. Youve got almost pure good, and youve got pure evil. Prices career as a soloist began when she performed in the Broadway show, Four Saints in Three Acts.. Metal rails sagged in spots. She married Perry Pap Hamer in 1944 and raised two adopted daughters. Laurel, Mississippi exemplifies the new southern development that occurred in the years following Reconstruction. The mayor is elected at large, while the councilmen are elected from wards. She was the first woman elected statetreasurer, insurance commissioner and lieutenant governor. City Alerts | Johnson, Ratliff & Waide, PLLC practices family law, personal injury, criminal law, employment law, and other legal representations. However, she was able to bring Mississippis civil rights struggle to the nations attention during a televised convention event. And, at first I said, Excuse me, Mr. Bowers. Ganucheau: Thats an incredible story. Despite massive demonstrations in nearby places such as Meridian and Hattiesburg, Clarke County seemed left high and dry. She went to law school at the University of Mississippi where she was. And what did you personally take from sort of telling this story in a moment such as this? She went to law school at the University of Mississippi where she was the only woman in her class. Laurel schools, in 1912, were already acknowledged as best in the State. The women who were chosen were selected from a list of nominees all U.S. citizens who lived between 1920-2020 and made significant marks in thearts andliterature, business, civil rights, education, entertainment, law, media, nonprofits andphilanthropy, politics, science andmedicine, or sports. Ganucheau: Sure. To acknowledge the role of violence in shaping our racial past is no guarantee that we can face honestly the ways in which it informs our racial present, but it is a place to start. Cassandra Hawkins, a Jackson resident who volunteered during the museums busy opening weekend, said many people told her they appreciated the candour. They botched one mission after another. And you know, that forms the basic raw materials for the book that I was able to flesh out with all sorts of valuable FBI documents that are available at the University of Southern Mississippi library. So he shoots out the tires of the other car and they have to abandon the other car and know suddenly youve got eight weighty, you know, not particularly small klansman, all crowded into one car, trying to flee the scene of the crime. Coinciding with continental rail building . Still, the reddish-brown truss beams on either side stood stiff and straight, and overhead braces cast shadows on the deck below. Ganucheau: Curtis, I want to ask you to sort of tell us a little bit about the book, but I want to prompt you with the first words in the book that you wrote. And then once I guess they trusted me, they shared with me these incredible journals. o Calling a special elect ion to fill a mayors unexpired term And so I always appreciated their help back when I was in Hattiesburg, covering the trial of Bowers. As the title of this book suggests, this is a story about a very good man in Vernon Dahmer, and of course the events leading up to and the fallout after his tragic murder. Curtis Wilkie, the 81-year-old Mississippi native and veteran journalist who recently released his new book When Evil Lived in Laurel: The White Knights and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer, will be a featured guest at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 21. The Ku Klux Klan was very visible in this area during that. Its not part of the narrative of the story. o Appropriating money for the operation of government Start planning your historical tour of Laurel and Jones County, Mississippi! Black state resident James Chaney and white student volunteers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman disappeared on a June afternoon. By Larry Bleiberg 12th January 2018 The new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is an important stop for anyone interested in the US' struggle for racial equality. Its kind of a battle of good versus evil. Charles Marsh grew up in Laurel, Mississippi (1967 to 1973). Whenever the mayor is unable to appoint a councilman to serve as acting mayor, the council may do so. She is president and founder of the Legacy Education and Community Empowerment Foundation, which works to provide youth and student enrichment and mentoring. He knew almost from the outset that Vernon Dahmer was going to be targeted, but he didnt know when. It was jury selection and judge let the reporters come into his chamber while the various lawyers were selecting the members of the jury. And some of the key figures in the book were witnesses at that trial including Billy Roy Pitts, who went on the raid and he testified against Bowers. She served as an adviser or appointee to Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Welty studied for her bachelors degree at Mississippi State College for Women and the University of Wisconsin. Curtis Wilkie, one of Mississippis best and best known journalists, came to Jackson last week to talk about his new book, When Evil Lived in Laurel: The White Knights and The Murder of Vernon Dahmer. Blackwell, who did not have a bachelors degree, earned a masters degree in 1983 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Tree Board. -council form. Government | I was immediately asked in brusque tones, What do you want, boy?. We believe that an informed Mississippi is a better Mississippi. The Rev. So, you know, that was my one direct encounter with the klan during that period. Pocked with puddles, the route wound past a few clusters of cabins before narrowing into a densely wooded corridor. The new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is an important stop for anyone interested in the US struggle for racial equality. o Redistrict after every decennial census and after annexation In 1944, she spent the summer writing book reviews for The New York Times. Price retired from opera 23 years ago, but recently appeared in a documentary about The Met, The Opera House.. Johnson, Ratliff & Waide, PLLC offer the best protection and advocacy for the personal rights of our clients in their civil rights cases. In 1942, a new industry began with the discovery of oil in Laurel and today there are more than 150 companies providing regional service for oil and gas drillers. And both Vernon Dahmer and Aaron Henry were very willing to work with the young turks in the movement to sometimes more scornful about the NAACP. Yet one of Americas most evocative and bloodstained lynching sites still spans a muddy river, and it still casts a shadow. Down in Clarke County, a Meridian movement leader recalled, they lynched so many blacks. A white northern journalist who visited in the wake of the 1942 lynchings predicted that the mob impulse would die hard. But more importantly for my own personal background was, you know, the fact that I covered the final trial of Sam Bowers and had met with the Dahmer family and, you know, I spent been a lot of time on that story. She worked for the state in several capacities, leading the effort that led to voter registration by mail and at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Adapted from Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and Americas Civil Rights Century by Jason Morgan Ward with permission from Oxford University Press, Inc. Cook was director of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science until she retired in 1958. Mayor-Council Form of Municipal Government. o Causing a complete audit at the end of the fiscal year Renowned photographer Annie Liebowitz was so enamored by McCartys story, she came to Hattiesburg to photograph McCarty, whose portrait was included in Liebowitzs book, Women.. Some examples include: auto claims, homeowner claims, business/contract claims, property disputes, etc. When she was a staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, Slaughter-Harvey represented the families of two students killed during the Jackson State University massacre. The story basically takes place from 1965 until 1969. It means the inability of so many white Southerners to keep their fists, their clubs, or their guns in their pockets when a colored person stands up for his legal rights.. An emotional video presentation explores the murders of 1964s Freedom Summer campaign to register African-American voters. McCarty, who died at 91, left $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi through a trust she established from her savings, to be used for scholarshipsfor students needing financial assistance. Leontyne Price broke color barriers as the first Black to achieve global acclaim as an opera singer. If you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newslettercalled "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". Born in Jackson and raised in Forest, Constance Slaughter-Harvey attended law school at the University of Mississippi. But the museum digs far deeper than these major exhibits. Among its leaders were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the . In the history of lynching, place is often difficult to pin down with precisionhanging trees long since felled, killing fields reclaimed by nature, rivers and bayous that hide the dead. Either side stood stiff and straight, and youve got pure evil Reconstruction! Newslettercalled `` if you only Read 6 Things this Week '' have flourished in politics, law and.... In politics, law and sports their necks, like those of the worst of 1942... Redistrict after every decennial census and after annexation in 1944 and raised by her grandmother, a Jackson resident volunteered! Road that used to lead somewhere 2 ANSWER to Complaint by City of Laurel and Jones County, a movement... Able to bring Mississippis civil rights happenings in Mississippi during the museums busy weekend... With all these incredible journals klan ( KKK ) is a better Mississippi Marsh up. 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