Conspiracy theories that emerged from a civil rights shooting 60 years ago resonate today
Aram Goudsouzian
When segregationists recast themselves as victims of the 1966 Meredith shooting, they pioneered a conspiracy playbook that still drives racial backlash politics today.
Moral PanicScapegoatingVictimhood NationalismConspiracy Theory Diffusion
Theory Briefing
- Aubrey Norvell shot civil rights activist James Meredith in 1966, then stayed silent — giving white segregationists a blank slate to invent a liberal conspiracy.
- Mississippi officials, including a sheriff who claimed Meredith was never shot at all, weaponized his silence to paint white Southerners as the real victims.
- Historians trace today's 'great replacement' and Obama birther conspiracies to the same crass victim-narrative strategy born in the civil rights era.