In 1964, a group of 20 men met in Vidalia, Louisiana to form the Silver Dollar Group, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. Their mandate was to conduct brutal acts of violence in Louisiana and Mississippi to terrorize and kill those supporting the civil rights movement. They killed, kidnapped, committed arson, and conducted at least two known car bombings, and the group members identified themselves by carrying a silver dollar.
This week we learned about another violent group, who similarly carry a unique coin in their pocket. One side of the coin has the group’s name, the “Goon Squad”, and the other side says “Rankin County Sheriff’s Dept.” (See photos at Jackson Jambalaya.)
Six members of this group, all law enforcement officers, have pled guilty to a laundry list of federal crimes stemming from the torture, sexual assault, and horrific acts of violence inflicted upon two African American men, Eddie Terrell Parker and Michael Corey Jenkins, in their home in Braxton, Mississippi. The acts committed by the Silver Dollar Group took place 50+ years ago, yet horrifyingly, this act took place in 2023.
I know countless Mississippians—including law enforcement officers—who work hard every day to create a state where every Mississippian, black and white, young and old, are treated with dignity and worth. Yet, this event and others like it, should cause us to acknowledge that some of our dark past remains alive today in this state I love so much.
My friend and former Empower colleague Russ Latino wrote a tremendous piece about this event with details so horrible it literally made me nauseous to read. I encourage you to read the piece in its entirety, but here’s a particularly poignant section:
What happened on January 24th…demands an answer. It demands uncomfortable reckoning. In the interim, all the scorn the media and the general public can muster is deserved.
Without a warrant, without probable cause, these officers of the law should have never been at 135 Conerly Road that night. But even if a warrant had existed, even if Jenkins and Parker had been doing something illegal, nothing in
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