Mack Charles Parker Lynched in Mississippi After False Rape Accusation

On April 25, 1959, Mack Charles Parker, a 23-year-old Black man held in Poplarville, Mississippi jail awaiting trial on a rape charge he denied, is dragged by a masked mob of 8-10 men from his cell, beaten, shot, and thrown into the Pearl River. His body is found May 4. The FBI identifies the killers and provides names to the Justice Department. A Mississippi grand jury refuses to indict. A federal grand jury is blocked by the judge from seeing the FBI evidence. No one is ever prosecuted. Parker's lynching is the last widely reported lynching in U.S. history.