Voting Rights Activist Dies After Bombing

Moments in Civil Rights History

On Jan. 10, 1966, about 10 miles outside of Hattiesburg, Miss., the home of businessman and black civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer was firebombed. Two carloads of armed Ku Klux Klansmen set the house and an adjacent grocery store on fire and blasted the buildings with shotguns. His family escaped through the back window. Dahmer did ultimately escape, but was severely burned and died later that day.

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