Mississippi lawmakers honor legacy of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer - family receives standing o
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)
Mississippi lawmakers are honoring Vernon Dahmer (DAY'-mur) Sr., 50 years after the civil rights leader was killed when Ku Klux Klansmen firebombed his family's home near Hattiesburg.
Dahmer's widow, Ellie, and several relatives received a standing ovation Friday in the state Senate. Sunday is the anniversary of the attack on Dahmer, who defied the white segregationist power structure by registering black voters in the 1960s.
The ceremony is the latest in a long effort by Mississippi officials to recognize the troubled racial history of a state that still displays the Confederate battle emblem on its flag.
A jury in 1998 convicted one-time Klan leader Sam Bowers of murder and arson in the Dahmer case. Bowers received a life sentence and died in prison in 2006.
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