Wharlest Jackson (December 7, 1929 – February 27, 1967) was an American
civil rights activist who was murdered by a car bomb, with evidence of involvement by a white supremacy organization; it has been an unsolved murder since the 1960s. Jackson served as treasurer of the Natchez, Mississippi branch of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) until his assassination by a car bomb, which was placed on the frame of his truck under the driver-side seat.[1] The bomb exploded at approximate 8 p.m. on February 27, 1967. The explosion occurred when he switched on his turn signal on his way home.[2] The explosion caused serious damage to Wharlest's lower torso and he died at the scene. The scene of his death was six blocks away from the site where he was employed,[1]
at Armstrong Rubber and Tire Company.
The culprit was never found, and while the
FBI suspected the involvement of the Silver Dollar Group, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, there was no investigation that came up with a conclusion or a culprit, despite the ten thousand pages of FBI documentation and evidence.[3][4]
Background
Jackson was a
FBI
, and out of 109 similar cases, only two of them have ever been solved.
Wharlest Jackson
Wharlest Jackson was born in Millers Ferry, Washington County, Florida on December 7, 1929 to Willie F. Jackson and Effie Jackson (née Washington). He lived on Vernon Road in Millers Ferry with his mother, father and his siblings Henrietta, Dora D, Ola Rea, Louis Robert, Warren, and Doris Lee until his mother died April 2, 1934. His father Willie was listed as a laborer on the family farm with his family in 1920, a sawmill laborer on the 1930 Federal census and as a farmer on the 1935 Florida census. His father later went on to become a reverend. In 1940 Wharlest and his siblings are listed on the federal census living with his paternal grandmother Henrietta Jackson and his uncles Martin and Frank Jackson. This census lists them as living in "The St. Luke Negro Settlement" in Millers Ferry.
Legacy
Jackson's former home at 13 Matthews Street in Natchez was placed on the
PBS Frontline documentary, American Reckoning (season 40, episode 6), aired in February 2022, and looked deeper at the unsolved case.[8][9]
