02620cam a2200385 i 4500 1164894430 TxAuBib 20210708120000.0 210127s2021||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2021001786 9781324005759 hardcover 1324005750 hardcover (OCoLC)1196175516 NcU/DLC eng rda DLC OCLCO OCLCF TOH OQX OCLCO JAS LEB OQX OCLCO UOK TxAuBib rda Wilkie, Curtis, author. When evil lived in Laurel : the "White Knights" and the murder of Vernon Dahmer / Curtis Wilkie. First edition. New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2021] 382 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. "The inside story of how a courageous FBI informant helped to bring down the KKK chapter responsible for a brutal civil rights-era killing. By early 1966, the civil rights work of Vernon Dahmer, head of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP and a dedicated advocate for voter registration, was well-known in Mississippi. This put him in the crosshairs of the White Knights, one of the most violent sects of the KKK in the South-which carried out his murder in a raid that burned down his home and store. A riveting account of the incident and its aftermath, When Evil Lived in Laurel is a tale of obsession, in which the infamous Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers became so fixated on killing Dahmer that the bungled attack ultimately led to Bowers's downfall and the destruction of his virulently racist organization. Drawing on the diary of a former Klan infiltrator who risked his life to help break the White Knights, veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie brings fresh light to this chapter in the history of civil rights in the South"-- Provided by publisher. 20210708. Dahmer, Vernon Ferdinand 1908-1966. Landrum, Tom 1932- Bowers, Samuel Holloway 1924-2006. Ku Klux Klan (1915) White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan History. United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Officials and employees. African Americans Crimes against History Mississippi. African American civil rights workers Mississippi History. Laurel (Miss) Race relations. TXKIP