Ben Chester White

Ben Chester White (January 5, 1899 June 10, 1966) was a black caretaker, uninvolved in the civil rights movement, shot down by the KKK.[1] This was likely in an attempt to move focus away from James Meredith’s March Against Fear or to lure Martin Luther King, Jr. in an assassination attempt. This murder went unnoticed by King.[2][3][4]

Ben Chester White
Born(1899-01-05)January 5, 1899
Natchez, Mississippi
DiedJune 10, 1966(1966-06-10) (aged 67)
Natchez, Mississippi
OccupationCaretaker, Deacon
ChildrenJesse White and Louis White

Biography

Early life

For his whole life, Ben Chester White was a caretaker to the Carter family farm off Liberty Road in Natchez, Mississippi, as well as a deacon in the local Baptist church.[2][4] He would perform tasks around the farm and with a limited ability to read would still quote vast passages from the bible.[2]

Children

Death and afterward

Ben Chester White was murdered by James L. Jones, Claude Fuller, and Ernest Avants of the KKK on June 10, 1966, buried in Southwood Lodge Church Cemetery, Natchez, Mississippi.[1][5]

After buying Ben Chester White a soda, the three men brought him to the Homochitto National Forest, under the guise of a lost dog, where he was shot over ten times, dumped into Pretty Creek, and had his car burned. Jones would be the one to soon after confess to the crime. Fuller went without charge, Jones was hung, Avants was acquitted (losing a later suit from the family, but never paying the charged), later to be retried and imprisoned seven years later.[2][3][4][6]

1968 - Jesse White would sue the KKK for his father's death, and awarded $1 million from the court. This was the first time in history the organization was legally held responsible for one of its members. The $1 million was never received.[3]

1989 - He is featured in the Civil Rights Memorial

2013 - Footage of White was shown in an episode of the documentary Civil Rights Movement Road Trip.[7]

Further reading

gollark: We see stuff like mistreating animals as generally bad and to be avoided if possible, but not absolutely disallowed regardless of reason.
gollark: This seems weird. It isn't as if all acts are either perfectly fine or proscribed.
gollark: If you look sufficiently confident and/or attractive, you can do anything ever and nobody can hope to stop you.
gollark: You should be less confident. You're very wrong.
gollark: Who is going to benefit from this exactly?

References

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