Sam Bowers

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Samuel Holloway ("Sam") Bowers (born August 25, 1924 - November 5, 2006 ) was Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the state of Mississippi during the American civil rights movement (1955–1968).

He planned the murder of three civil rights activists ( Mississippi civil rights activist murder ) in Neshoba, Mississippi in 1964, and he planned the murder of Vernon Dahmer in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1966 . Since the State of Mississippi refused to charge Bowers with murder, he could only be tried in federal court for violating civil rights. This procedure was common in the southern states , so that whites could get significantly lower penalties for murdering blacks than blacks for murdering whites. Bowers received six years in prison for planning the first attack. He was charged in the 1960s for the murder plot against Dahmer, but not convicted. It was not until the 1990s that he was sentenced to life imprisonment for this. After eight years in prison, he died at the age of 82. He had spent most of his life in freedom.

Early life

Bowers was born in New Orleans , Louisiana to Sam Bowers Sr. and Evangeline Peyton. His maternal grandfather had been a plantation owner and had an image of colored people as second-class people. His paternal grandfather, Eaton J. Bowers, was a politician. This grandfather was a vigorous racist who spoke out against the equal treatment of colored people and thus influenced his family. In a speech to the US House of Representatives in 1904, he said the following:

“Let me say to the gentleman from Massachusetts that it is evident that we have at least two theories as to how the negro should be dealt with. One may be termed his idea of ​​the development by higher education, social equality, and the like, while the other might be dominated [sic] the Southern idea of ​​the absolute segregation of the two races, the fitting the negro for that sphere and station which, based upon an experience born of more than a century's knowledge of him as a slave and nearly forty years' experience with him as a freedman, we believe he can acceptably and worthily fill, with absolute denial of social intercourse and with every restriction on his participation in political affairs and government that is permissible under the Federal Constitution. [...] The restriction of suffrage was the wisest statesmanship ever exhibited in that proud Commonwealth. […] We have disfranchised not only the ignorant and vicious black, but the ignorant and vicious white as well…. ”

“Let me tell the gentleman from Massachusetts that there are two theories about how the Negro should be treated. One is based on the idea that one could achieve development through higher education and social equality, while the southerners' idea is that one can achieve absolute racial segregation based on the knowledge of the Negro of more than a hundred years as a slave and almost 40 years as a free, we believe that he should be kept excluded from political life ... the exclusion from the right to vote was the wisest decision in this proud federation. [...] we have disenfranchised not only the malicious and ignorant blacks, but also the malicious and ignorant whites. "

Sam Bowers Jr. attended high school in Jackson , Mississippi. He served in the Navy during World War II.

White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Bowers, along with other white racists from the southern states, was very concerned about the civil rights movement for attacking segregation. He saw the Southern way of life threatened in the equality of blacks .

Bowers thought the Ku Klux Klan was too passive. On February 15, 1964, he and about 200 other clans in Brookhaven , Mississippi, founded an underground organization within the clan. This group called itself White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and wanted to strike harder and more relentlessly than the actual Klan. Bowers was elected leader ( Imperial Wizard ). Bowers swore the others to absolute secrecy.

White Knights philosophy

His clan was a clandestine organization that operated under cover of night, wrote Bowers in the internal memorandum: "We must remember that the communists want us to engage in street fights to impose martial law on us." Wrote in an Imperial Executive Order Bowers said in a clan meeting on June 7, 1964 (this was recorded by the FBI):
“This summer, within a few days, the enemy wants victory here in Mississippi. This offensive will be based on two main pillars:

1. Massive street demonstrations by blacks aimed at provoking white militants. This should create the conditions for point 2:
2. The communist leadership of the federal government can then impose martial law:

We have to avoid open confrontation and strike at night. "

Series of violence

In 1964 civil rights activists proclaimed the so-called "Summer of Freedom". In the same year Charles Eddie Moore , James Chaney , Henry Hezekiah Dee , Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered by clans people.

In January 1966, Bowers, along with other members of the White Knights of the KKK, had to testify before the Un-American Activities Committee about clan activities . Citing the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution ( Nemo tenetur se ipsum accusare ), Bowers did not even mention his name.

In 1966 Vernon Dahmer was murdered. Klansmen set fire to his house and shot the family members who were fleeing. Vernon had succumbed to his burns. Former White Knights member T. Webber Rogers later testified that Bowers gave orders that Dahmer be killed at all costs. Despite this statement, Bowers was acquitted before two all-white juries . It was not until August 1998 that Bowers was charged again and sentenced to life in prison.

He served his sentence in Mississippi State Penitentiary , where he died.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edwin Du Bois Shurter: Oratory of the South: from the civil war to the present time. Neale publishing Company, 1908.
  2. ^ Don Whitehead: Attack on Terror . Funk and Wagnall's, New York 1970.
  3. ^ Maryanne Vollers : Ghosts of Mississippi: the murder of Medgar Evers, the trials of Byron de la Beckwith, and the haunting of the new South . Little, Brown, 1995, ISBN 978-0-316-91485-7 .
  4. ↑ Washington Post: Jailed KKK Leader Samuel H. Bowers . November 6, 2006. 

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bowers, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bowers, Samuel Holloway (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 2006
Place of death Mississippi State Penitentiary