Natchez, MS, famous for its antebellum past, also became home to one of the largest KKK organizations in the country and an especially brutal offshoot, The Silver Dollar Group.

Wharlest Jackson, an employee at the Armstrong Tire and Rubber Plant was promoted, bypassing three white men for a job that paid $3.11, a 17 cent raise. A few weeks later he was killed by dynamite planted under the hood of his truck.

His death became an important turning point in Natchez history. Over 2000 Negroes, led by Charles Evers, field secretary for the NAACP, marched on the town. City officials were forced to recognize this and other heinous crimes in the area and confront the need for reconciliation and dialog between the black and white communities.