Searching for Peace in Mississippi

Newswise — The recent arrest of former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in one of the most horrific crimes of the civil rights era was for many a long-awaited hunt for justice. For Howard Ball, a former civil rights worker and author of "Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights," the arrest marked "a great day for people who love justice in America."

Long a focus of suspicion, Killen, 79, is the only person ever to be charged with murder in the 1964 slayings of three young voter-registration workers during an era when black Americans were seeking equality in employment and education. Killen was among 18 men tried in 1967 on federal civil rights violations and was the only central figure in the crime who never served time in prison, due to a lone holdout on his jury.

"Killen was the mastermind behind the death of the three civil rights workers," said Ball, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Vermont and a former faculty member at Mississippi State University.

The arrest has taken so long, according to Ball, because "it wasn't until a decade or so ago that we had more information about the activities of that night." A number of factors—ranging from the FBI finally turning over its documents to the state to a group in Mississippi putting pressure on the new attorney general to bring murder charges against Killen.

Ball hopes Killen's indictment and arraignment will be "the beginning of the end of almost half a century of tragedy that occurred in the deep South in the 1940's and 50's"¦and will give the families of those who lost their children some closure."

Although many Mississippians would like to keep the case in the past, Ball believes "that until justice is done and the men who are involved in the murders are brought to justice, there can't be any true peace in Mississippi."

Ball's book, "Murder in Mississippi," was published by the University Press of Kansas last year to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the infamous murders. Ball deftly pivots the story on the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous 1966 decision in U.S. v. Price to overturn federal district court rulings dismissing indictments against 18 Klansmen on counts stemming from the three murders.

His latest book, "The USA Patriot Act: A Reference Handbook," is an in-depth examination of the difficult wartime task of balancing civil liberties against national security.