Mack Charles Parker

Who was Mack Charles Parker?

Mack Charles Parker was an African-American victim of lynching in the United States. He was accused of raping a pregnant white woman in northern Pearl River County, Mississippi. Three days before he was to stand trial, he was kidnapped from his jail cell in the Pearl River County Courthouse by a mob, beaten and shot. His body was found in the Pearl River, 20 miles west of Poplarville, 10 days later. Following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men who killed him were released. Despite confessions, nobody was indicted for the killing. Historian Howard Smead called the killing the "last classic lynching in America."