Southern discomfort

Frank Morris (fourth from left) was burnt alive when his shoe shop in Ferriday was torched

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When Frank Morris ran out of his shop with his hair and clothes on fire, one witness recounted seeing the skin falling from the 51-year-old's body.

It was 1964 in Ferriday, Louisiana, when the Ku Klux Klan, and a violent offshoot of the movement known as the Silver Dollar Group, were active in this part of Louisiana.

The attack is widely believed to have been carried out by the Silver Dollar Group using several men that made up a "wrecking crew".

According to statements, Mr Morris was made to stay in his shop by a man with a shotgun, while others doused his business in petrol.

Despite his horrible burns, Frank Morris managed to live for four days before he died.

He never named or even described his attackers despite getting a good look at them.

Old wounds

Local reporter Stanley Nelson was just nine years old when Mr Frank - as he was known - was murdered.

"The rubble of the building was destroyed a few days after the fire and what you see here is what's left, and nothing has changed for 46 years," says the journalist from the Concordia Sentinel as he stands on the foundations of Frank Morris' business.

Stanley Nelson is now familiar with every detail of the case. He has spent four years studying Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records, talking to witnesses and ultimately trying to solve the murder.

But, in this small, tight-knit community it has opened up old wounds for some.

The rubble of the destroyed building has remained virtually untouched since the 1964 fire

"I had one lady call and she said: 'Just what do you think you're doing?'," says Mr Nelson, who has been working closely with civil rights groups.

"I said: 'What do you mean?' and she said: 'Every week you bring out these terrible stories, what do you hope to accomplish?' I said: 'I hope to find out what happened to Frank Morris and solve the murder'."

The FBI re-opened their investigation into Mr Morris's murder several years ago but it is one of dozens of so-called cold case murders carried out by the Klan that, to this day, remain unsolved.

That does not surprise 66-year-old Robert Lee III, a friend of Frank Morris and who still lives in Ferriday.

"This man was our friend and he was murdered only because he was black," says Mr Lee, who was serving in Vietnam when the killing took place.