JFK and the Ku Klux Klan

[Ian Kingsbury]

Anybody know how long it would take to drive from lake pontchartrain to Terry

On the interstate/highway 55 in 1963?.

[Paul Trejo]

Anybody know how long it would take to drive from lake pontchartrain to Terry

On the interstate/highway 55 in 1963?.

Ian, it is 177 miles from Terry, Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain on I-55. In 1963 that would take a little less than three hours to drive.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited February 17, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

I've been doing some digging about the KKK in general. In an old book entitled, The Invisible Empire (1880) author Albion W. Tourgee describes how the KKK became an integral part of Southern culture -- not just the low culture, but the high culture, too, just as Terri Williams has suggested.

The first appearance of the name, Ku Klux Klan, is in 1868, in Tennesee. The idea of using white masks and horseback was to terrorize Black neighborhoods with the superstition that these were ghosts of fallen Confederate soldiers (from the battle of Shiloh) returned to haunt Black Americans. At first it got a laugh -- but the laughing only encouraged its darker side.

The KKK took on its key goals -- to reverse Reconstruction and to nullify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution (which abolished slavery, mandated equal protection, and gave equal access to voting). The KKK goal was posed as a Constitutional battle.

The KKK was a reaction to the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, and a stubborn denial that secession was the same as treason. Without the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the KKK was happy to support the Constitution of the USA, they said.

The key problem was how to remain a Southern gentleman under these new Yankee laws. As Tourgee explains, however, being a Southern gentleman meant advocating laws of torture for Black people. The old laws permitting slavery meant unbounded freedom for the white caste in the South -- a white person could sell, buy, beat, whip, brand, rape or even lynch a Black person, all within the law. These were the "freedoms" that Southern gentlemen wanted to cling to.

Although the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments removed the slavery laws from Southern courts, the habits of the South would die hard. The KKK would continue in its traditional "freedoms" with the exception of buying and selling slaves. In general, the cruelty of the Old South would continue whenever the KKK was in charge.

Terri's description of the murder of Black people in her home town -- murders that were never investigated nor will ever be investigated -- is a social fact that we Yankees tend to relegate to the 1800's. We block out the fact that this remained a 20th century social fact - even past World War Two. It's like a bad dream.

Terri Wiliams attempts to remind us of reality - of the truth - from her own memories of the South, in Terry, Mississippi, when she, a baby-boomer, was growing up American.

There was a time when Southern white-supremacy was king in the USA. Even after the days of Lincoln, even after the Reconstruction, even after the turn of the century, the values of the KKK slumbered on in the backwoods of America. Yet the KKK was awakened suddenly with Black Monday -- when the US Supreme Court decided in 1954 (Brown v. The Board of Education) that US public schools must become racially integrated.

Then the KKK rose again, supported by White Citizens' Councils (which on the surface had deliberately excluded the KKK, but in reality gave the KKK a new vehicle for operation) starting just weeks after that decision. Reaction to the Civil Rights movement in the JFK administration gave a new life to the KKK. Towns in which the KKK had lay dormant now saw the KKK as a moving force in the halls of town government again.

Instead of physical brutality, the White Citizens' Councils would punish Black upstarts with economic sanctions -- getting them fired from their jobs, getting banks to deny them loans, and running them out of town. (Then the KKK would step in an finish up the job when nobody was looking.)

Add to the problems of Civil Rights the problem of the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, Communism, the Red Scare and the fall of free Cuba -- now the KKK had some meat to bite into. Race-mixing could now be worse than Satanic -- Race-mixing was now Communist.

With this new and unholy brew of racism and the acceptance of any vice in the service of Anticommunism, a new populist movement was stirred in Terry, Mississippi in 1963, led by Guy Banister of New Orleans.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited February 17, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

Gosh, great research. Sounds about right to me. Race mixing was grounds for some pretty nasty reactions. My father's mother, a heavy racist, in 1980, took me to Morrison's cafeteria in the Edgewater Mall in Biloxi. Ahead of us in line was a couple. The man was white while the woman was black. I saw them and thought they looked so perfectly in love and sweet. They were both very good looking people.

I had forgotten what it was like in the south as I had been living in Canada for the previous ten years. Canada has its racism too, especially in Halifax where, at the time, lived Canada's largest population of black people. But I was living in Ottawa by then and racism was not so evident there, not in my group of friends. However, that said, there were not that many black people in Ottawa then.

So back in Mississippi with a grandmother who was a adamant racist, I quickly got a reminder. My grandmother turned to the older white couple behind her and said, loud enough for the mixed couple to hear, "Well isn't that the most disgusting thing you ever saw?" in a very disgusted tone of voice.

She and the white couple were going on quite loudly enough, that I was embarrased and ran ahead of them to select a few things. When I got to the cashier, paid for my meal and went to sit down. I sat at the table next to the mixed couple, kinda as a way to say I was sorry. I was about to speak to them when my grandmother came along and said to me, "YOU would sit THERE" and stormed off across the dining room to a white section. I jumped up and followed her, but looked back at the mixed couple as i walked and my face was flush with embarrassment. I had forgotten about all that, but it came back quick.

My grandmother also did something nasty to her neighbour while I was there. She had accepted a parcel in a large styrofoam container that had come for her neighbour while she was out of town. The woman came back later that day, but my grandmother did not tell her the parcel was at her house. She did not like that the woman was an older white woman who was apparently a music agents and some of the musicians that came to the woman's house were black. My grandmother was distraught that her neighbour was a "n lover" and refused to tell her the parcel was in her house. My grandmother became angry with me for skipping out the door, going to the woman and telling her the parcel was at my grandmother's house. the woman came and got it later, and of course, my grandmother became totally disgusted with me.

That was 1980. the older white folks were not going to easily let go of their ways. Younger white folks were a little less bigoted, but still had to sneak around to have black friends. And it still got people lynched, even then. The Dixie Mafia, which were all Klan, had the "honours" of carrying out lynchings. The dixie Mafia sorta ran the Gulf coast, while the White Knights ran Terry (and beyond I imagine).

In the 1980's things had progressed enough in Mississippi that the young mixed couple were able to do what they did. No one did that sort of thing in the 50's & 60's without being taken to the woods immediately. In the 50's and 60's they would have been lynched, Terry-style, even on the coast. I am not sure what ever happened to those people.

Lynching in Mississippi back then, were carried out with Middle Ages grotesqueness, disembowelling, and Star Chamber torture. Tire fires were the common 'clean up material' as they get hot enough to burn anything.

I am amazed you found this out! Kudos! Does it actually say that "a new populist movement was stirred in Terry, Mississippi in 1963, led by Guy Banister of New Orleans"? He was also in Byram a lot that summer, too. It is true, he was in Terry, a lot in 1963. I remember that we had air raid drills a lot, both in town at home and at school. It was a kinda scary time for many. Talk of an invasion was at every dinner table and at school.

It is unfortunate that I was unable to have black friends back then. I would have liked to have known what they were going through and if they were scared of an attack by "Communists". But that was a dinosaur bone of contention. Martha May Ransom, my (mother's mother) grandmother's "maid" never talked about it. If it is written somewhere that Banister was in Terry in 1963, I am totally shocked they would have ever let that cat out of the bag.

Kudos again, Paul. You are quite the researcher. :-)

Edited February 18, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

...Lynchings in Mississippi back then, were carried out with Middle Ages grotesqueness, disembowelling, and Star Chamber torture. Tire fires were the common 'clean up material' as they get hot enough to burn anything.

I am amazed you found this out! Kudos! Does it actually say that "a new populist movement was stirred in Terry, Mississippi in 1963, led by Guy Banister of New Orleans"? He was also in Byram a lot that summer, too. It is true, he was in Terry, a lot in 1963. I remember that we had air raid drills a lot, both in town at home and at school. It was a kinda scary time for many. Talk of an invasion was at every dinner table and at school.

It is unfortunate that I was unable to have black friends back then. I would have liked to have known what they were going through and if they were scared of an attack by "Communists". But that was a dinosaur bone of contention. Martha May Ransom, my (mother's mother) grandmother's "maid" never talked about it. If it is written somewhere that Banister was in Terry in 1963, I am totally shocked they would have ever let that cat out of the bag...

Terri, the research I did on the KKK didn't mention Guy Banister. Sorry I wasn't clear about that -- I added that part at the end by including your own eye-witness account.

Your memories of Guy Banister at your kitchen table in Terry, Mississippi in 1963 is what connects your account with current JFK assassination research. Your account further links a JFK assassination suspect with the larger movement of white-supremacy in the USA, in response to the Civil Rights movement in which JFK had taken a clear stand for Equal Rights for Black Americans, and therefore against the old culture of white-supremacy that still lingers on in the South.

I think the reason many Americans cannot picture this clearly is because LBJ immediately followed JFK, and our memories have been overwhelmed by the Vietnam conflict along with LBJ's massive Civil Rights legislation. Because of LBJ, we now live in a world of greater racial equality than ever before in the USA. It's a different world, actually, and I appreciate your account because it reminds us of how revolutionary LBJ has been for domestic issues.

If LBJ had done a better job with the Vietnam era, he would have been remembered on equal terms with FDR, I believe. But nobody's perfect. LBJ was able to push the KKK to one side as no other US President has been able to do. Truman and Eisenhower did not make speeches about Civil Rights. JFK was the first, but I would argue that JFK was personally unsuccessful with that.

it is right and proper to connect the assassination of JFK with the Civil Rights movement. I believe there is a direct correlation -- a straight line. For example, on 30 September 1962 Ross Barnett encouraged ex-General Edwin Walker to lead a racial riot of thousands at Old Miss University at Oxford, Mississippi -- in protest of the registration of James Meredith who was advised by NAACP leader Medgar Evers. On 30 January 1963, a Mississippi Grand Jury acquitted Edwin Walker, dropping all charges.

In the late hours of the night of JFK's first and last Civil Rights speech (11 June 1963) KKK member Byron de la Beckwith shot Medgar Evers in the back, killing him in his own Mississippi driveway. Within six months, JFK would also be lying in a pool of blood.

After JFK was killed and the Warren Commission began in January, 1964, ex-General Edwin Walker once again joined Ross Barnett in Mississippi, this time in a court house to shake hands with Byron de la Beckwith, to offer Beckwith encouragement in his murder trial. Beckwith was set free in 1964, due to a mistrial.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited February 18, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Guest Robert Morrow]

" Because of LBJ, we now live in a world of greater racial equality than ever before in the USA. "

Sorry that is just rubbish. For almost his entire public career LBJ voted with the white supremacists and LBJ himself was quite racist and would tell jokes about black people - "n jokes" as we would say in Alabama. LBJ was a big reason for the delay in equal rights for everyone.

Then in 1957 LBJ past a watered down Civil Rights bill with no enforcement provisions. He only did that because he was going to run for president in 1960.

The blacks, the liberals, the Northerners (most, not all), & the progressives all hated LBJ and they had a massive fit on the floor of the 1960 Democratic convention after LBJ was mysteriously picked as VP. The Kennedys had sworn they would never do that. The blacks knew who their enemies were.

It is only after a bullet goes into JFK's head on 11/22/63 that Lyndon Johnson picks up the civil rights mantle. Lyndon Johnson was doing this because he was deeply involved in the JFK assassination and he had to neutralize and innoculate himself from the folks who most suspected him of murdering John Kennedy: blacks, liberals, Kennedy supporters.

"Civil rights" was Lyndon Johnson's "keep-out-of-jail" ticket for the JFK assassination. It was a big reason the NYT and the Wash Post went so easy on LBJ in the aftermath of Kennedy's death. Once they saw their pet issue civil rights being advanced, they did not want to upset the apple cart by questioning the legitimacy of Crazy Ole Big Ears.

LBJ was very sharp at political manipulation. He was already carrying the water for Texas oil executives and war hawks and by tactically adopting the mantle of "civil rights" he castrated any real attempts to look into the JFK assassination by the left.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Robert Morrow

[Paul Trejo]

" Because of LBJ, we now live in a world of greater racial equality than ever before in the USA. "

Sorry that is just rubbish. For almost his entire public career LBJ voted with the white supremacists and LBJ himself was quite racist and would tell jokes about black people - "n jokes" as we would say in Alabama. LBJ was a big reason for the delay in equal rights for everyone.

Then in 1957 LBJ past a watered down Civil Rights bill with no enforcement provisions. He only did that because he was going to run for president in 1960.

The blacks, the liberals, the Northerners (most, not all), & the progressives all hated LBJ and they had a massive fit on the floor of the 1960 Democratic convention after LBJ was mysteriously picked as VP. The Kennedys had sworn they would never do that. The blacks knew who their enemies were.

It is only after a bullet goes into JFK's head on 11/22/63 that Lyndon Johnson picks up the civil rights mantle. Lyndon Johnson was doing this because he was deeply involved in the JFK assassination and he had to neutralize and innoculate himself from the folks who most suspected him of murdering John Kennedy: blacks, liberals, Kennedy supporters.

"Civil rights" was Lyndon Johnson's "keep-out-of-jail" ticket for the JFK assassination. It was a big reason the NYT and the Wash Post went so easy on LBJ in the aftermath of Kennedy's death. Once they saw their pet issue civil rights being advanced, they did not want to upset the apple cart by questioning the legitimacy of Crazy Ole Big Ears.

LBJ was very sharp at political manipulation. He was already carrying the water for Texas oil executives and war hawks and by tactically adopting the mantle of "civil rights" he castrated any real attempts to look into the JFK assassination by the left.

Robert, many if not most politicians of the early 1960's in the South played ball at some level with the powerful white-supremacy movement. We cannot be surprised that LBJ was among them. As George Wallace and others showed, it was impossible in those days to get elected unless one played ball with the KKK in many communities.

We must add to the KKK the upsurge of the white-collar White Citizens' Council (WCC) which boasted a quarter-million dues-paying members in not only the South but also the North, with a substantial presence in the US Congress. Actually, it was in the Congressional film studios that the WCC made their weekly films -- almost free of charge.

So, the WCC was subsidized by the US Congress. To this degree Terri Williams is correct to emphasize that, in the 1960's, the white-supremacist movement was predominant throughout the USA.

If attitudes are radically different today, after the killing of JFK, we must recognize that LBJ is the one who made that radical change in our lives. Whatever a politician's motivations -- it is the politician's decisions and deeds that characterize his or her legacy.

As for the JFK assassination, I quickly agree that LBJ led the cover-up of the JFK conspiracy. LBJ (along with Hoover, Dulles and Earl Warren) knew exactly who the conspirators were -- and that is precisely why they insisted upon concealing their identities.

Furthermore, I believe Terri Williams is also correct in identifying the white-supremacist movement as completely central to the JFK conspiracy.

Nevertheless, I reject any suggestion that LBJ was the leader of the plot to kill JFK. (Even if Madelyn Brown is telling the truth, and LBJ learned the night before that H.L. Hunt was involved in a JFK elimination plot, LBJ was in no position to do anything about it without endangering his own life.)

The reason LBJ covered up the JFK conspiracy was not because he was part of it. On the contrary. The JFK conspirators wanted to push the USA to invade Cuba. LBJ did not invade Cuba. That is tangible proof that LBJ was not part of the conspiracy.

Instead, the reason the LBJ covered up the JFK conspiracy was exactly the reason that he gave (and that Hoover, Dulles and Earl Warren gave) namely, National Security. In my humble opinion, LBJ (along with Hoover, Dulles and Earl Warren) knew that if the truth was told, there would be a Civil War in the USA.

They also knew that if a Civil War broke out in the USA, the USSR would be tempted to get involved, and that would start World War Three. So, to prevent World War Three, LBJ (along with Hoover, Dulles and Earl Warren) held back the truth about the JFK assassination. It was a matter of National Security in 1964 for the WC, and it was the same matter of National Security in 1979 for the HSCA.

I repeat -- the fact that LBJ did not invade Cuba is sufficient proof that LBJ was not the leader of the plot to kill JFK. He was only the leader of the plot to cover-up the plot. Hoover's gambit, "the lone-nut assassin," instantly won LBJ's approval. So, whenever Hoover leaked his story to the press (which was often) we can be assured that LBJ was also behind those leaks.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited February 19, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Guest Robert Morrow]

The reason LBJ covered up the JFK conspiracy was not because he was part of it. On the contrary. The JFK conspirators wanted to push the USA to invade Cuba. LBJ did not invade Cuba. That is tangible proof that LBJ was not part of the conspiracy."

I can tell that you have never done business before with Lyndon Johnson. He does not give a flip about your agenda, he only cares about his own. Post assassination all Lyndon Johnson cared about was not hanging from the tallest tree in Washington, DC or the tallest tree in Dallas.

As he told Madeleine Brown on the morning of 11/22/63:

“That son-of-a-bitch crazy Yarborough and that g__dd__m f____g Irish mafia bastard Kennedy, will never embarrass me again!” [Texas in the Morning, p. 167]

I do believe that of course the JFK was the ultimate expression of Operation Northwoods and it was in fact designed to provoke an American invasion of Cuba and also kill Kennedy - killing 2 birds with one stone. Air Force General Ed Lansdale, the man who wrote up Operation Northwoods for the JCS, was even photographed on site.

But LBJ did not go along with the plan because he cared more about himself than invading Cuba and especially after Oswald was murdered in Dallas police custody, the flames of conspiracy were being fanned and escaping from the JFK assassination were the conspirators' (LBJ being at the epicenter of them) main goal.

Let's not forget Col. D. H. Byrd who owned the TSBD who had close ties to LBJ and Gen. LeMay who considered the Kennedys to be immoral cockroaches as he stated in his oral history. LeMay of the Air Force being a superior to Gen. Ed Lansdale.

There is more on Lyndon Johnson's participation in the JFK assassination than any single other person; no need to list them all for you just read the books. Remember, LBJ told Madeleine Brown that it was Texas oil men and the CIA who were behind the JFK assassination: he did not say the KKK!

[Paul Trejo]

...I can tell that you have never done business before with Lyndon Johnson. He does not give a flip about your agenda, he only cares about his own. Post assassination all Lyndon Johnson cared about was not hanging from the tallest tree in Washington, DC or the tallest tree in Dallas.

As he told Madeleine Brown on the morning of 11/22/63:

“That son-of-a-bitch crazy Yarborough and that g__dd__m f____g Irish mafia bastard Kennedy, will never embarrass me again!” [Texas in the Morning, p. 167]

I do believe that of course the JFK was the ultimate expression of Operation Northwoods and it was in fact designed to provoke an American invasion of Cuba and also kill Kennedy - killing 2 birds with one stone. Air Force General Ed Lansdale, the man who wrote up Operation Northwoods for the JCS, was even photographed on site.

But LBJ did not go along with the plan because he cared more about himself than invading Cuba and especially after Oswald was murdered in Dallas police custody, the flames of conspiracy were being fanned and escaping from the JFK assassination were the conspirators' (LBJ being at the epicenter of them) main goal.

Let's not forget Col. D. H. Byrd who owned the TSBD who had close ties to LBJ and Gen. LeMay who considered the Kennedys to be immoral cockroaches as he stated in his oral history. LeMay of the Air Force being a superior to Gen. Ed Lansdale.

There is more on Lyndon Johnson's participation in the JFK assassination than any single other person; no need to list them all for you just read the books. Remember, LBJ told Madeleine Brown that it was Texas oil men and the CIA who were behind the JFK assassination: he did not say the KKK!

This is all conjecture and innuendo, Robert. This is the same level of argument that convicted Lee Harvey Oswald. I advise you to try to see beyond the political hatred of LBJ.

The conspirators who killed JFK wanted an invasion of Cuba, first, foremost and last. That was their goal. They didn't get their goal. LBJ made sure that they didn't get their goal -- even though they walked away free. If any of the JFK conspirators are still alive today, they get to see a Communist Cuba every morning when they wake up.

That was the legacy of LBJ.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

With regards to LBJ and Cuba, if the aim of assassinating JFK was to invade Cuba and Johnson didn't, I can't think of what better evidence that he was somewhere near the top in the plot to kill Kennedy. I mean if he had not been somewhere near the top, and the Klan had just killed one president for not invading Cuba, why would they have not gone after LBJ for not doing what Kennedy did not do? There was more to it than Cuba. Next episode: Vietnam. Who profited from the Vietnam war? Powerful whities?

I think someone in the Federal Reserve might have had a hand in matters.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

Paul, there are people at the Clarion Ledger who know Banister was in Byram (5 miles north of Terry) in the summer of 1963, so there must be some kind of documentation regarding Banister's visits in 1963.Not to mention the green Ford pick-up truck. Wouldn't there have been some documentation about that truck somewhere, something that connects Banister to Terry?

Edited February 20, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

With regards to LBJ and Cuba, if the aim of assassinating JFK was to invade Cuba and Johnson didn't, I can't think of what better evidence that he was somewhere near the top in the plot to kill Kennedy. I mean if he had not been somewhere near the top, and the Klan had just killed one president for not invading Cuba, why would they have not gone after LBJ for not doing what Kennedy did not do? There was more to it than Cuba. Next episode: Vietnam. Who profited from the Vietnam war? Powerful whities?

I think someone in the Federal Reserve might have had a hand in matters.

...Paul, there are people at the Clarion Ledger who know Banister was in Byram (5 miles north of Terry) in the summer of 1963, so there must be some kind of documentation regarding Banister's visits in 1963.Not to mention the green Ford pick-up truck. Wouldn't there have been some documentation about that truck somewhere, something that connects Banister to Terry?

Terri, I still think that Cuba was the main issue on the mind of the JFK killers -- that along with race-mixing in public schools.

I think JFK was naive when it came to the South. JFK was a rich Yankee who grew up in a bubble. He knew nothing about life in the South, except what he read in books. When he saw the "Wanted for Treason: JFK" handbills in Dallas on the last day of his life, he turned to Jackie and said, "We are in nut-country now."

So, JFK imagined that this right-wing hatred of JFK was limited to a tiny minority of Americans, whom he could call, "nutty." He failed to realize something that LBJ clearly saw -- that the extreme right wing in the USA had been galvanized over the twin issues of Cuba and the massive resistance to Brown v. The Board of Education, which was decided by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.

LBJ saw clearly that perhaps 33% of all Americans were sympathetic to the extreme right, especially as regards their own white children in public schools. The resistance was massive -- and JFK was dimly aware of it.

But LBJ stood up to the killers of JFK. They wanted the USA to invade Cuba, and they wanted to roll-back Brown v. The Board of Education, and they wanted to impeach Earl Warren. That is what they dreamed of achieving by killing JFK.

As evidence I submit the open letter to JFK written by ex-General Edwin Walker, a frequent speaker at White Citizens' Council meetings.

http://www.pet880.co...Open_Letter.JPG

In this letter, written on 26 September 1962, that is, on the eve of the racial riots at Ole Miss University, Edwin Walker goes on and on about Cuba, even above the issue of Ole Miss, which was fresh on his mind.

LBJ saw all this cleary. LBJ knew who killed JFK, at least at the group level. And LBJ was not afraid of them. They just killed JFK over Cuba -- they might kill LBJ over Cuba, but LBJ stood firm. He refused to invade Cuba, and he refused to reverse Brown v. the Board of Education, and he refused to impeach Earl Warren. LBJ frustrated the JFK killers after the fact.

LBJ also used Earl Warren to cover-up the evidence that the right-wing in the USA killed JFK. LBJ had a good reason -- National Security. The active right-wing in 1963 was massive -- representing perhaps 33% of all Americans. To pick a fight with the South again might have turned into a new Civil War. In the midst of the Cold War that was even more dangerous. LBJ, Hoover, Dulles and Earl Warren did the right thing by covering up the JFK murder.

Vietnam was barely on the radar in 1963.

Finally, Terri, about the presence of Guy Banister in Terry, Mississippi, your home town, I will (when I get more time) look up the Mississippi Clarion Ledger newspaper articles of that period. I know very little about Mississippi newspapers today -- but I will know more about them in coming months.

As far as city records go for Terry and Byram, Mississippi, it would take a lot of effort on my part to obtain them. Finding somebody who lives in those towns who is also interested in this question would be a great help.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited February 22, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

A couple of years ago I spoke with Jerry Mitchell, a reporter with the Clarion Ledger/Jackson Daily News. He said he knew of Banister's visits to Byram. He helped in the making of a documentary about the killing of the three civil rights workers.

I was hoping to have some justice for Junior Ransom. It actually perplexes me that Sheriff Tyrone Lewis (of today's Hinds County) does not want to seek justice for ANY of the many people who lost their lives to lynchings, even though I know exactly who killed Junior in 1964.

Interesting letter from Walker. Thanks for the link. I can hear the thick, pompous, southern accent as I read it.

I do remember how the south was up in arms about Cuba, but the thing I remember that caused the most angry reaction was the confiscation of weapons. That's what the Klan called it, confiscation of weapons. They felt that it left them defenceless and it really pissed them off mightily, more than Meredith. It was like throwing fuel on that fire.

No Klansmen (and I do mean the WCC, too) was at all comfortable with race mixing. Say what you will about the WCC keeping the Klan out, but I KNOW that was a ruse. They all acted in unison whatever the Klan did. No WCC ever investigated any lynchings, and they knew all about each one, nor would they have ever.

The Dixie Mafia was pissed about Castro's nationalizing of their casinos, hotels, prostitution rings and other illicit industries. I think the Klan and the US military were faking it when they claimed there was a danger of invasion, sold it to southerners who ate it up. It was mostly just a revenge they wanted. They wanted their money making illicit businesses back.

[Paul Trejo]

A couple of years ago I spoke with Jerry Mitchell, a reporter with the Clarion Ledger/Jackson Daily News. He said he knew of Banister's visits to Byram. He helped in the making of a documentary about the killing of the three civil rights workers.

I was hoping to have some justice for Junior Ransom. It actually perplexes me that Sheriff Tyrone Lewis (of today's Hinds County) does not want to seek justice for ANY of the many people who lost their lives to lynchings, even though I know exactly who killed Junior in 1964.

Interesting letter from Walker. Thanks for the link. I can hear the thick, pompous, southern accent as I read it.

I do remember how the south was up in arms about Cuba, but the thing I remember that caused the most angry reaction was the confiscation of weapons. That's what the Klan called it, confiscation of weapons. They felt that it left them defenceless and it really pissed them off mightily, more than Meredith. It was like throwing fuel on that fire.

No Klansmen (and I do mean the WCC, too) was at all comfortable with race mixing. Say what you will about the WCC keeping the Klan out, but I KNOW that was a ruse. They all acted in unison whatever the Klan did. No WCC ever investigated any lynchings, and they knew all about each one, nor would they have ever.

The Dixie Mafia was pissed about Castro's nationalizing of their casinos, hotels, prostitution rings and other illicit industries. I think the Klan and the US military were faking it when they claimed there was a danger of invasion, sold it to southerners who ate it up. It was mostly just a revenge they wanted. They wanted their money making illicit businesses back.

Terri, I appreciate the name of Jerry Mitchell, and I now want to speak with him. This is a breakthrough for my own theory. Many thanks for the name.

I believe the problem of obtaining justice for lynchings in the 1960's is immense, involving mobs of people and millions of dollars of legal fees which poor counties don't have. Some lynchings were revenge killings for race-mixing at a time when race-mixing really was prohibited in Southern statutes -- so the legal battles could take years, make headlines and be humiliating to hundreds or even thousands of people. Although there is no statute of limitations on the crime of murder, the public official who pushed forward such justice might be killed himself -- even today. The Confederate flag still flies high in some counties in the Deep South.

As for the "confiscation of weapons" in 1963, levied on the Cuban Exile training camps like Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans, used by groups like Alpha 66 with help from Minutemen and the KKK, it was life or death for the Cuban Exiles, but it was even more serious for rightists in the USA -- it was a Constitutional question. Should the Federal government abolish the 2nd Amendment? These are fighting words beyond the KKK, beyond the WCC's, beyond the Minutemen, beyond the John Birch Society. Millions upon millions of Americans consider it tyranny to speak of abolishing the 2nd Amendment.

Even today, politicians accuse President Obama of trying to abolish the 2nd Amendment. This question mobilizes millions of Americans. It isn't true of course, but it makes lots of people hate the President. It wasn't true of JFK, either. JFK did not outlaw the possession of weapons -- he shut down Cuban Exile training camps, which is a different matter.

This was about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its aftermath, when JFK was trying to convince the USSR to back away from Cuba, after removing their missiles. The rightists claimed that JFK really let the missiles remain in Cuba. It was their very real paranoia that JFK was arming Cuba, Yugoslavia and the USSR and disarming the USA. The claims against JFK (like the claims that Sarah Palin made about Obama last year) said that JFK was a Marxist and a Communist.

The right-wing really hasn't changed much since the 1960's -- they still represent about 33% of the USA and still accuse their opponents of Communism. Still not a majority -- but they are trying like mad.

It's not just that the so-called confiscation of weapons angered the KKK more than the race-mixing at Ole Miss, but it angered millions of more Americans who had nothing to do with the KKK. And this gave the KKK more credibility and more power. I agree with you, Terri, that it was like throwing fuel on the fire.

There is a book written by Judge Tom Brady called, Black Monday (1954), which was the first and most popular book that the WCC ever distributed. It is a protest against Brown v. The Board of Education, and against race-mixing specifically. Tom Brady believed in the science fiction fantasy that all great ancient Empires were white, and only fell because colored people took them over.

Brady wrote that Cleopatra was white. He even wrote that the Mayan kings were white. This was his science fiction fantasy, and he sold it to millions of people in the South, including Governors, Congressmen, Senators, Judges, Doctors, Lawyers, Professors, Bankers, Businessmen and Society Ladies. The South ran with Brady's doctrine of white supremacy like Nazi Germany ran with Madame Blavatsky's doctrine of Aryan supremacy.

The WCC said they wanted to keep the KKK and its thug violence out of their movement -- but the history of the Deep South proved that they could not make that happen. The KKK would come in anyhow and wreak violence. Even then, the WCC did plenty of damage by ruining Black people economically, by getting them fired from their jobs, and getting banks to call in their loans.

As for Cuba, while it is true that the Mafia -- including the Dixie Mafia -- wanted to get their old stomping grounds back from Castro, they were not the driving force behind the push to kill Castro. There is a problem with Communism that cannot be tolerated by the US Constitution. Western Law is based on private property -- and Communism undermines that. While it is true that private property is subject to abuses, for example, organized crime, the ancient institution of private property is the foundation of Western Law. The USSR was the great experiment to prove that people could live without private property, and the proof of its failure was in 1990 when the USSR finally collapsed upon itself.

We can't blame the Mafia for the drive against Castro. The vast majority of Americans wanted Castro overthrown. If not for the USSR protecting Cuba in 1963, I feel sure that Castro would have been overthrown. Even JFK and RFK held secret plans to to overthrow Castro -- but they had to be secret, and not out in the open like Lake Pontchartrain. Sadly, the right-wing failed to understand this.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

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Edited February 22, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

There are only two other people who were present at Terry Consolidated School on November 22, 1963 who saw exactly what I saw happen that day, and were not happy about it. I kinda doubt they will ever talk, though. I guess I am the only fool from Terry who would. I hope to some day to get in contact with them, but time marches on; they are in their mid to late sixties by now.