Thomas Moore has kept in close touch with federal agents in recent months. Moore, the brother a black man slain in Franklin County in 1964, was not surprised Thursday when he read on the Internet that Ernest Avants, 69, had been indicted and arrested Wednesday in connection with the 1966 murder of another local man, Ben Chester White. But Moore certainly was pleased.

&uot;I&160;think it’s great,&uot;&160;said Moore, who now lives in Colorado. The case of his brother Charles’ murder was recently reopened by FBI agents as well. &uot;What impresses me the most is that Mississippi is doing something to correct the past … and to bring these people to justice.&uot;

Avants pleaded innocent Thursday to charges he killed Natchez handyman White, who was black. Avants was acquitted of the same charges in state court 1967, but a recent FBI probe revealed White was killed on federal land — so trying him again would not be unconstitutional.

Almost 900 miles away, another man was also watching with interest the events surrounding Avants’ arrest. Jack Davis, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, interviewed Avants — whom he described as &uot;unreconstructed&uot; — and did other research on the White case for a book to be released in spring 2001. That book, &uot;Race Against Time,&uot; deals with the civil rights movement since 1930 and contains research on White’s death and that of slain Natchez resident Wharlest Jackson. &uot;What’s unique about this case is that (White) had no involvement with the civil rights movement — he didn’t participate in marches and events like that,&uot; Davis said. &uot;He was just an innocent man.&uot;

One theory is that White, a farmhand who lived near Natchez, was killed in order to lure Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the area to assassinate him, while another theory said White had witnessed two or three men attempt to steal cattle and was being killed for what he knew.

Davis doubts both theories. For one thing, he believes assassins would be more likely to kill King by traveling to where he was than to lure him to their own community. &uot;As far as the other theory, … (White) climbed into their car of his own free will,&uot;&160;said Davis, who instead believes White’s slaying was &uot;spontaneous.&uot;

Like Thomas Moore, Davis has kept in touch with federal agents and representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jackson and therefore expected Avants’ arrest. &uot;I also expected it because it represents an ongoing trend of prosecuting these cases, a trend that started with Byron De La Beckwith,&uot;&160;Davis said. Beckwith is serving life in prison after being convicted in 1994 of the killing of NAACP leader Medgar Evers.

Thomas Moore is hoping the trend will continue and FBI agents will find new evidence in his brother’s case. Charles Moore and Henry Dee were last seen alive on May 2, 1964 near Meadville. Parts of their bodies were found in the Old River south of Tallulah, La., in mid-July of that year. Their bodies were found during an FBI search for the bodies of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

According to reports at the time, Edwards told the FBI that Dee and Moore were hitchhiking near Meadville when they were picked up and beaten, but that they were left alive in the woods. Charles Edwards confessed and named James Seale among the kidnappers, but the two were never charged with a crime. Last year, District Attorney Ronnie Harper asked the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and the Attorney’s General Office to resume investigation of the case at the request of Moore and Dee’s relatives.

Thomas Moore said Avants’ arrest gives him hope something will be done to bring his brother’s killer to justice. &uot;If this had happened 20 years ago, I don’t think much would have been done,&uot;&160;he said. &uot;But you’ve got a different generation now, people with different ideas who wants to see justice done.&uot;

&uot;During the history of the civil rights movements, sometimes the wheels of justice turned slowly, and sometimes not at all,&uot;&160;Davis said. &uot;At least now they’re moving in the right direction.&uot;