Workers preparing to move the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to a new headquarters made a jarring discovery - a small blue suitcase tucked in a closet, filled with Ku Klux Klan materials dating back to the 1960s.
The Jackson-based department was in the process of packing for a move to a new headquarters when staff came across the cache. Inside the blue suitcase, officials found full Klan regalia, a spiral notebook with meeting minutes, a ledger book, propaganda material and other pamphlets. There were also file folders containing news clippings about the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, then-DPS Commissioner T.B. Birdsong, and material related to the Freedom Riders.
The collection also included a handbook for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — the most violent white supremacist group of the 1960s, which carried out at least 10 killings — as well as Klan charters, recruitment materials, propaganda, and a list of members who paid or didn't pay their dues.
Among the specific items was a 1964 Imperial Executive Order and a United Klans of America pamphlet titled "The Ugly Truth about Martin Luther King."
It remains unclear how long the suitcase sat in the closet or who placed it there.
Not long after the discovery, department officials transferred the materials to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell said in a statement that Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers and agents have worked for decades alongside federal law enforcement to expose the activities of groups like the KKK, adding that preserving these artifacts helps ensure future generations are never misled by such hate.
Incoming Department of Archives and History Director Barry White called the transfer significant, saying the materials will give researchers broader access to documentation that deepens understanding of Klan activities in Mississippi during the 1960s. He noted that receiving records that include both internal administrative documents and propaganda from a local chapter of a notoriously secretive national organization is particularly meaningful.
Processing the collection is expected to take several months. The work involves arranging and housing the materials, preparing a collection-level overview for the archives catalog, creating an item-level finding aid, and developing image-level metadata for scans that will eventually be posted online for public access.
The Department of Archives and History already displays a Klan robe and arrest photographs of Freedom Riders at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
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The collection also included a handbook for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — the most violent white supremacist group of the 1960s
