In Concordia Parish, La., a grand jury has begun hearing testimony about an unsolved murder from the civil rights era. That comes less than one month after Stanley Nelson, the editor of the weekly Concordia Sentinel, first named a suspect in the death of Frank Morris, a respected shoe repair owner. And it was Nelson who first reported the grand jury had begun calling witnesses in the 46-year-old case.
In December 1964, Frank Morris' shoe shop was set ablaze. He died four days later. Like many Southern crimes against blacks in the 1960s, the incident went unsolved. Now, 46 years later, Stanley Nelson, the editor of the Concordia Sentinel newspaper, says he has found information that may implicate a man as a member of a Ku Klux Klan "wrecking crew," which is said by sources Nelson has interviewed to be responsible for burning down the shop.