Frank Morris

Frank Morris (30 October 1914 – 14 December 1964) was an American businessman who died as a result of arson to his shoe shop in Ferriday, Louisiana, a city with a history of racial violence. There have been allegations of witness intimidation, evidence tampering, and involvement by local law enforcement. No charges have been brought despite three FBI investigations.

Life Frank Morris's mother, Charlotte, died shortly after his birth. His father, Sullivan, operated a shoe shop in Natchez, Mississippi. Frank Morris fathered one child, and had two grandchildren.

Morris opened Frank's Shoes Service in the late 1930s, in his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana. This business serviced both black and white customers. His daily tasks included repairing shoes and saddles, selling jewellery, hats, and clothing, and dyeing purses. The shop was very successful and was known by the tag line, "Open every day and half the night", in its ads in the Concordia Sentinel. The shop was also his residence. The building was burned down in the early morning of December 10, 1964.

Arson On December 10, 1964, two unidentified white men set fire to the shoe repair shop owned by Frank Morris. At approximately 1:00 a.m., Morris was awakened in a back room of the shop by the sound of glass breaking. Morris opened the front door of the shop, where he was met by two men in their thirties, one of whom was armed with a shotgun. The men broke multiple shop windows and proceeded to "spread a flammable liquid around the outside of the shop, and evidence indicates that the subjects may have spread the flammable liquid inside of the shop". Much like the other Mississippi counties, law enforcement and the courts were run by whites. The state of Mississippi in the Jim Crow era was infamous for racially-fueled lynchings. Concordia Parish had 14 recorded racially-motivated murders between 1964 and 1967.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) activity was exceptionally high during the Civil Rights era. The Silver Dollar Group (SDG) was a violent and exceptionally militant Klan offshoot that operated in Adams County between 1964 and 1967. The SDG regularly committed arson, bombings, and murder. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered the SDG to be a highly-dangerous domestic terror cell, and conducted multiple investigations into its activities. Jackson had recently been promoted to a position never before held by an African American. He was targeted by the SDG. The FBI opened a full investigation into his murder due to its civil rights implications, as Jackson was treasurer of the local chapter of the NAACP. Much like the Morris case, witness accounts were not corroborating, and in August 1968, the investigation was closed.

On August 3, 1967, a confidential informant, who was a high-ranking officer of the KKK, told the FBI that a few days prior to the Morris arson, E. D. Morace approached the informant regarding an African American, referred to as "Old Frank", whom Morace said "had been flirtatious with white women".

Ferriday locals thought highly of Morris, who was a community-centric man who gave many young black men their first paying job; Morris also hosted a radio gospel program. At the time of his death, Morris owned the land his shop was on, and he was seen as an honest man who paid his bills on time. Although people generally thought highly of Morris, black residents thought Morris was too shocking to white residents. He had previously dedicated songs to white women on his radio show and would lean into their cars and occasionally sit in their passenger seats. A local black teacher claimed that after the arson, a rumor was spreading that Morris was facilitating interracial liaisons. There were rumors of Morris being romantically involved with the wife of a white man, and after the arson, the white couple soon left town. Ferriday Police officer William Howell Harp Jr. alleged that Morris was a bootlegger and sold narcotics. Harp and colleagues also found a "slightly scorched" suitcase filled with fourteen and a half pints of bourbon. The newspapers the bourbon was wrapped in had no signs of burning, indicating tampering with the scene. Harp described Morris as an alcoholic and had two confrontations with him during 1963–1965, as well as a small argument outside of the courthouse. Harp's new information regarding Morris shed doubt on the story concerning DeLaughter. The City of Ferriday hit a dead end with the case, and the sheriff's Department expressed no interest in taking it over.