Thread by @DonnerKay

1. I'm digging into racist muck of Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files for their take on violence in Jackson/Hinds County for #MSRaceViolence piece. A 1967 Mississippi Crime Commission report, and it's full of gems. This one is full US "history" many would like taught, eh?

2. Judge Tom P. Brady, the vicious Citizens Council leader who compared Black people to apes and helped stoke white terrorism against Black people and traveled the whole nation to speak about supposed white superiority, was one of the key members of the 1967 Miss Crime Commission

3. And erudite Gov. Paul Johnson who created the commission? During his campaign he said NAACP should for n_____s, apes, alligators, coons and possum. He also helped white parents get state tax $ to send kids to new whites-only segregation academies that openly taught racism.

4. I wrote about Gov. Johnson's voucher program for white parents here, which focused on Central Academy in Noxubee County:
mississippifreepress.org/16642/white-fl…

5. And of course, the Mississippi Crime Commission (which had lots of other racists plugged into it other than Brady, but I'll save that part) had Mississippi media on their side just as racists and white terrorists had always had.

6. In Sovereignty Files, I also stumbled on this "interracial" crime folder; of course, there isn't one for the multitudes of white Mississippians who had committed "interracial crime" since the state's inception.

7. The "interracial" spy file has this kind of "intelligence" from various counties across U.S. in a kind when the KKK was terrorizing Black people and white supporters, bombing homes and businesses, burning crosses, lynching. Note W or N for victim. All the accused are Black.

8. BTW, if you want to read more about that horrendous racist SOB Tom P. Brady, see the piece I did about Black farmer Lamar Smith being shot down on courthouse lawn in Brady's hometown of Brookhaven, another #MSRaceViolence entry: mississippifreepress.org/15380/buried-t…

*stood for, not should for

9. Here's a letter about interracial crime signed by Miss Sovereignty Commission Director Erle Johnson (who was later part of the Miss Crime Commission) to circuit in service of the spy agency's confidential "intelligence" (ahem) gathering.

10. Also if you've never had the honor of reading these uppity rednecks' (I can say the R-word; I was born one) Sovereignty Commission "intelligence" reports State of Mississippi gathered on anyone rumored to be an integrationist, here's one of so many: da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/result.…|

11. In 1960, Sovereignty Commission investigator Zack Van Landingham looked into looming threat that Black students were planning to have a swimming party to integrate Grenada Lake. He had a confidential informant, y'all. So good at his evil spy job. da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/result.…|

12. Including this too although not digging into this folder today. Mostly to make sure @chefcarney has looked at all these files considering that his family helped lead the Biloxi beach wade-ins. da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/folderb…%

13. Ha. I can only imagine what Sovereignty Commission investigator Zack Van Landingham had to say to a bunch of Bolton, Miss., white people about crime in the United States in 1960.
da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/result.…|

14. Former FBI agent turned subversive/integration spy Zack Van Landingham was also quite the popular speaker for civil clubs and the like across Mississippi. Here are a few notes.

15. I'd seen Zack Van Landingham's name on tons of Sovereignty "intelligence" reports over years, but didn't know much about him. I'm getting more interested and a bit sick to my stomach, to be honest. Here he's speaking to an elementary PTA, and here's his bio.

16. Note Van Landingham's education. Tom P. Brady went to Yale. Bill Simmons (Citizens Council impresario/mouth/strategist/big-time SOB). So many more. White resistance in the South and Mississippi and across U.S. was always led by wealthy and educated. Stay tuned on this front.

17. When you watch today's #msleg stunt over race and racism and ignore the concerns of Black members they sit next to, you know many learned it from daddies and grandpappies. It's a cruel privilege to be terrible people censoring history that passed down.
mississippifreepress.org/20007/black-mi…

18. Here's my, um, favorite Sovereignty Comm clip that really shows banality of systemic racist evil in my hometown and my state. SC investigator Virgil Downing did 3 PAGES on talking to white gas station owner W.H. Holland about allowing Black man Benny Stennis to use bathroom

19. And the top-secret Benny Stennis-had-to-pee-and-a-white-man-let-him-and-was-then-threatened-by-evil-racists "intelligence" report concluded:

20. OK, all, I enjoy these Saturday history-dives with y'all, but it's past my bedtime and the cheap bourbon awaits (chortle; inside #msleg joke). Keep finding and telling the real truth. Only truth and then solutions will save and strengthen our democracy for all our people.

21. BONUS: If y'all still want more hidden history tonight and missed my Stephen D. Lee thread earlier today, this truth will curl your toes too:

https://twitter.com/DonnerKay/status/1484961727800356869

22. And dig into @msfreepress' #MSRaceViolence archive here: mississippifreepress.org/tag/raceviolen…

23. I especially recommend this one to understand much more about the KKK (and the other white-terrorist groups) in Mississippi beyond. I wrote this one, too; you'll meet some seriously brave people:
mississippifreepress.org/17323/kkk-whit…

24. Finally: read @JABell27's piece about the Clinton Massacre—and then go Google the race massacres and public lynchings that likely happened in your state, too. I'm uncovering my home's history; don't just gawk at ours without seeing your own. Seriously. mississippifreepress.org/14364/clinton-…

25. Finally: here’s #CappBob guarding from above as I built this thread.

*counties across Mississippi, that is

26. Morning, all. I woke up thinking about Sovereignty Commission “investigator” Zack Van Landingham (see above). Turns out that racist Jackson bastard was a key player in destroying Clyde Kennard for trying to integrate USM. These are from John Dittmer’s “Local People”:

27. Read more in Dittmer’s book here about Zack Van Landingham’s role in destroying Clyde Kennard, a Black man trying to break systemic racism that blocked opportunity/access for Black Mississippians for decades. This is in lifetime of many #msleg members. books.google.com/books/about/Lo…

28. This “Local People” passage about what Van Landingham, state leaders, #msleg and others did to Clyde Kennard, and Medgar Evers’ agony over, it is devastating. They made example out of Kennard for other Black men who tried to step out of the box created by the men in charge.

29. Two years before I was born, Zack Van Landingham red-baited the NAACP, as the State of Mississippi and Ross Barnett (yes, the one the reservoir is named after; sigh) were working with Citizens Council to try to ban NAACP from state. From Hattiesburg American:

30. Don't forget that "pro-Communist" meant then, and still for many racists," anyone who was working to end segregation laws and give true equality to Black Americans. Them folk were REDS!

(Insert spitting out tobacco here.)

31. This is how #msleg and state leaders disparaged Martin Luther King Jr. when he was still alive and they people like Zack Van Landingham to red-bait and try to destroy him. Is it possible state leaders will ever decry the body's past despicable actions even as they quote MLK?

Word missing: should say #msleg PAID people like Zack Van Landingham to destroy men like MLK.

32. Here's a mug of Zack Van Landingham and a (cut-off) write-up of his talk to parents at Chastain Middle School in 1960 about juvenile crime. Chastain was then all-white and segregated. After forced integration/white flight, it is now 94% Black, 4% Hispanic, 1% white.

32-A. In case that Chastain/Van Landingham clipping is hard to read. Makes me wonder what he actually said to the white parents about the small percentage who, supposed, committed most crime.

33. Y'all, you really can't make it up. White Jackson had a ROBERT E. LEE PTA in 196x. And #msleg-paid Sovereignty Commission investigator/red-hunter/destroyer of Black men Zack Van Landingham spoke to it in 1961.

33-A. Of course, that was then-all-white Lee Elementary School in then very white South Jackson, but the full PTA name sounds particularly atrocious.

google.com/maps/place/Lee…

34. Here Zack Van Landingham suddenly worried about Mississippi's reputation. (Blink) Also, he is talking about FBI actions in Mack Charles Parker lynching outside Poplarville. (They burned files?!) No arrest although lynchers came forward: mscivilrightsproject.org/pearl-river/ev…

35. Here's more on #msleg-paid Zack Van Landingham investigating Martin Luther King Jr. for being a communist:

36. Damn: The headlines racist Mississippi newspapers ran then—this one from Greenwood Commonwealh, founded by virulently-racist-even-for-Mississippi James K. Vardaman. More on efforts to ban NAACP from Mississippi. See paper's final prediction in this page 1 news story.

37. Red-hunt hearings on 11/19/59: Note #msleg and statewide officials out to destroy teachers, profs as well as NAACP. Note article end referring to Van Landingham and Citizens Council evil brain William J. (Bill) Simmons (who later ran Fairview Inn in his Jackson fam home).

38. In case you didn't know this, then newspapers (in Mississippi but not only here) nearly always identified race of crime suspects in headlines, but seldom if ever of white suspects. This was on same page of Sun-Herald as last clip re red-hunt.

38. From Hodding Carter's Delta Democrat-Times, which reported more details on #msleg red-hunt hearings and attempts to bar NAACP from Mississippi. More Zack Van Landingham, of course. He may well have done more harm to state than Ross Barnett.

38. On same DDT page 1 as that article was this Greenville response to the red-smear legislative hearing falsely claiming newspaper editor Hodding Carter was a communist. (Good to know the old racist #msleg habits are all gone from Capitol now, eh?) newspapers.com/image/34015258…

39. Re newspapers: Clarion-Ledger under the Hederman regime (and previous Powers, Barksdale et al) leadership was openly/virulently racist, and probably no one there did more harm and incited more violence in his columns than Tom Etheridge. Here, snippet of historic propaganda:

39-A. For more on (only ever) Black Lt. Gov. A.K. Davis, targeted by KKK and other white terrorists who squelched 11/1875 vote, stole power, and impeached Reconstruction leaders, read my piece here. I figured out he became pastor and died in Canton, RIP:
mississippifreepress.org/17323/kkk-whit…

40. Zack Van Landingham co-hosted anti-communist film in Yazoo City along w William Barbour of the prominent Yazoo Barbours and Citizens Council President Dr. R.J. Moorhead, City Attorney Yazoo County Attorney Griffin Norquist and City Judge Albert Gardner. Need to see this film.

41. Poor witta Jackson Citizens Counsel leader Elmore Greaves pissed that arrest of NAACP's Roy Wilkins stopped—even by Sovereignty spy Zack Van Landingham. Incidentally, one of the first third-wave KKK Jackson meetings (1960s) was on the old Greaves plantation in South Jackson.

42. I'll close (maybe) this week's two-day #TweetingMSHistory (ha) w this bit. Gov. Ross Barnett fired top Sovereignty spy Zack Van Landingham. This gets into racist power politics I'll dig into in latter journalism.
Same page: Clarion-Ledger editorial vs. Russian ... spying.

43. Thank you to so many for attending/sharing this history "seminar" as I dig. It's one of many threads to pull on in Mississippi/U.S. history. Again: Don't read this and shake your head at Mississippi. Research your own postage stamp; it's there, too, if not as magnified. LOOK.

44. One more that goes full circle to top of this thread. Remember, state leaders liked to brag in 1960s about low crime (except for Black people committing it). As my now late friend Charles Evers pointed out in 1964: Most white crime against Black people wasn't included:

45. To. This. Day. many Mississippians still believe lie that Mississippi and capital city used to have virtually no crime—when throughout our history white terrorism was constant, and in certain periods, off the charts. Those lies support white supremacy:
mississippifreepress.org/19770/he-was-a…

46. Oh my, @clarionledger of 1923 under early Hedermans. This tortured logic doesn't even support white supremacists' and later Citizen Council lies about Black people born more prone to crime. Here they're blaming freedmen "city" influences. Lord, take the wheel from these fools

47. I didn't post this Sovereignty Commission "intelligence" report still open on my laptop. Investigator A.L. Hopkins told his #msleg bosses that Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner missing in my hometown may well be a "hoax"—coverup plan if bodies never found. da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/result.…|