This state isn’t yours anymore, Edgar Ray Killen.
When you show up at the State Fair in Jackson next month to espouse the hate that has consumed your life, you will be speaking to a different audience than you would have 40 years ago when our state government decided not to prosecute you and your friends for the murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.
You’ll be speaking to an audience of people younger than yourself. People who have had to accept the consequences of your actions while you have festered for the last 40 years at your home in Union.
The Clarion-Ledger reported that you will be there with the white supremacist group the Nationalist Movement to “sign autographs and meet the crowd.”
Maybe you can meet Carolyn Goodman, the woman who has had to cope with the knowledge that her son was beaten, shot and buried in a dam 40 years ago because he was trying to help people.
Maybe you can meet Jim Hood. He’s the guy investigating you right now for the murder that you were almost convicted of by the federal government in 1964.
Maybe you can meet some of the state’s youth, the ones who have had to explain to their friends from out of state that “Mississippi isn’t like that anymore” their entire lives.
Those people might not want your autograph.
Your time has come and gone, Edgar Ray. Whether you die in Parchman or at your home of old age, Mississippi will be a better place for it.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Angela Adair, news editor Elizabeth Crisp, assistant news editor Jessica Bowers, sports editor Craig Peters, entertainment editor Dustin Barnes, managing editor Pam McTeer and editor in chief Josh Foreman.