In the summer of 1966, a 24-year-old African-American bricklayer and veteran named Clarence Triggs was found dead on the side of a highway in Bogalusa, Louisiana. His life was cut short by a gunshot wound to the head on July 30, 1966. Triggs, who had recently moved to Bogalusa from Jackson, Mississippi, with his wife, had become involved in the local civil rights movement.
He participated in marches organized by the Congress on Racial Equality and the Bogalusa Voters League, advocating for the right of Black citizens to register to vote. His activism came at a time of heightened racial tensions and violence in the Deep South, just a year after the murder of Oneal Moore, the first Black deputy sheriff in Washington Parish.
On that fateful July day, Triggs's body was discovered near a wrecked car that was registered to the wife of a white man named Homer R. 'Kingfish' Seale. Despite the immediate belief within the Black community that the murder was racially motivated, the local police chief initially stated there were 'no racial implications in the death.' This sentiment was not shared by those who knew of the dangers faced by civil rights activists in the area. The community's suspicion of a cover-up was immediate and palpable.
The investigation led to the arrest of two white men, Homer R. 'Kingfish' Seale and John W. Copling, Jr., both 36 years old at the time. They were indicted on charges of murdering Clarence Triggs. However, the path to justice was fraught with obstacles that were all too common during that era. Copling was the first to be tried, and after a short deliberation, the jury acquitted him. Following this verdict, the charges against Seale were dropped, and he was never brought to trial. The details of what precisely happened on the day of Triggs's murder and the connection between him and the accused have never been fully brought to light.
In the years that followed, the murder of Clarence Triggs remained an open wound in the community, a stark reminder of the violent opposition to the civil rights movement. The case was eventually reopened by the FBI as part of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, a federal initiative to investigate and prosecute cold cases from that era. Despite this renewed attention, no further charges were ever filed, and the case was eventually closed again without a conviction. The murder of Clarence Triggs, a young man who dared to stand up for his right to vote, officially remains unsolved, a lingering injustice from a turbulent period in American history.
