The Mississippi Department of Public Safety issued the following statement.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has transferred to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History 1960s-era Ku Klux Klan materials, including full Klan regalia, recently discovered as DPS staff prepared to move into new headquarters.
"Mississippi Highway Patrol Troopers and Agents with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety have worked for decades with our federal law enforcement partners to shed light on the darkness in which groups like the Ku Klux Klan chose to operate," said Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell. "By preserving these artifacts and shedding light on such organizations, we help ensure that future generations are never led astray by such hate."
Tucked inside a small blue suitcase were documents and other items, including charters, a spiral notebook with meeting minutes, a ledger book, a 1964 Imperial Executive Order and numerous pamphlets. There is also Klan propaganda material, including a pamphlet entitled, “The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King,” published by United Klans of America.
Additionally, the inventory included file folders that contained news clippings about the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, then-DPS Commissioner T.B. Birdsong and material related to Freedom Riders. All will be processed by MDAH to be digitally accessible to the public in the future.
"MDAH is grateful to Commissioner Tindell for recognizing the historical significance of this material and transferring it to the archives,” said incoming MDAH director Barry White. “These records will give researchers broader access to documentation that deepens our understanding of Ku Klux Klan activities in Mississippi during the 1960s. Receiving a set of materials that includes both administrative records and propaganda from a local chapter of a national organization known for its secrecy is particularly significant."
Processing the material could take several months. It involves the arrangement, housing, and description of archival materials for storage and use by patrons. Description will involve writing a collection-level overview for the catalog, including the inventory’s transfer to MDAH from DPS, an item-level finding aid, and image-level metadata (index data) for the scans that will be produced.
28 comments:
History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from, and if it offends you, even better, because then you are less likely to repeat it. It's not yours to erase, modify, or destroy.
these were most likely used by state or federal law enforcement agents who were the only people keeping the klan alive for the mid to the late 20th century. There was so little klan activity that the departments receiving federal funding to investigate the klan, had to recreate the Klan in order to keep their money flowing.
Plenty of books and documentary films about this.
Lemme get this straight. It is okay to tear down statues of American patriots who established our country, but you can't discard KKK paraphernalia?
Were those documents printed in the state printing shop?
So where did DPS get it? Was it confiscated during a police operation against the klukkers, or did it perhaps belong to an officer who was himself a klukker?
At least it's not going to wind up in a display case at the airport with other anti-Mississippi propaganda (directed at the traveling public) or at one of the newer museums, properly labeled and inscribed in order to fuel hate and violence against the minority in Jackson.
... had to recreate the Klan in order to keep their money flowing.
Plenty of books and documentary films about this.
Links?
The twist will be when someone realizes they are just props from the filming of the Coen Brothers’ Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
The giveaway will be the John Goodman autographed copies of The Flintstones and King Ralph found in the same locker!
The trooper got his favorite movies signed by the star between filmings of the infamous KKK ritual cross burning scene in the movie!
9:19, It's okay to move the statues for historical preservation, just like this klan material.
That doesn't mean it's okay to actually wear the white robe and hood around in public.
I had a coach/history teacher in the 80s who was a reserve at JPD. And he was a klucker. Don't think for a second the KKK did not exist in law enforcement in previous generations. The 1960s does not surprise me, and there were remnants in the 1980s. And while I'm confident its no longer present, its hard to change culture within an organization (DPS).
The SPLC has stepped in to fill the void-
I can see the historical context in keeping those items. It is part of MS history. Don’t have to be its future but it is part of its past. I have a few nazi branded coins I got while I was in Germany. I would never display them due to the fact I do not believe in what the nazi’s did or who they were. It’s just historical items.
Don't think for a second the KKK did not exist in law enforcement in previous generations.
these guys knew the feds were running surveillance operations. any cop “known” as one was actually an informant. the real world isn’t director coen/spielberg’s version of reality. anyone over the age of 13 should understand this.
reminder: Jan.6 was entirely a fed entrapment operation. Benny was play acting when he was belly crawling because he signed off on what was going on.
@9:12 this is spot on and should be the end of it all. But, the “oh clutch my pearls” folk have to have their say.
https://www.obliterhate.org/post/the-origins-of-policing-how-slave-patrols-shaped-modern-law-enforcement#:~:text=Before%2520there%2520were%2520official%2520police%2520departments%252C%2520the%2520earliest,%F0%9F%94%B9%2520Breaking%2520up%2520Black%2520gatherings%2520to%2520prevent%2520uprisings
History.
I thought it was dead until I heard some prominent well-to-do folks who one would never suspect to support the KKK or White Citizen's Council, volunteer even today in social settings they were members. They aren't being apologetic or embarrassed.
In most Southern States , poor whites made up the KKK and the White Citizen's Council were the first in their family to need to wear a coat and tie to work.
Indeed, an attorney here was featured in a movie about a legal case won by a black man here.
When I get the files, and it is ALOT of files, I'm probably going to treat it as I did the FBI files in the Jody Owens case and break them down into a series of manageable bites or posts.
Who is doing that? Do you think MS would really accept someone wearing that stuff?
Yes
9:47 - love it. So tired of the bullshit, “Welcome to Mississippi, where we keep racism in the forefront because we’re too dumb to come up with any better ideas.”
Thanks to Chowke.
I was a full time musician in the Jackson area in the early eighties when that was still possible. One weekend I filled in for a friend whose band had a regular gig in south Jackson, at a bar on terry road if my memory serves me right. The job was from ten until two and later, so it attracted a certain type of clientele. Well after midnight, about ten to fifteen folks file in, all male, all ages. I thought that a bit odd, even for that place. When we took our break, a guy from that table came up to tell us how much he enjoyed it. After talking briefly and before walking off, he handed me a business card. On the card was his name, the kkk logo and it stated he was the chaplain of that group. I had no idea they were such a godly group. At one in the morning, pretty sure those boys had not been in a bible study course. Have thought about that many times over the years and wondered what might have taken place that night. Also, around that same time period , remember a group of klan guys at an intersection in that part of town, in broad daylight soliciting donations. That may a bit risky today….
KF: when you get the files ... someone with forensic authority needs to certify authenticity before re-publishing what could be ginned up bait outside the period of affected history.
But of course I respect that you know your business. I'm just a perpetual skeptic when it comes to sudden, dramatic discoveries of past racism.
Man he just walked up and handed his card to you? Like an FBI agent does? (or they did last time they paid me a visit, probably for something i posted online, i just shut the door in their face)
Too late. Dept of Archives has already published pictures of pages from the “membership dues” book with names and how much they owe in dues. It’s “me too” time for some bigot boomers!
I was a teen in the 50's and never met anyone who claimed to be in the Klan. I played sandlot baseball with black boys in the downtown area. I am in my 80's now and till haven't met anyone claiming to be in the Klan. Where were they?
The Klan? If you were a member of the Hwy Patrol in the 60's you had no reason to be in the Klan other than for popularity. The Miss. Hwy Patrol was much more effective as an organization of terror against black people than the Klan who were generally clumsy in their execution. Most cadets probably retired their Klan robes upon acceptance in the patrol.
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