Harlan Majure

Who is Harlan Majure?

Harlan Majure was mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi during the 1990s. He married Peggy DeMaurice Perry and has two children.

He is most well known for his testimony in the June 2005 murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen, accused of participating in the murders of three civil-rights workers in 1964. He provided an alibi for Killen and asserted that the Ku Klux Klan was a "peaceful organization."

He later explained that where he grew up in Mississippi, the KKK was better known for helping unemployed men get jobs and get back on their feet to support their families. The KKK was not violent where he was raised, but Majure admitted that he had heard stories of its disturbances elsewhere. Majure clarified that he said what he said because he had not himself ever been witness to the KKK's mayhem.