Jerry Mitchell’s big front page Clarion Ledger story– and related stories– about Edgar Ray Killen are very much worth reading, both for the summaries of this Klansman’s role in the killing of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, plus the additional killings of (unnamed) others, and for some interesting history involving, among other things, the interrelation of the Klan, the Sovereignty Commission, Senator Eastland, and the F.B.I. Through Eastland’s relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, Leander Perez, and the Sovereignty Commission, Killen has said that he had indirect access to F.B.I. information. Mitchell concludes from the Sovereignty Commission papers that Killen probably did (although Eastland’s nephew Hiram Eastland says Killen is not telling the truth in claiming a relationship with Eastland).
Among the stories:
- The main story (on the front page) explains that the F.B.I. is looking into a series of statements Killen apparently made to Larry Ellis, a former state inmate in the cell next to Killen, who claims that Killen gave him the material for a book that includes admission to other murders. Killen’s lawyer denies Killen would have done any such thing, while a handwriting expert has said that written statements Ellis possesses are in Killen’s handwriting.
- Another story from the front about the role of law enforcement played in the killings of the three civil rights workers (I don’t see that story online).
- A story inside the paper about Killen’s claims to have obtained F.B.I. information through Senator James Eastland, and having had a personal relationship with Eastland. Eastland’s nephew Hiram denies the personal relationship existed, which does not respond to the possibility that the information passed through third parties. The story refers to Eastland’s relationship with Leander Perez without explaining Perez. He ruled Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana with an iron hand going back into the early 20th Century, including skimming off huge oil wealth that he then used to finance massive resistance against integration. I have no doubts about Mitchell’s description of a relationship between J.Edgar Hoover and Sen. Eastland, between Eastland and Perez, between Eastland and the Sovereignty Commission, and between the Commission, law enforcement, and the Klan. Those are all pretty well established historical facts. What’s news to me is hearing the Klan side of how they got information, and hearing that Perez may have also been involved in the Klan contacts. It’s nice to see falseness shown of pretense that there was sort of distance between the Klan and the Country Club Klan (the Citizen’s Council).
- A story inside about Larry Ellis’s book about Killen, the Klan, and civil rights killings.
- A story inside about threats against officials involved in successfully prosecuting Killen.
These are important stories that I hope the Clarion Ledger keeps public and visible on the internet; for now I’m providing the links, above. If I hear they might be permalinks, I’ll leave it at that. Otherwise, I may post some quotes that are particularly newsworthy.
Fascinating. Seems like Eastland merited a mention in James Ellroy’s “Underworld USA” trilogy (a fair bit of which is set in Mississippi).
Although I was not born until 1961, I grew up in the Delta and my family knew the Eastland family. I can think of two key instances in my life where Senator Eastland let down the Delta community and me personally. In the first instance, Senator Eastland, at the time of forced integration of the public schools by the federal government, could have exerted his influence and leadership to prevent the local reaction to this action by the feds —the creation of private schools. At that moment in time, the Delta needed a leader like Eastland to encourage support for the public schools. He clearly dropped the ball, and the Delta has paid dearly for this decision since that time. When you lose community wide support for your public schools, you eventually lose your community. And the lack of good public schools eventually hurt economic development. Further, the continuing divide between the races at school, delayed improved race relations and split communities even more. With community spirit dead, a dwindling economy and lack of jobs, and communties divided over racial issues, most of the Delta towns and cities slowly deteriorated, with few exceptions. Some now have seen significant improvement, but the scars are still visible. There is no doubt in my mind that Senator Eastland was uniquely positioned at that time to prevent what happened from happening. But, he didn’t. Every now and then, a person gets a chance to make history —his or her moment comes — they are in the right place at the right time — but, very often, to do so requires great courage and character, because doing the right thing often does. One of Senator Eastland’s moments to make such history came in the form of what I outlined above —- and he clearly dropped the ball. The consequences of that can still be seen today all throughout the Delta.
On a personal level, he failed me. After spending a great amount of time and considerable effort toward putting myself in a position to apply for admission to the US Naval Academy, which requires a Congressional appointment (by House member or Senator), and being as qualified as most such admittees, Eastland traded away his appointment that year to another member of Congress in another area of MS for a political favor —this after knowing of my efforts and desire for well over two years, and my parents’ friendship and support of him for years. In the grand scheme of life, it was indeed just a minor setback, but to an 18 year old at that time it was quite a blow. But, now that I look back on it, I perhaps understand the obvious snub much better. My parents refused to join the local Citizens Council (which prompted a threatening visit by Byron Delay Beckwith to my Dad, which is another story). With the strong segregationist/racist history of Eastland coming to light over the years, and the apparent vast network of informants all across the state that provided information to Eastland, there is no doubt in my mind that this snub was deliberate and a form of payback. Typical MO: smile at you and glad hand in public, then stab you in the back in private.
Please understand that my throwing in this personal tidbit does not mean that I give equal weight to the two events I wrote about above —-the first was vastly more important. I chose to write about the community wide issue and my personal issue to demonstrate the negative effect this man had on his community and many people personally during his years in power in the Senate. And there were many affected personally in a much more substantial way than I was —- I got over this political slight and have done very well despite it. As for many others much more seriously affected? Its almost too much to fathom.
But, since my family was better friends with Fannie Lou Hamer than with Eastland, I suppose it all makes more sense to me now.
AFOTL, great stuff. I think you hit the nail on the head. I have long believed that the abandonment of support for our public school systems is at the very heart of so many of our problems today. The problems that began with the exodus in the ’60′s just seems to compound with each generation, regardless of some pockets of execellent work being accomplished.
Great post. Great links.
Great post. I assume you meant Perez financed a “massive resistance against” INTegration, not SEGRegation.
None of the links work, all are “page not found”. Probably has something to do with the Clarion Ledger charging to read articles over 30 days old. Thought you might want to know.