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January 2010

Questions of baptism and faith following Frank Morris murder
by Admin Concordia Sentinel Frank Morris Case January 07, 2010

In 1964, the value of a black man's life weighed on the minds of a handful of white people daring enough to speak out and take a stand at a time of widespread Klan violence against blacks and the white people who supported Civil Rights.

One who did both was Marge Baroni, a 40-year-old white activist from Natchez who was upset when the local Catholic priest failed to stand before his congregation and preach against the murder of a black man in Ferriday. Frank Morris died on Dec. 14, 1964, four days after his shoe shop was set on fire while he was still inside.

A three-year Sentinel investigation indicates Morris, 51, was killed as a result of a Klan/law enforcement conspiracy. His murder case, investigated by the FBI in the mid-1960s, was reopened by the bureau in 2007 and remains active today.

King's FBI files may be opened to public
by Admin Clarion-Ledger January 15, 2010

U.S. Sen. John Kerry plans to introduce legislation next week that would pave the way for the release of thousands of FBI documents on the life and death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The bill calls for creating a Martin Luther King Records Collection at the National Archives that would include all government records related to King. The bill also would create a five-member independent review board that would identify and make public all documents from agencies including the FBI - just as a review board in 1992 made public documents related to the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination. Hank Klibanoff, managing editor of The Civil Rights Cold Case Project, believes Kerry's idea should be expanded to include the release of documents involving not only King's assassination, but also other racial slayings from the civil rights era.

In 1967, Klan leader E.L. McDaniel linked four men to 1964 Frank Morris murder
by Admin Concordia Sentinel Frank Morris Case January 28, 2010

Natchez Klan leader E.L. McDaniel, who became an FBI informant, told the bureau in 1967 that Klansmen from Ferriday and Natchez may have been responsible for the arson murder of Ferriday shoe shop owner Frank Morris because of complaints that Morris was flirting with white women.

Mississippi Burning Killings: A Timeline of Events
by Admin Clarion-Ledger January 29, 2010

A timeline of the over 30-year investigation into the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964.