Mack Charles Parker was a 23-year-old truck driver who had returned to his hometown of Lumberton, Mississippi, after receiving a general discharge following two years in the Army.
On the morning of February 24, 1959, Parker was awakened by Marshal Ham Slade and several deputies, who alleged that he had raped a young white woman, June Walters, the night before.
Parker and a group of friends were out drinking the previous night and saw a disabled car along the side of Highway Parker stopped his vehicle, and approached the car. After seeing Walters inside the vehicle, however, he returned to his car and drove away.
June’s husband had gone to get a tow truck. The police alleged that Parker returned to the disabled vehicle, forcing June Walters and her daughter into the car with him. He then drove to an isolated spot where he raped her.
Statements from those in the community suggested that the woman fabricated the rape claims to hide her consensual affair with a white man in a nearby town, and police officers garnered no conclusive evidence implicating Mr. Parker.
On April 13, a grand jury indicted Parker on two counts of kidnapping and one count of rape. On April 17, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the trial was set for April 27. 3 days before the trial, a white mob, wielding guns and clubs, dragged Parker from his jail cell.
The participants included J. P. Walker, a former deputy sheriff, and Jewell Alford, the jailer, who provided the keys. The men drove Parker to the Bogalusa Bridge. After shooting him, they weighted his body with chains and threw it into the river
