Mississippi transfers newly discovered 1960s KKK materials to state archives

Mississippi officials have transferred a trove of newly rediscovered 1960s-era Ku Klux Klan materials — including robes, documents and propaganda — to the state archives, where they will be preserved and eventually made publicly accessible for research.

What they're saying:

"Mississippi Highway Patrol Troopers and Agents with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety have worked for decades with our federal law enforcement partners to shed light on the darkness in which groups like the Ku Klux Klan chose to operate," said DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell. "By preserving these artifacts and shedding light on such organizations, we help ensure that future generations are never led astray by such hate."

Dig deeper:

Inside a small blue suitcase, officials found a collection of documents and artifacts, including charters, a spiral notebook of meeting minutes, a ledger, a 1964 Imperial Executive Order and numerous pamphlets. 

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The materials also include Klan propaganda, such as a publication titled "The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King," produced by the United Klans of America.

The inventory also contains file folders with news clippings about the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Department of Public Safety, former DPS Commissioner T.B. Birdsong and coverage related to the Freedom Riders. The Department of Archives and History will process the collection and work to make it digitally accessible to the public.

What's next:

Processing the collection is expected to take several months and will include organizing, preserving and describing the materials for public use. 

Archivists will prepare a collection overview for the catalog documenting the transfer from the Department of Public Safety, along with a detailed item-level finding aid and image-level metadata to accompany the digital scans.

MississippiNews