Armstrong Rubber Company
Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company, Natchez, Mississippi, 2007
On February 27, 1967, thirty-six-year-old Wharlest Jackson, the treasurer of the local NAACP chapter, was killed instantly when a bomb exploded in his truck. He had recently received a promotion to a position formerly reserved for white employees at the Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company. His son, Wharlest Jackson, Jr., heard the blast from his home nearby and rushed to the scene to find his father dead in the road. It is believed that Jackson was murdered by the Silver Dollar Group, a particularly violent Klan group who used explosives in the Natchez, Mississippi–Ferriday, Louisiana corridor. No one has been convicted of this crime, but the FBI is currently investigating the case, which they refer to as “Wharbomb.” The community and family members erected a historical marker in 2011.