April 25, 1959
Credit: Courtesy of Oxford University Press
Days before his scheduled trial, Mack Charles Parker, a 23-year-old Black truck driver, was lynched after midnight by a hooded mob of white men in Poplarville, Mississippi.
Parker had been accused of raping a pregnant white woman and was being held in a local jail. A deputy reportedly unlocked the jail, enabling a white mob to enter Parker’s cell. The mob dragged Parker head first down the stairs, leaving a bloody trail. The mob then beat him, took him to a bridge, shot and killed him, then weighed his body down with chains and dumped him in the river.
FBI agents identified the jailer, Jewel Alford, as giving the mob the keys. Another alleged participant was J.P. Walker, elected sheriff of Pearl River County four years later. Other suspects included “Crip” Reyer, L. C. Davis, “Preacher” James Floren Lee, his son James Floren “Jeff” Lee, Herman Schultz and Arthur Smith who supplied the names of Walker, Preacher Lee, L.C. Davis and the names of others who were in the two cars. Smith told agents that Lee, Reyer, Davis and Walker were in the lead car that carried Parker from the jail.
Howard Smead’s book, “Blood Justice,” tells the story. Parker is among 40 martyrs listed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and is also listed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
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