FBI records: Late senator linked to Klan

[TacticalPeek]

Source: Clarion-Ledger


FBI records: Late senator linked to Klan

Jerry Mitchell • [e-mail] • October 18, 2009


Nearly a quarter century after U.S. Sen. Jim Eastland's death, Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen still talks about the many jobs he did for the veteran lawmaker.

Former inmate Larry Ellis told the FBI that Killen talked repeatedly of tasks he did for Eastland, quoting Killen as saying, "There was not anything I would not have done for him. He made miracles happen for me. He was and will always be my No. 1 hero."

Killen is serving 60 years in prison following his conviction in 2005 in Neshoba County for orchestrating the Klan's June 21, 1964, killings of three civil rights workers.

Eastland's nephew, Hiram Jr. of Greenwood, said he doesn't believe Killen's claim that he knew Eastland. "I know for a fact the senator did not associate himself with people like that," he said. "And I guarantee he wasn't having Killen do anything illegal."



Read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20091018/NEWS/910180365/1002/newsfrnt

---

The reporter, Jerry Mitchell, received a MacArthur 'Genius' Grant last month for bringing justice.

http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458023/k.86C0/Jerry_Mitchell.htm

[EFerrari]

1. Did the FBI keep records of their own links to the Klan?

I just heard MLK's biographer, Taylor Branch, talking about how the law enforcement arm of he FBI was pretty supportive of the RM while the political arm was leveraging the Klan and bugging King.

[L. Coyote]

2. Or, of how many agents in the South were members?

Do they investigate how many law enforcement members are in the Klan?

[EFerrari]

3. Larry Summers, Good Old Boys and the Treasury Department -- oldie but goodie

from NarcoNews. I found this the other night trying to find out what Larry Summers did to Cornel West to piss him off badly enough to leave Harvard for Princeton. Brother Summers has issues.

Will Larry Summers repeat history if named Treasury Secretary?
Posted by Bill Conroy - November 8, 2008 at 1:39 pm

Larry Summers has emerged within the media speculation machine as one of the leading candidates for the post of Secretary of Treasury. If he assumes that position under the Barack Obama presidency, he will undoubtedly play a key role in helping to manage the nation out of its current economic crisis.

Summers, no doubt, has the background in economics to deal with that mission, but it is worth noting that while he served in a leadership role in the Treasury Department under the Clinton administration, the agency chalked up a less-than-stellar record on civil rights issues, particularly with respect to Hispanic employees of the U.S. Customs Service then under the department’s umbrella.

snip

While he was acting as deputy secretary of Treasury, a controversy erupted over the department leadership’s attitude toward equal employment opportunity litigation, and Hispanic employees in particular.

snip

During Summers' prior leadership stint at Treasury, in addition to the litigation filed by Hispanic agents at U.S. Customs, the department also faced class-action discrimination lawsuits filed by minority agents of both the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco — both under Treasury at the time.

In addition, the infamous "Good O' Boy Roundup' gatherings came to light while Summers was at Treasury. Here's how a 1996 Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report on that racist gathering described the setting of that festive gathering in the woods of Tennessee:


http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/11/will-larry-summers-repeat-history-if-named-treasury-secretary

[maglatinavi]

10. killers in the klan

That is why the census worker has not been openly declared a murder and why I recommend that FBI agents not southerners go in groups for the sake of their protection from the local law enforcers ... if the FBI investigating this case are locals, nothing will come of it ...maybe they are part of the perpetrators... no one person could have done what it was done to the victim ... an to think that this is happening in the 21st. Century!!! :puke: :puke: :puke: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[EFerrari]

12. I think you're right. n/t

[TacticalPeek]

4. Eastland was their link to the Klan - chairman of the Judiciary Committee, graveyard of civil rights

Eastland "had sources all over the place," Ash said. "He was such good friends with (FBI Director J. Edgar) Hoover that he could get access to FBI files."

That information, in turn, was shared with Mississippi's now defunct Sovereignty Commission and others, he said. "It would not surprise me at all that Edgar Ray Killen could operate under the radar and report back from hot spots. Eastland was very well informed about politics and civil rights activities."

In documents Killen wrote to Ellis, Killen talked of secret files he obtained through an unnamed friend in the Justice Department. "My friend never violated any laws by giving secrets away," Killen wrote.

Riiiight.

[Rozlee]

5. Off the Subject, but has anyone read the letters to the Drudge Report Today

about the "White Beauty Queen at Black Uni Pens Letter to Obama?" There are over 800 replies in the post section, a great many so racist, it boggles the imagination. And go through the Drudge Archives to October 15 at the story about the judge forbidding the marriage license to the interracial couple and read the postings of the readers on that one. The readers carry on about "monkeys running through trailer parks", "wiggers", etc. The KKK is alive and well at the Drudge Report. And since so many Repub politicians seem to get their news from there, I would imagine they have the same views. This is not history, people. This is today.

[question everything]

6. Perhaps you can edit and add in parenthesis the name of the Senator?

Make it easier to know what the story is about even before clicking on the subject line.

[mitchum]

7. No surprise there; Eastland was a vicious racist...

and shitbirds of a feather do tend to flock together

[24601]

8. What does Senator Byrd say about this? He must be thinking

about what his FBI file holds and what will come out after his death. And he's now 3rd in line for the Presidency after the VP and House Speaker.

[Ian David]

9. If someone told Byrd he was suddenly President, he'd drop dead of a heart attack on the spot anyway.

I'm surprised the shock of gay marriage in Massachusetts wasn't enough to finally do him in.

[sabrina 1]

11. Sen. Byrd has dealt extensively with

this issue, himself. There really isn't anything that could be written after his death that hasn't been addressed honestly and straightforwardly by Sen. Byrd himself. Perhaps you aren't aware of that?

As for what rightwingnuts will have to say, we've already seen and heard from them, ironically I might add considering their own racism. I will expect the same kind of diatribe from them when Sen. Byrd dies as we heard from them when Sen. Ted Kennedy died.

Normally, it is considered praise-worthy when someone realizes they have made a mistake, acknowledges it and attempts to make up for it the rest of their lives.

The only reason wingnuts went after Sen. Byrd for his past, was because of his opposition to the Iraq war. He was one of the few Senators from either party, btw speaking of racism, who addressed the issue of the harm that would come to the Iraqi people should the US invade that country. He spoke eloquently against that war never forgetting the innocent civilians who would die. Immediately after that speech, the wingnut fringes attacked him viciously using 'racism' as their main weapon, while they called Muslims every racist term their overlords in the Republican party provided them with. 'Camel jockeys' 'ragheads' etc.

I think Sen. Byrd is an example of how someone can see how wrong they've been and make amends for their mistakes. Unless you'd rather they did NOT change their minds like those Republicans who never once admitted their mistakes?

[jonnyblitz]

13. Senator Byrd is STILL a virulent homophobe but people are

willing to overlook that like they never would if he were STILL a racist. People pointing out his nasty homophobia are more apt to be the ones who get their shit jumped here at DU. Homophobia isn't important enough to criticize him over because he is always speechifying against the war and he is a DEM. I can remember him clutching his bible on the senate floor while he railed against the evil homos during the DOMA debates in the '90's.

[sabrina 1]

17. All prejudices are important to address.

I am aware, regarding Sen. Byrd, that he has shown an ability to learn. People of his age were exposed to a lot of prejudice and what is learned at a young age is difficult to relearn. Yet, he has done that, unlike many others who were unable to so.

If his views on gay rights have not changed, that doesn't mean he cannot be shown that those views involve the rights of others, as did his previous views on minorities. He is an intelligent man and I think there is still hope that he can see that all Americans are entitled to the same rights. Has he been approached at all regarding this?

[hughee99]

14. Sen. Byrd was getting shit about his former KKK ties long before

the Iraq war.

[sabrina 1]

16. I'm sure he was, especially when he was running for office.

Outside of WV, not much was known about him. The minute he made that speech, that's when we in the rest of the country, were told by rightwingnuts about his past. On a daily basis, every single day. It was news to me and to everyone else I know so I did my own research.

[hughee99]

18. The rightwingnuts had been bringing this up for years...

as a counter to charges of racism. When I was younger, when I heard a Democrat refer to "the party of Jesse Helms" I'd often hear a snarky repuke response involving the phase "the party of Robert Byrd". Not so much now, but back in the 80's and 90's, I'd hear it all the time. Some of my family are Dems, but many are talking point spouting repukes, so family get-togethers have always been interesting when the subject of politics comes up.

[ingac70]

19. Jesse Helms was a Dem...

but switched to Repub because he was pissed off over civil rights.

[hughee99]

15. Did anyone notice that the article doesn't identify his party?

You can figure it out, but it never actually says it.

[Octafish]

20. Eastland crossed paths with Guy Bannister in the fight against communism.

From the Small World Department:

Banister, Eastland and the '56 SISS Hearings

Author: jpshinley
Email: [e-mail]
Date: 1998/07/17

EXCERPT...

The Liveright incident spurred New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison to order a probe of "subversive activities in New Orleans." Morrsion stated that he had contacted SISS chairman Eastland and asked for any information the subcommittee had. Morrison selected Assistant Police Superintendent Guy Banister to head the investigation. (NOTP, March 21, 1956, p. 1) Banister later was a figure of interest in the Garrison probe and has been alleged to have been personally acquainted with Oswald.

Morrison and Banister traveled to Greenwood, Mississippi, to confer personally with Senator Eastland for more than three hours. "Describing the conference as completely 'satisfactory,' Morrsion said, 'Mr. Banister has complete liason with the committee's staff which was the main object of our trip.'" (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1) Less than a week later, plans to hold SISS hearings in New Orleans were announced. (NOTP, March 28, 1956, p. 1) The subcommittee issued subpenas for ten witnesses. Efforts to locate one witness, Hunter Pitts O'Dell, resulted in the seizure of books and documents from a rented room which O'Dell had vacated. Banister termed the library "the finest collection of Communist literature in the South that I have ever seen or heard of." (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1; March 31, 1956, p. 1) Hunter Pitts O'Dell is a figure of some importance because of his later association with Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. O'Dell's alleged Communist ties were used to discredit Dr. King. (Garrow, David J. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Penguin Books, 1981) Interestingly, Louisiana political boss and notorious segregationist Leander Perez publicly linked King and O'Dell in March of 1960. (NOTP, March 12, 1960, section 3, p. 2)

The SISS held public hearings on April 5 and 6. The NOTP devoted extensive space to coverage of the hearings, including detailed summaries of the testimony of each of the witnessess. (NOTP, April 6, 1956; April 7, 1956). At follow-up hearings in Washington, three additional witnesses, including O'Dell were heard. (NOTP, April 12, 1956, p.1; April 13, 1956, p. 1) The Orleans Parish District Attorney's office announced it was considering prosecuting O'Dell and other SISS witnesses under Louisiana anti-subversion laws. Charges were finally filed in 1957. (NOTP, May 9, 1956, p. 1; March 26, 1957, p. 1; April 4, 1957, p. 8)

CONTINUED...

http://www.jfk-online.com/jpsbe56sissh.html

Guy B really, really hated the commies. Why he'd hang out with Oswald is no mystery. Hanging out with Eastland is another matter.