The Mississippi Department of Public Safety employees found Ku Klux Klan materials as the staff was moving into a new headquarters.
The newly “discovered collection of 1960s-era Ku Klux Klan materials has officially been transferred to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, turning over artifacts and documents that officials say will help researchers better understand Klan activity in the state during a turbulent decade,” WLBT News reports.
According to the news station, the materials were found inside of a small blue suitcase, and the contents included a spiral notebook containing meetings and minutes, a ledger book, a 1964 Imperial Executive Order, and numerous pamphlets.
There was also a United Klans of America pamphlet titled “The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King.” DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell told WLBT that preserving the items is part of a broader effort to expose extremist organizations and ensure that America’s sordid past is not forgotten.
“Mississippi Highway Patrol Troopers and Agents with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety have worked for decades with our federal law enforcement partners to shed light on the darkness in which groups like the Ku Klux Klan chose to operate,” Tindell said. “By preserving these artifacts and shedding light on such organizations, we help ensure that future generations are never led astray by such hate.”
Along with the Klan items, there was also a file containing news clippings about the “Mississippi Highway Patrol and DPS, then-DPS Commissioner T.B. Birdsong, and materials related to the Freedom Riders,” WLBT reports.
Incoming MDAH Director Barry White called the transfer significant, particularly because it contains both internal administrative records and propaganda from a local chapter connected to a national organization known for secrecy.
“These records will give researchers broader access to documentation that deepens our understanding of Ku Klux Klan activities in Mississippi during the 1960s,” Incoming MDAH Director Barry White said. “Receiving a set of materials that includes both administrative records and propaganda from a local chapter of a national organization known for its secrecy is particularly significant.”
MDAH officials noted that processing and preserving the items could take several months as the process entails properly housing materials, preparing a collection-level overview for the archives catalog, and creating metadata for scans to be posted online.
