Earcel Boyd was a member of the Silver Dollar Group and a statewide officer in the Louisiana Realm of the United Klans of America.
Two of his sons, Sonny and Leland Boyd, talked to us in 2022 about how traumatizing it was to grow up in his family and how they rebelled against most of what he stood for.
Earcel Boyd was a mill worker in Natchez and a part-time minister, sometimes preaching in Black churches after attending Klan rallies the day before.
Boyd considered himself a friend of Frank Morris, a Black shoe shop owner in Ferriday. Two of Boyd’s sons, Leland and Sonny, say their father was furious when Klansmen torched Morris’s shop on December 10, 1964, an attack that resulted in Morris’ death four days later.
Leland and Sonny said their father suffered from PTSD following World War II.
FBI records indicate that Boyd was never considered a suspect in any violent acts by the Klan.
