The Kelly Settlement farm where NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr. was firebombed by the KKK on January 10, 1966 — he died defending his family, one day after announcing he would pay the poll tax for any Black citizen who couldn't afford it.
Kelly Settlement Road (approximately 10 miles north of Hattiesburg), Hattiesburg, MS 39401
Research updated June 2026
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No fee; public historical marker on or near the site accessible from the road
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Rural road; limited shoulder access to historical marker
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Home and grocery store of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr., firebombed by KKK January 10, 1966 · Dahmer died January 11, 1966 from injuries sustained defending his family · His January 9, 1966 radio offer to pay poll taxes directly triggered the attack · Sam Bowers convicted 1998 for ordering the murder; sentenced to life in prison · 2004 Mississippi MDAH historical marker erected at the site · Stop on the Freedom Summer driving tour through Forrest County
Vernon Dahmer Sr. built his life in the Kelly Settlement, a rural community roughly ten miles north of Hattiesburg in Forrest County, Mississippi. He owned a farm and operated a grocery store, and by the 1960s he was president of the local NAACP chapter — one of the most visible Black civic leaders in south Mississippi. He had helped organize the Freedom Day demonstration at the Forrest County Courthouse on January 22, 1964, when nearly 150 Black citizens stood in the January rain demanding the right to vote.
On January 9, 1966, Dahmer recorded an announcement for WFOR radio in Hattiesburg. He said he would pay the poll tax for any Black resident who could not afford it, removing one more barrier between Black citizens and the ballot box. The announcement was heard throughout Forrest County.
In the predawn hours of January 10, armed Ku Klux Klan members surrounded the Dahmer property and set fire to both the family home and the attached grocery store. They also opened fire on the buildings. Dahmer grabbed his shotgun and returned fire, holding the attackers off long enough for his wife Ellie and their children to escape through a back window. His lungs were seared by the smoke and flames. He died the following day, January 11, 1966.
Fourteen Klansmen were arrested. Four were convicted and one pleaded guilty, but none initially served more than four years. Sam Bowers, who had ordered the attack in his capacity as Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was not brought to trial on the charge of murder-by-arson until 1998. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He died incarcerated in 2006.
A Mississippi Department of Archives and History historical marker was erected at the site in 2004. The location is part of the Freedom Summer driving tour organized around Hattiesburg, and Dahmer's family has historically given testimony to school and civic groups visiting the site.
Sources
There is no ghost tradition attached to the Vernon Dahmer farm site. The weight it carries in dark tourism is the same weight it has always carried: the documented murder of a man who publicly dared to ease the franchise for his neighbors.
Dahmer's radio announcement on January 9, 1966 was a direct provocation in the language the KKK understood — a Black man offering to personally remove a financial barrier to Black voting. The firebombing came hours later. His shotgun, his return fire, and his death the next day are recorded in contemporaneous newspaper coverage, FBI files, and the testimony of family members who survived because he held the attackers off long enough for them to get out.
Sam Bowers was not convicted until 1998, thirty-two years after the attack, in a case brought by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore and the Forrest County District Attorney. The thirty-two-year gap between the murder and the conviction is itself part of the documented record at this site.
The historical marker placed in 2004 and the testimony the Dahmer family has continued to give to visitors are the site's primary interpretive layer. There is nothing to add to the facts.
Notable Entities
The Vernon Dahmer Memorial is a stop on the 1964 Freedom Summer driving tour through Forrest County. Visitors can read the 2004 Mississippi Department of Archives and History historical marker at the Kelly Settlement site where Dahmer's home and grocery store stood before the January 10, 1966 KKK firebombing. The site is rural and there are no developed visitor facilities.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Hattiesburg, MS
The Forrest County Courthouse in downtown Hattiesburg was the site of Freedom Day on January 22, 1964 — the second major Freedom Day protest in the South, following Selma. Nearly 150 Black citizens braved a cold, rainy morning to demonstrate for the right to vote, facing registrar Theron Lynd's documented refusal to process Black applicants. The event directly preceded the Mississippi Summer Project and helped build the national momentum of the civil rights movement.
Kansas City, MO
On June 17, 1933, gunmen ambushed a federal law-enforcement party in the south parking lot of Kansas City Union Station, killing four officers — including FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey — and the prisoner they were transporting, escaped bank robber Frank Nash. The FBI attributed the attack primarily to Vernon Miller and, controversially, to Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. The killings outraged Congress and directly prompted legislation granting FBI agents the permanent authority to carry firearms and make arrests.
Baton Rouge, LA
On January 10, 1972, a confrontation between Baton Rouge police officers and Nation of Islam demonstrators on North Boulevard turned violent, leaving two sheriff's deputies and three demonstrators dead and 31 people wounded. Governor John McKeithen deployed 700 National Guard troops and imposed a citywide curfew. Nine Black men were convicted in a 1976 trial. The Louisiana Supreme Court subsequently reversed those convictions, a rarely discussed chapter of Louisiana's civil rights era.