Mississippi Conviction

Betrayal, Brotherhood, and the Fall of the Klan

Stephen J. Gordin, Carl E. McArn II

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496862341
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Mississippi Conviction: Betrayal, Brotherhood, and the Fall of the Klan recounts a remarkable and underreported story of conscience, courage, and moral reckoning at the height of the civil rights era in Mississippi.

On Father's Day, June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan after visiting a burned church in Neshoba County. The brutal killings shocked the nation and launched a major FBI investigation into Mississippi's "closed society." Amid the search for justice, federal agents turned to an unlikely ally: Reverend Delmar Dennis, a Methodist minister and chaplain for the WKKKK.

Dennis's decision to become an FBI informant came after a pivotal conversation with his friend and mentor, Reverend Carl McArn, a civil rights supporter and advocate for church integration. Their friendship—and the ideological divide it represented—mirrored the broader split within Mississippi's white churches over race and justice.

Coauthored by novelist Stephen J. Gordin and Carl E. McArn II, son of Reverend McArn, this gripping narrative explores the power of moral influence and personal transformation. Drawing on extensive interviews and archival research, Mississippi Conviction reveals how one man's betrayal of the Klan became a critical turning point in dismantling a violent domestic terrorist network—and how another's quiet mentorship helped make that decision possible.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The Straight and Narrow
• Chapter 2: Delmar and Carl
• Chapter 3: The 1950s
• Chapter 4: The Methodist Church
• Chapter 5: Ole Miss and Born of Conviction
• Chapter 6: The Falling Out
• Chapter 7: The Consequences
• Chapter 8: The Muscle
• Chapter 9: The Klan
• Chapter 10: The Red Scare
• Chapter 11: Violence
• Chapter 12: A Changing Political Scene and the Disappearance of Three Civil Rights Workers
• Chapter 13: The Dilemma
• Chapter 14: Delmar’s Decision
• Chapter 15: The Dual Life
• Chapter 16: 1967
• Chapter 17: The Trial
• Epilogue
• Authors’ Note
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors