Murder of Wharlest Jackson

Wharlest Jackson (1929–1967) was the treasurer of the Natchez, Mississippi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People until his assassination by a car bomb. The culprit was never found, though the FBI suspected the involvement of the Silver Dollar Group, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan.

Jackson was a Korean War veteran, married with five children, who worked at the Armstrong Rubber and Tire Company. The company had a number of white employees affiliated with the Klan, and under pressure from civil rights activist the company management had opened more positions to African Americans, and promoted Jackson to a more advanced explosives-mixing position that had previously only been held by whites.