Nelson will present "Murder on Pretty Creek: New
Revelations on an Old Case"
By
Roscoe Barnes III
Natchez, MS, USA / ListenUpYall.com
Sep 11, 2023 | 2:53 p.m.
 |
Stanley Nelson
Author, "Devils Walking" and "Klan of Devils" |
NATCHEZ,
Miss. – The killing of Ben Chester White, one of the
brutal murders that occurred in Natchez during the civil rights movement in the
1960s, will be discussed by Stanley Nelson at the Tuesday, Sept. 26, meeting of
the Natchez Historical Society.
The meeting will begin with a social at 5:30 p.m. and
Nelson’s presentation at 6 p.m., at the Historic Natchez Foundation at 108 S.
Commerce St. The event is free to the public.
Nelson’s presentation is titled, “Murder on Pretty Creek:
New Revelations on an Old Case.” It will focus on White, the 67-year-old Black
man who was murdered in 1966 by the Ku Klux Klan. Nelson will talk about his
alleged killers, two of whom, Ernest Avants and James Lloyd Jones, were charged
but not convicted in 1967; and a third one, Claude Fuller, who was never
brought to trial.
Nelson said Avants was convicted decades later in federal
court and died in prison a short time after his conviction.
“The murder of Ben Chester White is one of the most
haunting cases I have ever worked on,” said Nelson. “One Klansman confessed his
involvement in the murder and identified the other two Klansmen involved. Yet a
jury couldn’t reach a verdict in the confessor’s case because at least two
Klansmen were on the jury.”
Nelson is the author of “Devils Walking: Klan Murders
Along the Mississippi River in the 1960s (LSU Press, 2016) and “Klans of
Devils: The Murder of a black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff” (LSU, 2021). He was the
longtime editor of the Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday, La.
“Mr. Nelson has long held a justifiable reputation in
Natchez as being as or more effective than the FBI in sleuthing out the
terror-network here that was the Klan,” said Alan Wolf, a director of the
society and its program chair. “Mr. Nelson promises to be true to form at this
important coming presentation.”
The alleged killers reportedly drove to White’s house on
June 10, 1966, and lured him away with the promise that they would pay him two
dollars to help find a dog. White, according to Nelson, was gentle man, who was
known to be kind and even timid when it came to challenging the authority of a
white man. He was not active in politics or the civil rights movement.
Nelson reported the story as follows:
After White got into their car, they took him to the
Pretty Creek bridge in Homochitto National Forest. The men got out of the car
with Fuller grabbing an automatic carbine and Avants, a shotgun. Fuller said to
White, “All right, Pop, get out.”
White said, “Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?”
Fuller unloaded 17 rounds into White, and Avant finished
him off with a shotgun blast to his head. They threw his body over the bridge
and onto the bank of Pretty Creek.
Nelson said the killing was said to be a set-up for
another murder: “There also were stories that this was a murder ordered by higher
ups in the White Knights to draw Martin Luther King to Natchez in protest where
Klansmen would assassinate him. But was this really true? We’ll be sharing
never before reported information about this and on other aspects of the case
at the NHS meeting.”
The society’s program featuring Nelson is funded in part
by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council through funding by the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information on this NHS event, call 601-492-3000
or send email to info@natchezhistoricalsociety.org
See more here: https://listenupyall.com/2023/09/11/stanley-nelson-to-talk-about-66-murder-of-ben-chester-white-at-sept-26-meeting-of-natchez-historical-society/
