Mack Charles Parker

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Mack Charles Parker (1936 – April 24, 1959) was a victim of lynching in the United States.

Parker, from Lumberton, Mississippi, was arrested on February 24, 1959 on charges of rape and kidnapping of a Mrs. June Walters of Petal, Mississippi.

Parker was lodged at the Hinds County Jail, subjected to polygraph tests, then moved to the Pearl River County Jail on April 13.

Sometime between 11:30pm April 24 and 12:15am April 25, eight to ten men, some hooded, some masked, entered the jail. No jailers were present, and the group of men forcibly removed Parker from the jail and put him in a nearby automobile.

His body was found on May 4; the FBI description indicates his body was on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River, about 2.5 miles south of Mississippi Highway 26. Other accounts say the Louisiana side. The autopsy concluded his death was due to a penetrating wound to the heart.

The trial for his murder was not made a priority by Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman and was put off for months. Though members of the mob came forward, Judge Sebe Dale, an active member of the White Citizens' Council, encouraged the jury not to convict.