Its Last Battle?--The Decline of the Ku Klux Klan after the Murder of Vernon Dahmer

Mississippi was once called by many scholars as the most racial violent state in America. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans were lynched and even killed by local white supremacists especially members of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1966, Vernon Dahmer, the leader of the Forrest County Chapter of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, was murdered by Klansmen’s firebombing. However, different from earlier murder cases, Dahmer’s murder happened during a changing racial situation in Mississippi: many local white people, who used to support the Klansmen, began to hate their racial violence; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) strengthened their suppression of the Ku Klux Klan; white politicians had to adjust themselves to the irresistible trend that more blacks would participate in politics and stop ignoring racial violence performed by the Klansmen. Under these circumstances, it seemed that the Ku Klux Klan was out of ways in fighting against the voting...Show moreMississippi was once called by many scholars as the most racial violent state in America. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans were lynched and even killed by local white supremacists especially members of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1966, Vernon Dahmer, the leader of the Forrest County Chapter of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, was murdered by Klansmen’s firebombing. However, different from earlier murder cases, Dahmer’s murder happened during a changing racial situation in Mississippi: many local white people, who used to support the Klansmen, began to hate their racial violence; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) strengthened their suppression of the Ku Klux Klan; white politicians had to adjust themselves to the irresistible trend that more blacks would participate in politics and stop ignoring racial violence performed by the Klansmen. Under these circumstances, it seemed that the Ku Klux Klan was out of ways in fighting against the voting progress and thus the murder of Vernon Dahmer turned their one last battle. In my thesis, I intend to look into how the Ku Klux Klan was influenced by both the Federal Government and Mississippi authorities. How did the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPR) in the 1960s suppress the force of the Ku Klux Klan. Inside the state, the relationship between white liberals and the civil rights movement became increasingly strained. Based on these facts, we can see that the murder of Dahmer stimulated Mississippians’ adaption to a changing racial atmosphere and their reaction against modern liberalism, which brought profound influence to the decline of the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan as well as Mississippi politics in the late twentieth century. I will base my research on both national and local newspaper sources, literature works, oral history collections and documentaries of university libraries in Mississippi. The first chapter will look into the murder case of Vernon Dahmer and analyze its difference with former civil rights cases specially with the murders of Medgar Evers and the three civil rights workers; the second chapter will be dealing with the roles that the FBI and the Federal Government played in the murder case and their influence to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The third chapter will analyze the influence that Paul Johnson’s administration brought to the local racial atmosphere.Show less

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Its Last Battle?--The Decline of the Ku Klux Klan after the Murder of Vernon Dahmer