Jerry Mitchell | Mississippi Clarion Ledger

The family of slain civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer awoke on Election Day to see that someone had placed a Confederate flag on his grave.

Dahmer died in Hattiesburg on Jan. 10, 1966, defending his family from an attack by the Ku Klux Klan, angry at his work on voting rights.

Special to the Clarion Ledger

Dahmer's son, Dennis, was disturbed to find the Confederate battle flag on his father's grave.

"This political climate we are in, with the Senate race of Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith, has brought all sorts of people out of the woodwork with all kinds of beliefs," he said. "It has emboldened them."

AP

On Jan. 10, 1966, the Dahmer home in the Kelly Settlement was firebombed by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Vernon Dahmer returned fire, trying to give his family enough time to get out. He suffered burns from the fire and died later that day at a hospital.

Several convictions took place in the 1960s. Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who ordered the firebombing, was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.

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A statue honoring Dahmer is expected to be erected next year in a plaza in front of the district attorney's office at the Forrest County Courthouse. Plaques will detail Dahmer's work as an NAACP leader and voting rights activist.

The Clarion-Ledger

On Tuesday, a black woman named Claudia Bivins placed the flag on Dahmer's grave.

Before that, she had draped herself with the flag when she voted. She also put a red noose around her neck.

She told the Rev. Carlos Wilson that the red noose represented the blood of Christ and that the Confederate flag represented suppression.

She later told CNN that the noose represented past lynchings and the flag represented the heavy burden of racism that still exists.

"It still weighs me down," Bivins said. "The flag represents racism, slavery and affliction."

She said she put the flag on Dahmer's grave along with olive branches, which symbolized the champion that Dahmer was, and peppermint, which represented healing.

"As I laid the rebel flag down across Vernon's grave, I told my grandson what it represents — our hope that racism and hatred would die," Bivins said. "That it would be killed at the root of our hearts, minds and souls."

Dennis Dahmer said he wishes she had asked the family before placing the flag on his father's grave.

The incident follows what appears to have been a like-minded political statement on Monday at the state Capitol in Jackson where nooses were hung from trees on the grounds along with signs, Two of the signs read, in different handwriting and different color ink, "We're hanging nooses to REMIND people that times HAVEN'T CHANGED" and "On Tuesday November 27th thousands of Mississippians will vote for a senator we need someone who will respect the lives of lynch victims."

Gov. Phil Bryant said he contacted the Department of Public Safety and the FBI for assistance in finding those responsible for the nooses and signs.

Local authorities in Hattiesbuirg are investigating who placed the flag on Vernon Dahmer's grave, Dennis Dahmer said. "Even if she had a positive intent, I wish she hadn't done that.