Interview with Mr. William F. Dukes : native Mississippian, lawyer and former FBI agent

              Interview with Mr. William F. Dukes : native Mississippian, lawyer and former FBI agent
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Mr. William F. Dukes was born in the Sullivans' Hollow area near Raleigh, in Smith County, Mississippi on January 15, 1927, when the Dukes family was living at a turpentine camp where William Dukes' father was employed; the only physician in Raleigh at that time was William Dukes' grandfather and he performed the delivery. While William Dukes was still very young the family moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where his father was employed as a law enforcement officer with the Hattiesburg Police Department. He also served as a security guard for the then Mississippi Women's College, presently William Carey College.
William Dukes received much of his education in Hattiesburg; he attended both elementary and high school in the city schools and immediately upon graduation from high school enlisted in the United States Navy because World War II was raging. He served from mid- 1944 until June 1946 and was assigned as a Flight Engineer on PBM ( Martin Mariner) flying boats performing antisubmarine patrol in the Caribbean.
After discharge from the Navy, Mr. Dukes matriculated at Mississippi Southern College, now the University of Southern Mississippi. From his earliest memories, Mr. Dukes aspired to service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and pursued a law degree for that purpose. His first three years were taken at Mississippi Southern and the remainder at the University of Mississippi. Through a program available then, transferred back to Southern the senior year of work and upon graduation at the University of Mississippi had won a B. A. degree from Southern and the L. L. B. from the University of Mississippi.
Mr. Dukes' career plan was successful and he was accepted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into that service. He went through the normal period of training for FBI agents, which was accomplished in the Washington, D. C. area, and then was assigned to the FBI office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Dukes' career with the Bureau was eventful because he " has to be where the action is." Many of the cases with which he was concerned were of major importance, especially those after he returned to Mississippi where eventually he became senior Resident- Agent in charge of the Gulfport office. He was deeply involved in the struggle to prevent organized crime from gaining a foothold on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in the " war with the Klan" in civil rights cases. Among the important cases upon which he worked were the Mack Charles Parker civil rights murder case, the Vernon Dahmer murder case and the murder of three civil rights workers - all related to the racial conflict of that era. He is proud of the teamwork
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