JFK and the Ku Klux Klan

[Mark Knight]

Clay Shaw was a real live human being: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Laverne_Shaw

[Terri Williams]

Clay Shaw was a real live human being: http://en.wikipedia....ay_Laverne_Shaw

Thanks, interesting read about him. I had family in New Orleans, whom I visited quite often when growing up. It has always been one of my favourite American cities.

Doc wrote this textbook, Concepts of Disease: Textbook of Human Pathology. I believe he was head of Pathology at the University Hospital in Jackson. He was definitely connected to Bannister and possibly more higher up. He did attend at RFK's autopsy, maybe even JFK's & MLK's as well. From what I heard while growing up, he had a hand in much violence, probably explicitly through funding, as well as offering space for Klan activities. If he was a Klansmen, he probably kept it hidden. I wouldn't be surprised if he funded some of the White Citizens' Councils activities in Terry. He was a very intelligent, high society kind of man of the gay, yet "cold-hearted" variety.

Doc was in his forties when I was a teenager, so he would have been in the same age group as Clay Shaw. It would not have been that unusual for the two of them to have known each other. Wealthier people would have paid a crop duster to fly them down to New Orleans for the weekend, air taxi style.

My cousin who crop dusted, flew in Vietnam, three tours of duty, living north nowadays. His brother worked for Houston Central. Their sister lived and worked in DC for a decade back then.

On both sides of my family are military. They were most interested in fighting against Cuba and felt it the duty of every able bodied man to participate. Those who did not were castigated. Patriotism! The Klan felt they were the only true Americans and they were not beyond fighting "for 'their' country" and those who did not or who got in their way, were shoved aside or killed. That was just on a local level. Nationally the sentiment was magnified. They felt they were saving the USA by killing Kennedy and preventing him and his brother from going ahead with their plans, stopping them dead in their tracks.

Those who were most harmed by Kennedy, such as the FBI, CIA and Mafia MUST have helped out. The Mafia had/has a stronghold in the South, the Dixie Mafia as it is called. Some of them would have been Klan as well. There has been no evidence presented to me that proves the FBI are a reputable organization, so I can believe, especially in light of Hoover's relationship with the Kennedy brothers, that FBI had a covert hand in carrying out and covering up.

The CIA must have gone south and riled the Klan into action, you might figure. The whole coup d'etat was pulled off much like any other CIA operation anywhere else, so why is it not conceivable that they also had a covert hand. Covert IS their middle name. They certainly had cause enough to be angry at the brothers in power.

Heck, I even had relatives who worked in Bethesda, for Pete's sake.

Somehow, Doc knew someone in power. He aided and abetted in something he strongly believed in. If there was a connection between Bannister and Terry, his is one of the many names I would suggest as fitting the bill.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

Doc wrote this textbook, Concepts of Disease: Textbook of Human Pathology. I believe he was head of Pathology at the University Hospital in Jackson. He was definitely connected to Bannister and possibly more higher up. He did attend at RFK's autopsy, maybe even JFK's & MLK's as well. From what I heard while growing up, he had a hand in much violence, probably explicitly through funding, as well as offering space for Klan activities. If he was a Klansmen, he probably kept it hidden. I wouldn't be surprised if he funded some of the White Citizens' Councils activities in Terry. He was a very intelligent, high society kind of man of the gay, yet "cold-hearted" variety.

Doc was in his forties when I was a teenager, so he would have been in the same age group as Clay Shaw. It would not have been that unusual for the two of them to have known each other. Wealthier people would have paid a crop duster to fly them down to New Orleans for the weekend, air taxi style.

My cousin who crop dusted, flew in Vietnam, three tours of duty, living north nowadays. His brother worked for Houston Central. Their sister lived and worked in DC for a decade back then.

On both sides of my family are military. They were most interested in fighting against Cuba and felt it the duty of every able bodied man to participate. Those who did not were castigated. Patriotism! The Klan felt they were the only true Americans and they were not beyond fighting "for 'their' country" and those who did not or who got in their way, were shoved aside or killed. That was just on a local level. Nationally the sentiment was magnified. They felt they were saving the USA by killing Kennedy and preventing him and his brother from going ahead with their plans, stopping them dead in their tracks.

Those who were most harmed by Kennedy, such as the FBI, CIA and Mafia MUST have helped out. The Mafia had/has a stronghold in the South, the Dixie Mafia as it is called. Some of them would have been Klan as well. There has been no evidence presented to me that proves the FBI are a reputable organization, so I can believe, especially in light of Hoover's relationship with the Kennedy brothers, that FBI had a covert hand in carrying out and covering up.

The CIA must have gone south and riled the Klan into action, you might figure. The whole coup d'etat was pulled off much like any other CIA operation anywhere else, so why is it not conceivable that they also had a covert hand. Covert IS their middle name. They certainly had cause enough to be angry at the brothers in power.

Heck, I even had relatives who worked in Bethesda, for Pete's sake.

Somehow, Doc knew someone in power. He aided and abetted in something he strongly believed in. If there was a connection between Bannister and Terry, his is one of the many names I would suggest as fitting the bill.

Terri, I'm now interested in the biography of "Doc", whom you've identified as Dr. Joel G. Brunson, one of two editors of the textbook, Concepts of Disease: Textbook of Human Pathology. I will take a closer look at this interesting character in the weeks ahead.

I'm especially interested in your claim that Dr. Brunson was "definitely connected to Banister," and also that Dr. Brunson "did attend at RFK's autopsy..."

It is my understanding that the membership lists of the White Citizens' Councils were not secret, so it will be interesting to attempt to find the WCC records on Dr. Brunson.

I appreciate your eye-witness account that the rich folks in Terry, Mississippi would "fly down to New Orleans for the weekend." Evidently that's where the action was in those days. If so, then it is surely plausible that Dr. Brunson, who was gay, might have met Clay Shaw (also gay) in New Orleans -- because a connection between Guy Banister and Clay Shaw has been established by Jim Garrison.

My family was military on my father's side, and perhaps most Americans have some military family members. The period between 1959-1963 was unique in American politics, I believe, because of the Cuban crisis. It is easy to imagine patriotic families rising up to fight Castro if he dared lift a finger against the USA.

I appreciate your eye-witness account that the KKK "felt they were the only true Americans." That is a common sentiment among other groups in the USA, too. Historically, the White Citizens' Council (WCC) sprang up exactly two months after the 1954 Brown v. The Board of Education decision. It was a direct reaction. School segregation for the WCC meant American patriotism.

This was when we first heard demands to "Impeach Earl Warren," the Chief Justice who gave us Brown. Senator Joe McCarthy was stil very strong in 1954-1956, and terrified many Americans with his nonsense that the Communists had already infiltrated Washington DC. His Catholic paranoia played right into the hands of the segregationists in the South who immediately blamed the Brown decision on the Communists. This was when we first heard the slogan, "Integration is Communism."

That slogan, "Integration is Communism," rang like a bell through the South, and in Mississippi it was broadcast in marches waving the Confederate flag. After 1957, when McCarthy was discredited and died, a new ideological right-wing force emerged in 1959 named the John Birch Society (JBS). Building on the theories of Joe McCarthy, the JBS taught that FDR was a Communist, Truman was a Communist, and that the Brown decision proved that Eisenhower was a Communist.

The first slogan of the JBS -- their first bumper sticker and highway billboard -- was the slogan, "Impeach Earl Warren." This was no longer just an issue for the South. The JBS kept the myth alive that Washington DC was full of Communists.

But as you noted, Terri, the KKK probably thought of themselves as the leaders of this movement (and perhaps they were).

The JBS gave a clear message when JFK began his term as President -- namely, that JFK was the most Communist president of them all. After the Bay of Pigs, which occurred soon after JFK took office, the Cuban crisis became the rallying point of the right wing. The Minutemen, the WCC and the KKK all joined the JBS in blaming a "Communist JFK" for the mess. At this point, from 1961-1963 the right-wing was united in their belief that removing JFK from power by any means possible, was a patriotic act to restore America to freedom and glory.

I tend to agree with you 100% on this issue, Terri; that those groups who participated in the JFK assassination (the accomplices of Lee Harvey Oswald) believed that they were justified in their actions; they believed that they were doing the USA a favor; they believed that they were acting as the only true patriots.

With this sort of grass-roots movement from coast to coast (although much of it was underground) it was not necessary for the FBI or CIA to participate in the assassination of JFK -- it was only necessary for them to step aside and look the other way for a few hours. If they did so, they did because they also believed that they were "the only true patriots."

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 28, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

What was Bannister's role? Why did he come to my home town and Byram in the summer of 1963? What was his part in all this? Why did he say Mr. Lewis was a Champion of Freedom? Did he find bed and breakfast with Doc when in town? If Bannister was part of black ops, then the CIA didn't just step aside and watch, they directed, orchestrated, most eloquently.

Did I mention that I also had an uncle who worked in Bethesda? My father's oldest brother, MJ. I liked my uncle. He was a kinder man than most others in the family and I liked his children. Many southerners had relatives who worked in Bethesda, and beyond.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

What was Bannister's role? Why did he come to my home town and Byram in the summer of 1963? What was his part in all this? Why did he say Mr. Lewis was a Champion of Freedom? Did he find bed and breakfast with Doc when in town? If Bannister was part of black ops, then the CIA didn't just step aside and watch, they directed, orchestrated, most eloquently...

Terri, the work of Jim Garrison (as dramatized in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie, JFK) is the only major work that I know about which clarified the role of Guy Banister.

Guy Banister was born in Louisiana in 1901, and after he got out of college he joined the Lousiana Police Department. When he was 32 years old he was accepted into the FBI. He was present when John Dillinger was killed. Banister helped J. Edgar Hoover investigate the Communist Party USA, and Hoover promoted him to Special Agent in Charge.

After he retired from the FBI in 1954, Guy Banister returned to Louisiana to become Assistant Superintendent of the NOPD. In this office he became obsessed by the McCarthyist idea that the Civil Rights movement was Communist. He quit the NOPD in 1957 and started his own Private Eye firm to spy on students in college.

Guy Banister went mostly underground at this point. He began to investigate the FPCC (Fair Play for Cuba Committee) in 1960, and spied on college students that he believed were friendly to the FPCC. Rumors abound that he himself became corrupt during the early 1960's period, and he joined David Ferrie to work for the famous Lousiana mobster, Carlos Marcello. (Marcello, also a rabid racist, was friendly to the KKK, and evidently Banister was also a member of the KKK and any other white-supremacist organization that sprang up in his neighborhood.)

In the summer of 1963, Guy Banister (allegedly) hired Lee Harvey Oswald to infiltrate the FPCC, and pretend to be a leader of the FPCC in New Orleans, in order to entrap college students who were friendly to the FPCC.

On some of the FPCC fliers that Lee Harvey Oswald handed out in New Orleans, Oswald had stamped the address of 544 Camp Street, which turns out to be the office above Guy Banister's office, and next to the offices of Cuban Exile radicals in the DRE, INCA and the CRC. Oswald spent his time with Cuban Exiles during this period, and we have plenty of film, radio and newspaper clips to prove that obvious fact.

Jim Garrison was the guy who first pointed all this out in his publications to the world. Unknown to Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald was also being betrayed by these same operators -- they were going to use Oswald's FPCC disguise as "proof" that Oswald was really a Communist, in order to blame Oswald for the JFK assassination -- Oswald was going to be the patsy.

That is, Banister was aware of, and directly involved in, the JFK assassination, and deliberately set-up Oswald as a "Communist" in the newspapers, radio and television, "proving" that Oswald was a Communist, while at the same time Banister coordinated the actual shooters to appear in Dallas (or some other city, as needed).

Banister's goal, according to Jim Garrison, like the goal of all others involved in the JFK assassination, was to convince the USA to invade Cuba right away.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 28, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Michael Hogan]

...Paul, have you read Jones' book?

Yes, Michael, I read The Minutemen (1968) by J. Harry Jones Jr. last year while studying the Cold War under Dr. H.W. Brands at UT Austin. As a side-note, it was republished in 1969 under the title, A Private Army.

.......Robert DePugh continually conveyed to Jones his constant fear -- his paranoia IMHO -- that Castro's Cubans were going to invade the USA because the White House allowed this to happen.

Paul, I have Jones' book and I have searched in vain for corroboration that DePugh continually conveyed this constant fear to Jones.

Of course Cuba is mentioned several times in the book, but not in the context you describe. Maybe you can show me something I missed.

[Paul Trejo]

Paul, I have Jones' book and I have searched in vain for corroboration that DePugh continually conveyed this constant fear to Jones.

Of course Cuba is mentioned several times in the book, but not in the context you describe. Maybe you can show me something I missed.

Michael, in chapter two of The Minutemen (1968), J.H. Jones describes his interviews with Robert Bolivar DePugh, founder of the Minutemen of the 1960's. When the group started, they collected ideas from, among many sources, including the John Birch Society, which proclaimed that all the Presidents of the USA since FDR were Communist affiliated.

That's the original anxiety that underlies all of DePugh's later ideas -- DePugh always takes this orientation for granted.

Still in chapter 2, on page 50, Jones cited as "the first real Minuteman fear" the threat of nuclear attack, and cites this as the reason that DePugh moved his home and business from Independence, MO (so close to the major center of Kansas City) way out to Norborne.

Then, Jones adds on page 51: "The fear of nuclear attack was only short-lived, soon to be replaced by fear of alien troops hitting America's beaches or dropping out of the skies."

To combat this new fear, DePugh offered a new solution -- guerrilla warfare. DePugh, as it turned out, had been duly impressed by Che Guevara's 1960 manual entitled, Guerrilla Warfare, which had gone into some detail. DePugh, allegedly, used this same manual as a model for his own manual, which he sold to his Minutemen.

These initial images are reinforced in page after page. Jones provided this excerpt from a Minuteman training pamphlet (page 57): "The Communists already have such complete control over the Amerian news media and political processes...that a life-and-death struggle is waging right now between the forces of freedom and the advocates of world slavery...that if the American people expect to be saved from slavery they are going to have to do so themselves...that the Minutemen are the most experienced, most dedicated and best disciplined organization that is involved in this fight at a grass-roots level."

On page 72, DePugh is quoted as saying: "...The true guerrilla...can fight on for years, even generations. Guerrilla bands can fight in the city, country, forests, deserts or mountains. They are everywhere and yet nowhere. They strike without warning and vanish without a trace. They take with them the arms, food and ammunition they will need to fight again another day..."

This, obviously, is the language of resisting an invasion.

DePugh regularly "couched his language in terms of a future take-over by the Communists," said Jones. For example, here's another snappy DePugh message from page 92: "...We have studied your Comunist Smersh, Mao, Che, Bucharin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few Yankee tricks of our own...These patriots are not going to let you take their freedoms away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler's cord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them..."

And on and on. This context of invasion and take-over continues to color all of DePugh's bizarre opinions.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 29, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Michael Hogan]

Paul, I don't see the words Castro or Cuba in any of the excerpts you furnished. And in any event, those excerpts are not fears that DePugh "continually conveyed to Jones."

Quotes from pamphlets are not fears conveyed to Jones.

None of those quotes substantiate this statement that you used to summarize Jones' book: "Robert DePugh continually conveyed to Jones

his constant fear -- his paranoia IMHO -- that Castro's Cubans were going to invade the USA because the White House allowed this to happen."

That statement of yours was made in the context of this one: "Jones interviewed Robert DePugh at length....." (Which he did)

Come on Paul.

Paul, I have Jones' book and I have searched in vain for corroboration that DePugh continually conveyed this constant fear to Jones.

Of course Cuba is mentioned several times in the book, but not in the context you describe. Maybe you can show me something I missed.

Michael, in chapter two of The Minutemen (1968), J.H. Jones describes his interviews with Robert Bolivar DePugh, founder of the Minutemen of the 1960's. When the group started, they collected ideas from, among many sources, including the John Birch Society, which proclaimed that all the Presidents of the USA since FDR were Communist affiliated.

That's the original anxiety that underlies all of DePugh's later ideas -- DePugh always takes this orientation for granted.

Still in chapter 2, on page 50, Jones cited as "the first real Minuteman fear" the threat of nuclear attack, and cites this as the reason that DePugh moved his home and business from Independence, MO (so close to the major center of Kansas City) way out to Norborne.

Then, Jones adds on page 51: "The fear of nuclear attack was only short-lived, soon to be replaced by fear of alien troops hitting America's beaches or dropping out of the skies."

To combat this new fear, DePugh offered a new solution -- guerrilla warfare. DePugh, as it turned out, had been duly impressed by Che Guevara's 1960 manual entitled, Guerrilla Warfare, which had gone into some detail. DePugh, allegedly, used this same manual as a model for his own manual, which he sold to his Minutemen.

These initial images are reinforced in page after page. Jones provided this excerpt from a Minuteman training pamphlet (page 57): "The Communists already have such complete control over the Amerian news media and political processes...that a life-and-death struggle is waging right now between the forces of freedom and the advocates of world slavery...that if the American people expect to be saved from slavery they are going to have to do so themselves...that the Minutemen are the most experienced, most dedicated and best disciplined organization that is involved in this fight at a grass-roots level."

On page 72, DePugh is quoted as saying: "...The true guerrilla...can fight on for years, even generations. Guerrilla bands can fight in the city, country, forests, deserts or mountains. They are everywhere and yet nowhere. They strike without warning and vanish without a trace. They take with them the arms, food and ammunition they will need to fight again another day..."

This, obviously, is the language of resisting an invasion.

DePugh regularly "couched his language in terms of a future take-over by the Communists," said Jones. For example, here's another snappy DePugh message from page 92: "...We have studied your Comunist Smersh, Mao, Che, Bucharin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few Yankee tricks of our own...These patriots are not going to let you take their freedoms away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler's cord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them..."

And on and on. This context of invasion and take-over continues to color all of DePugh's bizarre opinions.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

"Robert DePugh continually conveyed to Jones

his constant fear -- his paranoia IMHO -- that Castro's Cubans were going to invade the USA because the White House allowed this to happen."

That is exactly what it was like in my hometown during that time. I remember the school and town having 'air raid drills'. It was scary for me, since I was only in elementary school still. It all reached a peak in the summer of 1963 when it turned to anger at Kennedy for having left the south defenceless, or so Klan people said. Bannister came to town on more than one occasion that summer.

DePugh regularly "couched his language in terms of a future take-over by the Communists," said Jones. For example, here's another snappy DePugh message from page 92: "...We have studied your Comunist Smersh, Mao, Che, Bucharin. We have learned our lessons well and have added a few Yankee tricks of our own...These patriots are not going to let you take their freedoms away from them. They have learned the silent knife, the strangler's cord, the target rifle that hits sparrows at 200 yards. Only their leaders restrain them..."

When DePugh says, "Yankee tricks", he is referring to strategies learn from Yankees, by Rebels, during the Civil War, or at anytime from a Northerner. He means 'Northern Tricks', not necessarily 'American' ones.

Kids in my hometown, when I came back from NY a second time, called me a Yankee. That was meant as an insult, to show me that I was an outsider. Eventually I was also called a carpetbagger. Most Southerners passionately thought of themselves as Rebels. Yankees were the enemy.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

What was Bannister's role? Why did he come to my home town and Byram in the summer of 1963? What was his part in all this? Why did he say Mr. Lewis was a Champion of Freedom? Did he find bed and breakfast with Doc when in town? If Bannister was part of black ops, then the CIA didn't just step aside and watch, they directed, orchestrated, most eloquently...

Terri, the work of Jim Garrison (as dramatized in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie, JFK) is the only major work that I know about which clarified the role of Guy Banister.

Guy Banister was born in Louisiana in 1901, and after he got out of college he joined the Lousiana Police Department. When he was 32 years old he was accepted into the FBI. He was present when John Dillinger was killed. Banister helped J. Edgar Hoover investigate the Communist Party USA, and Hoover promoted him to Special Agent in Charge.

After he retired from the FBI in 1954, Guy Banister returned to Louisiana to become Assistant Superintendent of the NOPD. In this office he became obsessed by the McCarthyist idea that the Civil Rights movement was Communist. He quit the NOPD in 1957 and started his own Private Eye firm to spy on students in college.

Guy Banister went mostly underground at this point. He began to investigate the FPCC (Fair Play for Cuba Committee) in 1960, and spied on college students that he believed were friendly to the FPCC. Rumors abound that he himself became corrupt during the early 1960's period, and he joined David Ferrie to work for the famous Lousiana mobster, Carlos Marcello. (Marcello, also a rabid racist, was friendly to the KKK, and evidently Banister was also a member of the KKK and any other white-supremacist organization that sprang up in his neighborhood.)

In the summer of 1963, Guy Banister (allegedly) hired Lee Harvey Oswald to infiltrate the FPCC, and pretend to be a leader of the FPCC in New Orleans, in order to entrap college students who were friendly to the FPCC.

On some of the FPCC fliers that Lee Harvey Oswald handed out in New Orleans, Oswald had stamped the address of 544 Camp Street, which turns out to be the office above Guy Banister's office, and next to the offices of Cuban Exile radicals in the DRE, INCA and the CRC. Oswald spent his time with Cuban Exiles during this period, and we have plenty of film, radio and newspaper clips to prove that obvious fact.

Jim Garrison was the guy who first pointed all this out in his publications to the world. Unknown to Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald was also being betrayed by these same operators -- they were going to use Oswald's FPCC disguise as "proof" that Oswald was really a Communist, in order to blame Oswald for the JFK assassination -- Oswald was going to be the patsy.

That is, Banister was aware of, and directly involved in, the JFK assassination, and deliberately set-up Oswald as a "Communist" in the newspapers, radio and television, "proving" that Oswald was a Communist, while at the same time Banister coordinated the actual shooters to appear in Dallas (or some other city, as needed).

Banister's goal, according to Jim Garrison, like the goal of all others involved in the JFK assassination, was to convince the USA to invade Cuba right away.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Thank you for all that info about Bannister. It makes me wonder if he ratted my grandfather out when he played in New Orleans and if he was friendly with anyone in my family (mother's father's sister), the Underwoods, there. My cousin was a New Orleans police officer in the early sixties.

My uncle (mother's brother) had been in the Merchant Marines during that time and had moved to Houston or somewhere in Texas, got married, had a son, abused his wife and got divorced, then went off to a mental facility somewhere in California I think, in '59, the year my grandfather "killed himself" and my mother was committed to Whitfield. Are there any records connecting Bannister to Albert Guy Hollingsworth, I wonder?

Edited January 29, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

... My cousin was a New Orleans police officer in the early sixties...

Terri, this would have been a reasonable time and circumstance for Guy Banister to have met your cousin. The New Orleans Police Department was Banister's current stomping grounds. The extreme right-wing politics of (presumably) both men would have also provided an occasion for them to meet and to find common ground.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

What you were saying about Bannister spying on people, I wonder if he spied on my grandfather. My grandfather supposedly killed himself in 1959. He had played in New Orleans, and then jammed with the other musicians in their hotel. Klan made sure he was going to go back to Whitfield and he just didn't want to go again.... supposedly.

My cousin (not the pilot) who was a police officer there, his father owned Underwood Glass. My cousin's mother was my grandfather's sister. The Klan usually pressured the family to commit the renegade, if the family had money, which mine did, otherwise it would have been straight to the woods.

My cousin came to live with my mom and us kids in 1967, in Terry. He had quit the New Orleans police, because he said they had become too corrupt, however that was nothing new. So I wonder why Eddy really did quit.

My uncle had come to visit that summer. He came to my mom's house to visit with Eddy. Mom was at work, the others were at their friends' houses, I was the only one home with Eddy when UncleBubba showed up. We all sat around the kitchen table and Eddy and Uncle Bubba discussed how to get away with murder, etc. Eddy told Uncle Bubba about all the women who had gone missing in New Orleans and how police 'did not have the evidence' to arrest anyone. They talked for hours about the crimes, what police looked for, how the murders were be interpreted, etc., before my Mom came home and the talk changed. It was the kinds of questions my uncle asked that made me wonder about him. Actually, I wondered about them both.

Eddy had gotten the job of 'Night Marshal' in Terry, a post traditionally held by someone either in the Klan or sympathetic.

Reece (or Reese) Lewis is the only Night Marshal whose name I remember, before Eddy got the job. I had tried, foolishly, to tell Reece Lewis about Albert Lee Lewis in 1965, before I left to live in Syracuse. He laughed at me and said, "Aw, you just a crazy little girl" then laughed some more. I remembered what Mrs. Long had said regarding the assassination, that 'There is no one you can tell. The men who just shot the president will never be caught and nothing will ever be done about them'.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Paul Trejo]

...I remembered what Mrs. Long had said regarding the assassination, that 'There is no one you can tell. The men who just shot the president will never be caught and nothing will ever be done about them'.

Terri, it just occurred to me that you might know about participants in the racial riots of Ole Miss on 30 September 1962.

Your home town, Terry Mississippi, is only 15 miles southwest of Jackson, and ex-General Edwin Walker went on the radio and television (I'm told) to call for "ten thousand strong from every State in the Union" to meet him in Jackson, Mississippi on 29 September 1962, to march on Oxford, Mississippi, the site of Ole Miss University, where Black American James Meredith (aided by his NAACP advisor, Medgar Evers) had successfully won acceptance.

It seems to me that the KKK in Mississippi would have been the first in line to support "General Walker". You might have some vivid memories of that night, since this was your own home State.

What can you remember about that time, Terri? Do you remember interviews or speeches by resigned General Edwin Walker? Did your cousins say anything about "General Walker?"

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 30, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Terri Williams]

...I remembered what Mrs. Long had said regarding the assassination, that 'There is no one you can tell. The men who just shot the president will never be caught and nothing will ever be done about them'.

Terri, it just occurred to me that you might know about participants in the racial riots of Ole Miss on 30 September 1962.

Your home town, Terry Mississippi, is only 15 miles southwest of Jackson, and ex-General Edwin Walker went on the radio and television (I'm told) to call for "ten thousand strong from every State in the Union" to meet him in Jackson, Mississippi on 29 September 1962, to march on Oxford, Mississippi, the site of Ole Miss University, where Black American James Meredith (aided by his NAACP advisor, Medgar Evers) had successfully won acceptance.

It seems to me that the KKK in Mississippi would have been the first in line to support "General Walker". You might have some vivid memories of that night, since this was your own home State.

What can you remember about that time, Terri? Do you remember interviews or speeches by resigned General Edwin Walker? Did your cousins say anything about "General Walker?"

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

As I was quite young, I would not have been permitted to be in a riot. But as I stated earlier, I lived in Syracuse New York from June of 1962 - June of 1963, so I was not there, but when we came back in the summer of '63, the whole town was riled like never before. Their big concern was Kennedy, integration and Cubans. We had Air Raid drills at school and in town. The Klan Kidz were nastier than usual. My grandmother went on endlessly about politicians. There was a LOT of talk of every kind, but peace.

As I felt they were wrong, and since I was a supporter of Kennedy who felt he would save the south from itself, I tried to just ignore them. I remember my grandmother being frightened that blacks would riot. I was not allowed to go to the park without my brother. I was warned to stay away from "Niggertown", the area of town where black people lived. It irked her that I would follow black girls up the street if they walked passed the house, just so I could hear them speak. I was enchanted by the unique language they spoke. They also got nasty with me, because I guess they thought I was spying, which I guess I was. I would have rather just be able to walk up to them and speak to them instead, even maybe be friends with them.

My grandmother tried very hard to protect me from her imaginary fears, so I missed a lot. I remember her going on about Robert McNamara a lot in the sixties, maybe that was later. She did mention Walker, and with pride. Some of the prominent names from back then, she babbled about, off and on. I was at an age where it was important to her to steer me in the 'right direction', so to speak, Klanwise and, in defiance, I got to where I just ignored her, so I guess I missed a lot. She wanted me to be a racist, but it was clear that I was not. It irked her mightily.

The Klan Kidz were more obnoxious than usual. I did not let on how I felt on the matter, but it showed on my face when they talked. I remember trying to reason with some of the Klan Kidz, telling them about my experiences with black children in the north. Told them that there were other people whom we did not know, and who were not so bad as we were making out. Of course that kind of talk only got me castigated and ostracized. So after a while I just tuned it out. I was only ten.

But the closer it got to November 22, and at that time I did not know the exact date the KKK planned to kill him, just that he would be killed in Dallas. Too bad it happened so soon after he arrived there, with the Eyes of Texas Upon Him. Then on the date, there is no way I could forget what happened, although for decades I tried. I wished it wasn't true then and wish it wasn't true now, but those kidz jumped up and congratulated JFK's killer's son. I wish JFK had taken more caution, maybe given me some credit and heeded my advice.

The truth is, that all of 1963, the Klan and its offspring were either training to invade Cuba or practicing for a coup and they were mighty excited about it.

As for others who may have been present at the riots, if Mr. RW McDaniel wasn't there, then he had to have been too sick to move. Same with Mr. Patterson and his lot (not the one who started the WCC, but maybe a relative) and the Covingtons would have been there. The Gardners might have been there. My grandmother's family was not going to be there; they were too 'afraid', not of the Klan, but blacks. My cousin, the pilot might have been there, since he was older and from a military family. There were lots of people from my home town who might have been there. I doubt they all went, but they were Klan or Klan supporters. Some branches of my family were heavily ladened with Klan and might have been there. Other branches came from a more liberal side of the family.

It was a real affront to most that Kennedy sent troops to Oxford. My grandmother had graduated from there in the twenties. Mississippians were proud of Ole Miss and Oxford was a place of prominence in esteem to the state, so integrating THAT school was a particular affront to Mississippians. I mean people would have gotten riled over any school being integrated, but THAT PARTICULAR SCHOOL? That meant war. Take away a few weapons, leaving southerners in a state of what they would call "defenceless" and presto, a coup d'etat. Played like a chess game, eh?

Edited January 30, 2013 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

This was when we first heard demands to "Impeach Earl Warren," the Chief Justice who gave us Brown. Senator Joe McCarthy was stil very strong in 1954-1956, and terrified many Americans with his nonsense that the Communists had already infiltrated Washington DC. His Catholic paranoia played right into the hands of the segregationists in the South who immediately blamed the Brown decision on the Communists. This was when we first heard the slogan, "Integration is Communism."

I remember the Sanctified Church Minister, Mr. Williams (no relation) had a bumper sticker that read: "I'd rather be Dead than Red!" And I thought it was funny that the word "Red" was written in red and faded away over time.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Terri Williams