Lynching of Mack Charles Parker

Mack Charles Parker (May 20, 1936 – April 24, 1959) was a Black American victim of lynching in the United States. He had been accused of raping a pregnant white woman in northern Pearl River County, Mississippi. Three days before he was to stand trial, Parker was kidnapped from his jail cell in the Pearl River County Courthouse by a mob, beaten and shot. His body was found in the Pearl River, 20 miles west of Poplarville, 10 days later. Following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men who killed him were released. Despite confessions, no one was ever indicted for the killing, albeit six of the suspects died within four years, one just six days later. Historian Howard Smead called the killing the "last classic lynching in America." Parker vehemently denied having raped anyone. His supporters suggested that the rape accusations may have been fabricated by Walters as a means of concealing an ongoing consensual affair with a local white man. Walters herself never identified Parker as her attacker. She could only provide race, gender, and approximate age of her alleged attacker.

According to reports published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Parker and four friends, Norman Malachy, David Alfred, Curt Underwood and Tommy Grant were returning to Lumberton from Poplarville. The five men had been to Slim's, an illegal bar which was operated under the protection of the Poplarville City Police. It was located in the Black section of Poplarville, and was known for selling white lightning moonshine. As the five neared Lumberton, Parker and his four companions spotted a Dodge sedan broken down on the side of the road. Assuming the car was abandoned, they stopped. Parker got out and shone a flashlight into the car. Upon recognizing a white woman in the car, Parker returned to his brother's Chevy sedan and left. As they left the scene, Parker allegedly turned to his friends and said, "Why don't we stop and get some o' that white stuff?" Parker pleaded not guilty to each charge. Judge Dale set the trial date for April 27, and Parker was returned to his cell at the Pearl River County Courthouse. The involvement of Brown in the case led to fear he might be freed thanks to civil rights claims such as the absence of any Black in the jury.

Murder

Kidnapping from the prison

According to the FBI report on the case, sometime around 12.15 a.m. on April 25, a vigilante mob of eight to ten hooded and masked men, wearing gloves, entered the courthouse.

Supposedly, they were let into the locked jail area by a deputy sheriff, Jewell Alford, who was with them. As Alford unlocked the door, eight to ten from the mob entered Parker's cell. refused to indict the suspects. Dale encouraged the grand jury to "have the backbone to stand against any tyranny," stating "you are now engaged in battle for our laws and courts for the preservation of our freedom and our way of life."

After a Mississippi grand jury refused to indict the lynchers, a federal grand jury in Biloxi then oversaw the case under District Court Judge Sidney Mize in January 1960 and failed to indict some of the mob by a single vote. Before the trial, Dale went to meet Mize and managed to convince him to narrow the federal kidnapping statute.

Before the last grand jury convened, Poplarville mayor Pat Hyde stated that “you couldn’t convict the guilty parties if you had sound film of the lynching,” and an unnamed Poplarville businessman rhetorically asked why the FBI even bothered to investigate since no jury would convict the killers.

Reactions

A May 11 article in the Chicago Defender, a popular Black newspaper circulated throughout the South, recounted an interview with an anonymous white male from Poplarville, claiming to have personal knowledge that the charges against Parker were fabricated. The alleged witness claimed that the alleged victim, June Walters, was in fact having an affair with a local white man, and she went with him while her husband, Jimmy, was gone to get help to fix the car.

In June 1959, attempts were made to enact an anti-lynching bill, which was stalled, as many others, by the Southern Democratic bloc. Smead writes that the local Black community, many of whom knew Parker, were divided in opinion of his guilt. Many who held him, at the time of the crime, to be guilty, never wavered in their view thereafter.

Some locals complained about supposed FBI encroachment and other aired typically racist statements, such as one resident stating to reporters that "Parker's a good nigger now. The only good nigger is a dead nigger.

During the campaign for the Democratic primary for governorship, the following posters were affiched in the county by Ross Barnett supporters:During a speaking tour for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission in the North on 1963, Dale said, to persons asking him about the Parker case, that he didn't think the perpetrators would be caught, adding three of them already died. Six of the suspects indeed died between 1959 and 1963, one of them just six days after the lynching. They were Francis M. Barker, who died of a heart attack on April 30, 1959, Robert James Wheat Sr., who died suddenly on December 25, 1960, Hubert Amacker, who died on October 27, 1961, William Lowell Mooney, who died on November 22, 1961, Jeppie Amacker, who died on January 23, 1962, and Houston Amacker, who killed himself by drinking sulfuric acid on November 9, 1963. Houston had previously tried to kill himself a day after being questioned by the FBI.

Notes

Sources

Howard Smead, Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker, New York, Oxford University Press, 1986;

External links

FBI file on Mack Charles Parker