Mr. Booker T. Mixon of Itta Bena

by Benjamin T. Greenberg on June 12, 2005

As usual, Susan Klopfer's comments belong up here, on the main page.

Quite simply, Mississippi's murdering past is not going to fade away. Here's just one tiny example of why:

Last evening as I was doing some follow-up research, looking for additional information on the relationship of Guy Banister (remember Jim Garrison?) and Senator Eastland, and Jack Childs (the key FBI informant behind the taping of Dr. Martin Luther King) it ended up that Jack Childs has a file in the Sovereignty Commission files (SCR ID # 2-62-1-107-14-1-1).

Jack Child's name had shown up in an address book of Aaron Henry's that was apparently stolen from Aaron Henry and copied into the Commission files. But right above Jack Childs' file was another one for J. A. Childs (SCR ID # 10-70-0-2-1-1-1). Could this be a second file on Jack?

The second Mr. Childs was someone else, the employer of an unfortunate black man, Mr. Booker T. Mixon of Itta Bena, who was dragged behind a car near Marks (Quitman County) in 1959. This "auto accident" was not investigated and no autopsy was done even though Mr. Mixon's totally nude body showed "abrasions, cuts and contusions." He remained in a coma in the Clarksdale hospital from Oct. 12 until Oct. 23 when he died "without uttering a word."

No.. this history is not going to fade just because one old man is found guilty in 2005. Too many old black people keep their own lists of all of the other thousands of people who were lynched or who "disappeared" in Mississippi over the years. Further, the Sovereignty Commission files are filled with names such as Mr. Mixon's, and sometimes, when the stars are right, the names of these murder victims shimmer through, if only for a moment in the early morning hours.

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