Whitecapper Terrorist Organization Drives Black Farmers from Mississippi Bottomland

In Mississippi and other Southern states, vigilante groups called 'Whitecappers' — often overlapping with the KKK — conducted systematic terrorism against Black landowners and tenants, particularly in fertile bottomland areas. They burned barns, destroyed crops, killed livestock, and murdered Black farmers to drive them off desirable land and force the transfer of land to white ownership. The terrorism was particularly intense in the Mississippi Delta where Black landowners had acquired significant acreage. Local law enforcement either participated or ignored the violence.