Plans for reputed Klansman to appear at Miss. State Fair derailed, for now

An attempt by a white-supremacist organization to operate a booth at next month's state fair that would feature reputed Ku Klux Klan figure Edgar Ray Killen has been at least temporarily derailed. Word of the booth snag for the organization called the Nationalist Movement came Monday as more than 30 people, including NAACP representatives, gathered at Mississippi's agriculture department to protest the possible appearance of Killen, a suspect in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia. In 1967, Killen was tried on federal conspiracy charges in the killings. He was freed after a hung jury verdict and has never faced state charges. Richard Barrett, leader of the Nationalist Movement, said Killen had agreed to be at the group's booth. Barrett said he wanted to hold a petition drive at the fair in support of Killen, who is still under investigation in the June 21, 1964, deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. [more ]