'Klansman' on trial for murdering two black men

More than 300 potential jurors have been summoned for the US trial of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of abducting, beating and dumping two young black men into the Mississippi River 43 years ago.

James Ford Seale, 71, is to go on trial in Jackson this coming week on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the latest of several cases to be revived and brought to trial across the South in the past 13 years.

Seale, of Roxie, denies taking part in the May 2, 1964, attacks on 19-year-olds Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in rural southwest Mississippi.

Jury selection for his federal trial in Jackson is to start on Wednesday.