If you don't vote, you don't count. That was the motto of Vernon Dahmer, a civil rights activist in south Mississippi that was murdered by the Klan in1966. He was a merchant and a member of the NAACP that was getting black people registered to vote. Mississippi journalist and writer Curtis Wilkie has written a new book on this period in the continuing fight for civil rights and democracy in America. There is an interview with Mr. Wilkie in Mississippi Today in which Mr. Wilkie discusses his new book, “When Evil Lived in Laurel: The White Knights and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer,” The link to the article in Mississippi Today is here, and links to two other articles on Mr. Dahmer are here and here.
As a young man, Mr.Wilkie was a journalist in the Mississippi delta, and later at the Boston Globe. He covered the murder of Mr.Dahmer and has a book or two on the civil rights movement. Because of these credentials, the family of Tom Landrum, a key figure in the story contacted Mr. Wilkie about writing a book about Mr. Landrum and Mr. Dahmer. Tom Landrum was upset because a self-published book had been written saying he was in the Klan and he wanted someone to correct the record. Tom Landrum, who at the time was a youth court counselor in Jones County had actually joined The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan at the behest of the FBI. Mr. Landrum's wife typed up his reports to the FBI and saved a copy of each report. These reports provided the basic information for Mr. Wilkie's book.
Vernon Dahmer registered black people to vote at his store and collected the poll tax to facilitate their registration. Mississippi was the last state to collect a poll tax, which was $2.00, or $16.00 in 2020 dollars. The Klan found out what he was doing and began to threaten him and his family. Mr. Dahmer and his family began sleeping in shifts so as to keep watch. On the night his home and store were fire bombed he held off the Klan with a gun while his family escaped. Mr. Dahmer later died in hospital from burns.
The murderers were led by a man named Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan murderers went on their raid in two cars filled with four large men each. One group fire bombed Mr. Dahmer's store and the other group burned Mr. Dahmer's house. When the fire bombers from the store approached the fire bombers at the house, the White Knights at Mr. Dahmer's house thought the group from the store was the FBI. They shot out the tires of the approaching car. Eight large men had to make good their escape in one car.
The story of Mr. Dahmer shows the fascists of fifty-something years ago were just as evil and just as stupid as the ones we have today. It was four years ago today that Heather Heyer was murdered by Trump supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia. I wish President Biden would award Ms. Heyer and all the other martyrs from the Trump years and the 1960's the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Give Mr. Wilkie's interview and the other links a look. One can never get enough history because the rhyming never seems to stop.
And remember, if you don't vote, you don't count.