The Black Dilemma     “For almost 150 years the United States has been conducting an interesting experiment. The subjects of the experiment: black people and working-class whites.   The…

The strife and horrors of the Civil War in America were raw with the wounds of the war lasting for decades; and affecting those who lived in both the North and the South. As the nation struggled to find unity, the forces of darkness and of those who wished to rule through intimidation and terror, spread their wicked ways under the cover of white sheets.

This is the story of the Ku Klux Klan and their chief brand: Lynchings, as told in the original newspaper stories from journals across the nation. Some are brief, telling only of a single attack while others are more comprehensive and detailed, telling the story with the inclusion of complex and emotional occurrences.

The attempt of the KKK to cloak the power of control over others with fear and violence is explained in some of these news stories.

Flanagan’s co-conspirator, Timothy Stafford, constructed a wooden cross in a workshop behind his house. Using Flanagan’s credit card, Stafford and co-conspirator Ivan “Rusty” London then purchased diesel-fuel with which to soak the cross.

Flanagan and the other co-conspirators then drove the cross to the victim’s residence and upon arriving at the residence, Flanagan and London exited the truck.

The cross was placed in the driveway leading up to the house and was ignited. The co-conspirators burned the cross with the purpose of intimidating the African-American male who resided at that residence.

WASHINGTON—Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis for the Southern District of Mississippi announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted John Louis Blalack, 20, of Brandon, Mississippi, Sarah Adelia Graves, 21, of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, Robert Henry Rice, 23, of Brandon, and Shelbie Brooke Richards, 20, of Pearl, Mississippi, for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to commit federal hate crimes against African-American people in Jackson, Mississippi.

Blalack, Graves and Richards are additionally charged with a racially motivated hate crime resulting in the death of a victim run over by a truck. Blalack and Rice are charged with two additional racially motivated hate crimes involving alleged assaults, and with carrying a firearm in relation to one of those assaults. Graves and Richards are additionally charged with soliciting others to commit hate crimes against African-Americans, and Graves is charged with making false statements to the FBI. Defendants Deryl Paul Dedmon, 20; John Aaron Rice, 19; Dylan Wade Butler, 21; William Kirk Montgomery, 23; Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 20; and Joseph Dominick, 22, all from Brandon, have previously entered guilty pleas in connection with their roles in these offenses. hate spree