Clarence Triggs
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Clarence Triggs | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 |
| Died | July 30, 1966 (aged 24) |
| Cause of death | Murder by shooting |
| Occupation | bricklayer |
| Known for | Veteran murdered after participating in civil rights march for voting, among cold cases reopened after 2007, but no indictments resulted |
Clarence Triggs (1942 – July 30, 1966) was a married African-American bricklayer and veteran, who was murdered on July 30, 1966, in Bogalusa, Louisiana, about a month after participating in a civil rights march for voting.[1] Two white men were arrested and indicted in the case. One was acquitted and the other never tried. Although the cold case was reopened by the FBI in the early 21st century, Triggs' murder has never been solved.
Triggs, a 24-year-old construction worker, had recently moved with his wife Emma to Bogalusa from Jackson, Mississippi. He worked as a bricklayer.[2]
He had taken part in some marches organized by the Congress on Racial Equality and the Bogalusa Voters League to push for blacks to be allowed to register freely to vote in elections, after decades of being disenfranchised. Triggs was killed a month later. This was about a year after Oneal Moore, the first black deputy sheriff in Washington Parish, was shot and murdered while on patrol; his partner, deputy Creed Rodgers, was severely wounded and lost sight in one eye.[citation needed] Congress had passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to authorize federal oversight and enforcement in jurisdictions with historic under-representation of minorities in voting, but many areas of the South were resisting this change.
