Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer is one of the 40 names etched into a monument honoring martyrs at the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery.
But most of the crowd gathered there Monday night to hear from his granddaughter-in-law Shelly Dahmer seemed to be hearing his story for the first time.
The Southern Poverty Law Center arranged the event for Dahmer to share about her new book targeted at upper elementary kids: “‘If You Don’t Vote, You Don’t Count’: Vernon Dahmer’s Fight for Equality.”
The book presents Vernon Dahmer’s story for children, taking them back to his very childhood and building up how he became interested in Civil Rights.
Shelly Dahmer said she has been working on getting the story right for 20 years, and finally gained family approval in 2022. Then she had to publish the book herself.
“That was a few years ago, but the climate that we’re living in now, our young people—and all of us, really—need to know our history, and it’s not just Black history,” Dahmer said. “When I published this book, I put U.S. history because this is something that Mr. Vernon, he sacrificed his life so we could have the right to vote.“
The book tackles the tough reality of Vernon Dahmer’s life. Shelly Dahmer noted that Vernon was biracial and could have well passed for a white man and avoided the trouble. But he had the bravery and principle to fight for the rights of Black citizens.
Vernon Dahmer’s work recruiting Black Americans to vote drew the ire of the local KKK members in Hattiesburg. The threat of violence was so pervasive, Shelly told the crowd, that Vernon and his wife would sleep in shifts to guard the farm.
One night, however, the family felt it safe to not sleep in shifts; they awoke to the farmhouse on fire and bullets ripping through the air as eight white men advanced on the home. Vernon Dahmer told his family to flee out the back to the woods while he remained in the house returning fire, buying them time.
Vernon ultimately escaped the house and caught up to his family, but Shelly said he had been burned so bad the “skin was hanging from his arms.”
The family rushed to the hospital but Vernon Dahmer was dead within 12 hours.
According to Shelly, a reporter visited Dahmer in those final hours before his death and asked him whether it was worth it.
”In this society, if a man does not vote, he does not count,” Vernon replied.
It is Shelly Dahmer’s hope that this story will hit these upper elementary students and get them invested at a young age to continue Vernon’s fight to ensure all people have the equal right and access to vote.
