Samuel Bacon, 51, an employee of the Firestone Rubber Co and community leader, was killed in 1948 by town marshal Stanton Coleman in Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi. Bacon was riding by bus from his home in Akron, Ohio, to visit his relatives and hometown in Natchez.. When Bacon refused an order from bus driver James H. Minninger to move to the back of the bus, Minninger threw him off the bus in Fayette and had him arrested for “creating a disturbance. Held overnight in jail, Bacon was found dead in his cell in the morning. Stanton Coleman, the jailer and shooter, claimed self-defense. Bacon had tried to hit him with an object stored in a broom closet, Coleman claimed. Grand jury declined to indict. The Department of Justice closed the case based on a flawed report by FBI agent George Gunther. An essay on this case, researched and authored by a CRRJ student, is available on request.

Samuel Bacon

Stanton D. Coleman