State officials in Mississippi uncovered full Ku Klux Klan regalia and a KKK pamphlet critical of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while clearing out a closet at their office.
Workers at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety made the discovery as part of their preparations to move to a new building.
Some of the materials dated as far back as the 1960s and included recruitment materials, meeting notes and ledgers, according to a Mississippi Department of Archives and History press release.
Also among the tranche of KKK materials was a propaganda pamphlet entitled The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King, which was published by the United Klans of America, the press release revealed.
In addition, the trove of documents related to the group contained a handbook published by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The documents and the regalia were contained in a small blue suitcase and have since been handed over to the MDAH.
DPS Comissioner Sean Tindell said his department and the state’s highway patrol troopers have worked for decades to “shed light on the darkness in which groups like the Ku Klux Klan chose to operate.”
“By preserving these artifacts and shedding light on such organizations, we help ensure that future generations are never led astray by such hate,” he wrote.
Barry White, the incoming director of the MDAH, thanked Tindell in the release for handing over the materials to be archived.
“These records will give researchers broader access to documentation that deepens our understanding of Ku Klux Klan activities in Mississippi during the 1960s,” he wrote.
“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.”
Processing the documents could take months, the release says.
While examining the contents of the suitcase, officials also discovered folders containing news clippings about the Freedom Riders, a series of protests in 1961 which saw demonstrators challenging segregation laws by taking interstate buses into The South.
The clippings also contained references to T.B. Birdsong, the former head of the DPS and Mississippi Highway Patrol.
During the Freedom Rides, Birdsong claimed that the protests were “directed, inspired and planned by known Communists,” according to an article published by The New York Times in 1961.
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