The Ghosts of Mississippi (48 page)

The telegram from Charles Diggs to the White House and the response from Lee White can be found in the microfilm collection of documents titled 
Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963
 from the Kennedy Library.

Other sources include Dave Dennis, W. C. Shoemaker, Henry Kirksey, Gene Young, Charles Evers, Henry Lamb, Clarie Collins Harvey, and Aurelia Young, who kindly shared her diary from this time with me.

CHAPTER 13: THE HOUR OF LEAD

The details of Medgar Evers’s murder come from many sources, including witness descriptions, investigators, police records, court documents, and interviews with Myrlie Evers, Darrell Evers, James Wells, Aurelia Young, Dr. Albert Britton, Gloster Current, and Charles Evers. The scene in which Charles learns of Medgar’s murder was recounted in 
Evers
 and in various interviews. Part of the text of Myrlie Evers’s speech is in 
For Us, the Living
, 310, and in the
 New York Times
, June 13, 1963.

CHAPTER 14: FUNERAL

Again I have relied as often as possible on first-person accounts from Myrlie Evers, John Doar, Dave Dennis, John Salter, William Kunstler, Vernon Jordan, and newspaper reports. Salter’s book,
Jackson, Mississippi
, contains details of the police confrontation after the funeral. Charles Evers recalled the funeral in 
Evers
, 111, and in interviews.

CHAPTER 15: A PAWN IN THE GAME

I interviewed Thorn McIntyre in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 13, 1992. Other details come from police and court records. I interviewed Bill Waller in Jackson on June 6 and 16, 1992, and John Fox on December 16, 1991. Myrlie Evers has often described the depression she suffered after her husband’s murder. The visits to the psychiatrist are mentioned in the NAACP Papers, as are other events described in this chapter.

CHAPTERS 16 AND 17: TRIAL BY AMBUSH AND THE VARMINT HUNTER

These chapters were reconstructed from the authenticated transcript of the first trial, newspaper accounts, and interviews with Bill Waller, John Fox, and Myrlie Evers. “The Trial of Delay Beckwith” by Harold Martin,
The Saturday Evening Post
, March 14, 1964, 77-82, is the best magazine article on the first trial. See also “Notes on the Beckwith Trial,” by Jeannine Herron,
The Nation
, February 24, 1964, 179-181.

CHAPTER 18: THE SECOND TRIAL

It appears that no transcript was made of the second Beckwith trial, and the court reporter’s notes have not been found. I was able to reconstruct testimony from newspaper articles at the time, including the
 New York Times 
and, most helpful of all, the
 Greenwood Commonwealth
.

During my encounter with Beckwith in his cell in 1992, he talked about the taxi drivers’ testimony and how one of the cabbies “decided not to lie for Bill Waller after a group of good white men beat him with a stick.” He maintained he would never have done such a foolish thing as ask a cabdriver for directions to Medgar Evers’s house.

I have interviewed Gordon Lackey several times, including one lengthy, taped interview in Greenwood on January 31, 1991. He denied being a Klan member in that interview. He said he “never felt it was productive.” In 1994 I asked him again whether he was a member of the White Knights and if he had recruited Beckwith into that group. He denied it, but he told me that anyone who told you he was a White Knight couldn’t be one. It was a secret organization. Or so he’d heard.

CHAPTER 19: THE LONG SUMMER

Myrlie Evers’s adjustment to life in California is recorded in an article titled “Why I Left Mississippi,”
 Ebony
, March 1965, 25-28. Other details of the move can be found in the NAACP Papers. Charles Evers often described how Medgar’s memory steered him away from violence. One instance can be found in
 Evers
, 114.

I interviewed Dave Dennis in Jackson on March 24, 1993, and by telephone. Dennis also discussed Freedom Summer tactics in 
My Soul Is Rested
, 273-278.

I spoke to Delmar Dennis several times by telephone and interviewed him in Sevierville, Tennessee, on January 10, 1992. Other background can be found in 
Klandestine
 by William H. McIlhany II (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1975).

The murders of the three civil rights workers are well documented. One of the best books on the subject is 
We Are Not Afraid
 by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray (New York: Macmillan, 1988; New York, Bantam, 1991).

The “Dear Wonderful Friends” letter is in the Paul Johnson Papers at the University of Southern Mississippi, in a file marked “Klan.”

I owe the description of Delay and Willie Beckwith fighting in their trailer to 
Portrait of a Racist
, 225-226, as well as witnesses in Greenwood.

The scene of Charles Evers at the Philadelphia courthouse is found in
 We Are Not Afraid
, 379-380, and reconstructed from newspaper accounts.

The text of Dave Dennis’s eulogy appears in
 Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Year 1954-1965
 by Juan Williams (New York: Penguin, 1988), 239-240.

Van Riper’s decision not to “blow the case” comes from his testimony at Beckwith’s third trial, February 1, 1994.

CHAPTER 20: WHITE KNIGHTS

Beckwith’s testimony is found in the report of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 
Activities of Ku Klux Klan Organizations in the United States
, 89th Congress, January 12, 1966, 2698. Rules and rituals of the White Knights are described in 
The Present-Day Ku Klux Klan Movement
, 90th Congress, December 11, 1967.

Fred Sanders told me about his encounter with Beckwith in 1967. Beckwith’s campaign interview is in 
The Southern Review
, July 15, 1967, 5. Delmar Dennis recalled meeting Beckwith in our interview in January 1992. Voter statistics come from Frank R. Parker, 
Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi after 1965 
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), 32.

The outcome of the Neshoba County case is in 
We Are Not Afraid
and in 
Attack on Terror: The FBI Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi
 by Don Whitehead (New York: Funk and Wagnall’s, 1970).

The rise of Swiftism is documented in 
Blood in the Face
 by James Ridgeway (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1990) and
 Hate Groups in America, A Record of Bigotry and Violence
, a publication of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (New York, 1988).

I owe details of Beckwith’s bombing arrest to the New Orleans Police Department report and the sharp memories of Ben Windstein and John Evans, the arresting officers. Court records and trial transcripts from Beckwith’s state and federal trials are on file with the Louisiana Supreme Court appeal under 
State of Louisiana v Byron De La Beckwith
, no. 58,586, February 28, 1977.

Al Binder, who died in 1993, was an invaluable source who sat for three interviews (August 23 and October 14, 1991; January 13, 1993) and copied many documents from his files. The ADL office in New Orleans kept meticulous clipping files on the case, for which I am grateful. Some information about the FBI’s relationship with Mississippi’s Jewish community comes from Jack Nelson’s 
Terror in the Night: The Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews 
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). Other sources who prefer not to be named also contributed to this account.

Beckwith’s life at the old Melton place is described in several sources but most vividly in 
Glory in Conflict
. The incident with the photographer and writer appears in “My Friend the Nazi” by John R. Miller, 
Tropic Magazine 
(The
Miami Herald
), June 10, 1990, 12-13.

CHAPTER 21: HOMECOMING

I interviewed both Lane C. Murray and Charles Evers about their meeting in Natchez and their unusual friendship. Sources for Evers’s political career include Jason Berry, 
Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi
 (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1973), which (64-71) is a source for the scene in which Evers returns to Decatur, and Erle Johnston, 
Politics: Mississippi Style
 (Forest, Miss.: Lake Harbor, 1993), where Owen Brooks’s open letter is quoted on page 286. See also “We Can’t Discuss White People Anymore …” by Walter Rubager,
 New York Times Magazine
, August 4, 1968. Evers’s financial problems have been covered in the 
Clarion-Ledger
 and are outlined in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Mississippi, case no. 90-01503.

CHAPTER 22: MISSISSIPPI TURNING

Statistics are drawn from 
Black Elected Officials
,
 Local People
, and various other sources. I interviewed Margaret Walker Alexander on January 26, 1991. Her speech is reprinted in 
Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth
, vol. 2, ed. Dorothy Abbott (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1986), 608.

The remainder of the chapter comes from interviews with the subjects mentioned, articles in the
 Clarion-Ledger
, and many days spent sitting around the district attorney’s office in Jackson over many months. Most of the scenes and dialogue in this and the following chapters were directly observed. Other incidents and conversations were described to me by people who were there.

CHAPTER 23: THE CASE

I interviewed Bobby DeLaughter on January 24, January 28, and August 26, 1991,and February 22, 1994. I was able to re-create the investigation with his help and the help of Ed Peters, Charlie Crisco, Doc Thaggard, and Benny Bennett. Al Binder and Bill Kirksey offered their insights into the Beckwith case and observations about their friend and colleague DeLaughter.

CHAPTER 24: THE STATUE

I rode with Charles Evers on the campaign trail on October 1, 1991, and was with him in Fayette on Election Day, November 5, 1991. It was there that I interviewed Elizabeth Evers Jordan, who came to help with the campaign.

I spoke to Merrida Coxwell several times before and after the trial. Kirk Fordice’s career as governor is well documented in the 
Clarion-Ledger
. Kim McGeoy’s meeting with Judge Breland Hilburn was in the presence of a court reporter, who transcribed the dialogue. The affidavits supporting bail for Beckwith are on file in the Hinds County Circuit Court under 
State of Mississippi v Byron De La Beckwith
, no. 90-3-3495, as are various hearing transcripts. I first interviewed Darrell Evers in Jackson on June 29, 1992, and have spoken to him many times since by phone.

CHAPTER 25: HURRICANE SEASON

The opening quote from Beckwith comes from a letter to me dated May 11, 1992. The accounts of Beckwith’s court appearances are from court documents, newspaper records, and my notes. I was present for every one of his appearances in Mississippi except his arraignment. The legal arguments summarized in this chapter are found in briefs filed with the Supreme Court of the State of Mississippi, 
Byron De La Beckwith v State of Mississippi
, no. 91-KA-1207.

Again dialogue recorded in this chapter was either witnessed by me or reconstructed by someone who was there. When I describe what people were feeling or thinking, it is because I have asked them what was going through their minds.

For Bob Moses and the Algebra Project see Alexis Jetter, “Mississippi Learning,” 
New York Times Magazine
, February 21, 1993, 28.

The encounter between the Beckwiths and the young reporter was described in Beverly Pettigrew Kraft, “Beckwith’s Son Wins Case Against Reporter,” 
Clarion-Ledger
, February 17, 1993. Myrlie Evers described her thoughts during the anniversary ceremonies in an interview in Jackson, June 12, 1993.

CHAPTER 26: BATESVILLE

Mike Riley of
Time
magazine was kind enough to share a transcript of his telephone interview with Beckwith from January 14, 1994. A good background on Batesville is found in Jerry Mitchell, “And a River Runs through Panola’s Racial, Economic Divide,” 
Clarion-Ledger
, January 17, 1994.

CHAPTERS 27 AND 28: THE TESTIMONY OF GHOSTS AND THE LAST MILE OF THE WAY

I interviewed Ed Peters in Jackson on February 10, 1994. Peters, along with Bobby DeLaughter, Cynthia Speetjens, John Davidson, Henry Brinston, Myrlie Evers, Darrell Evers, Benny Bennett, Charlie Crisco, Charles Evers, Merrida Coxwell, and others helped reconstruct the events surrounding the trial.

A transcript of Jim Kitchens’s conversation with Martha Jean O’Brien was entered into the evidence file in
 Mississippi v Beckwith
.

I spoke to Gordon Lackey by phone on June 12, 1994, and asked him again about his whereabouts on the night of June 11-12, 1963. He said that he had been drinking with National Guard buddies in honky-tonks near Camp Shelby, and that he never went to Jackson that night. He told me that he had once owned a blue International Harvester pickup, but it was a 1964 model. He said he had nothing to do with the murder of Medgar Evers and he continues to believe that Byron De La Beckwith is an innocent man.

Beckwith was not allowed out on bail after his conviction, and remained in the Hinds County Detention Center while his lawyers prepared his appeal. He spent his days reading the Bible, exercising on the mini trampoline that he was allowed to keep in his cell, and, as always, writing letters. One of his most frequent pen pals was Harry Rosenthal, the lawyer who had put up his bond during the trial. Despite evidence to the contrary, Beckwith had decided that Rosenthal was actually a Christian, and he addressed him in correspondence as “My Compatriot benefactor par excellence.” Rosenthal, who says that he helped Beckwith out because he felt Beckwith’s rights had been denied, told me that he felt “rewarded” that Beckwith trusted him. “Beckwith said ‘I’ll never curse a Jew again,’ ” said Rosenthal.