In the racially charged atmosphere of 1965 Bogalusa, Louisiana, Oneal Moore, a 34-year-old Black man, stood as a symbol of progress and a target of hate. Just one year and a day after he and his partner, David Creed Rogers, made history as the first Black deputy sheriffs in Washington Parish, their patrol car was ambushed in a hail of gunfire on the night of June 2nd. The attack was sudden and brutal.
A dark-colored pickup truck, bearing a Confederate flag on its bumper, pulled alongside their vehicle and unleashed a deadly barrage. Moore was struck in the head and killed instantly, his car careening into a tree. Rogers was severely wounded, losing sight in one eye, but managed to broadcast a description of the fleeing truck.
The immediate investigation led to the arrest of a well-known white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan member, Ernest Ray McElveen, in Mississippi. He was found in a truck matching the description provided by Rogers, and inside the vehicle were firearms and a rope noose. Despite being charged with Moore's murder, McElveen was released on a $25,000 bond, raised by fellow Klansmen, just nine days after the killing. The charges against him were ultimately dropped due to a lack of sufficient evidence, a common outcome for racially motivated crimes in that era.
Over the decades, the case of Oneal Moore's murder has been reopened multiple times by the FBI, in 1990, 2001, and again in 2009, as part of a Civil Rights-era cold case initiative. The investigations pointed to the local Ku Klux Klan, who were enraged by the hiring of Black deputies. Several sources indicated that the Klan had vowed to eliminate them. Despite the FBI's extensive efforts, which included surveillance and obtaining confessions from two individuals on tape, no one was ever convicted for the murder. The Department of Justice cited a lack of corroborating evidence, such as the murder weapon, as a significant hurdle to a successful prosecution.
The prime suspect in the case, Elmo Breland, another known Klansman, was never charged in Moore's death but was later convicted for the murder of a white man. Ernest Ray McElveen, the only person ever formally charged in connection with the ambush, died in 2003, taking with him any possibility of legal retribution for the death of Deputy Oneal Moore. The story of Oneal Moore remains a stark reminder of the violent resistance to the Civil Rights Movement and the often-elusive nature of justice in the face of deep-seated racial hatred.
