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MISSISSIPPI
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—OCTOBER 1959 PAGE 3
Legal Action Studied Following
School Enrollment Rejection
JACKSON, Miss.
hief Counsel Thurgood Mar
shall of the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of
Colored People said in Akron, O.,
his organization contemplates
early filing of a suit against segre
gation in Mississippi. It followed
closely refusal of the all-white
senior state-owned Mississippi
Southern College at Hattiesburg,
to admit Clyde Kennard, 30-year-
old Mississippi Negro farmer and
war veteran, because of asserted
“deficiencies and irregularities in
his application.” (See “In the Col
leges.”)
Ross R. Barnett, who becomes gov
ernor of Mississippi on Jan. 19, 1960,
said the only way to defeat “the enemy
of our southern heritage is to destroy
them before they destroy us” as he
outlined plans for legislative regula
tion of the NAACP. It was in his first
post-election address before a $25-a-
plate dinner sponsored by the Jackson
Citizens’ Council. (See “Community
Action.”)
Negro Editor Percy Greene said
southern Negroes do not want public
school integration as Jackson Negroes
won a fight against a white family
moving into their all-Negro commun
ity. (See “Community Action.”)
The reporter-son of Pulitzer prize
winner Hodding Carter said in his
book, “The South Strikes Back,” that
the Citizens’ Councils face self-de
struction because they comprise what
he calls a negative movement. (See
“What They Say.”)
Editor Oliver Emmerich and Attor
ney Thurgood Marshall of NAACP de
bated the desegregation issue on a
Methodist Church panel in Dallas,
Tex., while Clennon King, Negro pro
fessor-minister who was denied en
trance to the all-white University of
Mississippi, asserted there is “more
genuine bilateral concurrence in
Mississippi than the current racial
propaganda admits.” (See “What They
Say.”)
The state Sovereignty Commission,
Mississippi’s segregation “watchdog”
agency, for first time disclosed some
of its methods of quieting racial is
sues without fanfare and through co
operation of Negro leaders. (See “Mis
cellaneous.”)
The Mississippi American Legion de
partment named a committee to study
44 state public school textbooks the
Daughters of the American Revolution
charge are unsatisfactory, including
asserted promotion of desegregation.
(See “Miscellaneous.”)
Close on the heels of Negro Clyde
Kennard’s unsuccessful effort to enroll
in Mississippi Southern College at Hat
tiesburg, NAACP Attorney Thurgood
Marshall said in an address before the
50th anniversary convention of his or
ganization in Akron, O., on Sept. 21
that a suit will be filed soon against
segregation in Mississippi.
“The NAACP has at least one law
suit against segregation going in every
state except Mississippi,” he said. “And
i promise you, it won’t be long before
Mississippi rejoins the Union. And
were going to help it happen.”
The Associated Press quoted Mar-
suMl as saying that “as long as one
e §ro in the south comes to us and
^ys- ‘I need your help,’ he’s going
,° that help. And I don’t give a
aarn who doesn’t like it.”
Stating that Marshall was critical
° k .Y hite s y m P a thizers who want to
subdue the fight for integration, the
story quoted him as follows:
., Dne very important man has said
e NAACP should go slower. A news
commentator recently said the NAACP
a ould g 0 out business. But, who
pi take up the struggle if we stop?”
r LANS UNCERTAIN
Meanwhile, Kennard remained un
certain as to his next step in the
ofiege entrance effort. However, he
?. he will fight charges filed against
c lm hy Forrest County (Hattiesburg)
onstables accusing him of speeding
d having five half-pints of assorted
^9Uor, which is illegal in dry Mis-
ssippi, in his car, which was parked
11 the college campus.
Kennard was arrested after he left
id 6 °® ce °t Dr. W. D. McCain, pres
ent of Mississippi Southern.
*ack Van Landingham, chief inves
tigator of the state sovereignty com
mission, who was in Dr. McCain’s
office when Kennard was interviewed,
denied any advance knowledge of plans
to arrest Kennard. That was also the
statement of highway patrolmen sent
to Hattiesburg by Gov. J. P. Coleman
to prevent possible disturbances.
VanLandingham said “the sovereign
ty commission took no part in the ar
rest but had prepared itself to assist
the attorney general’s office in any
way in defending the case in court
in case Kennard filed suit to enter
Mississippi Southern.”
“We believe that under the circum
stances, any such suit could have been
beaten, and no entry gained,” he said,
RENEWED APPLICATION
Kennard went to Mississippi South
ern from his home in nearby Eaton-
ville community on Sept. 15 to renew
his application for entrance. He had
previously filed it but did not push
the effort last fall. He had announced
in advance he would appear on the
campus to register for the fall classes.
Officers Lee Daniels and Charlie
Ward said their action had nothing to
do with his efforts to enter the school.
Kennard, who attended the Univer
sity of Chicago from 1952 to 1955 as a
political science major, drove to the
campus in his late model station wag
on shortly after registration began. He
had planned to go directly to the reg
istrar’s office, but Dr. McCain had
called him the night before requesting
a personal interview in his office.
Kennard said he conferred with Dr.
McCain and VanLandingham about 12
minutes then returned to his car where
he found the two constables.
In a brief statement, Dr. McCain said
Kennard “was denied admission be
cause of deficiencies and irregularities
in his application papers.” He said the
college was forbidden by law to reveal
the contents of applications filed with
the registrar but that “hundreds of
students are refused admission every
year for the same reason listed in
Kennard’s rejection.”
Kennard has employed R. Jess
Brown, Negro attorney of Vicksburg,
who has handled litigation for the
NAACP, to handle the speeding and
whisky charges.
Kennard a 30-year-old bachelor,
said he wants to complete his educa
tion but cannot afford to leave his
farm near Hattiesburg to attend an all-
Negro school or an integrated school in
the north. Mississippi has three Negro
senior colleges.
Kennard said the NAACP had noth
ing to do with his integration attempt,
but that if the issue goes to the court,
“I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use
NAACP funds and attorneys.” NAACP
officials in Jackson said they are
“keeping in touch with the situation.”
In a statement to United Press In
ternational, Kennard was quoted as
saying “the state should let one or
two Negroes into white colleges each
year. Then the federal government
would not interfere and the state could
maintain control. “If I don’t get in now
somebody else will pretty soon and it
might be someone who doesn’t care
about Mississippi. I love Mississippi.”
ANOTHER TRIED
The only other Negro who tried to
enter a white college in Mississippi by
appearing on the campus to register
was Clennon King, a former professor
in the state’s Alcorn A. & M. College
for Negroes. When King showed up
for the summer school at the Univer
sity of Mississippi in 1958, he was ar
rested on the campus by state highway
patrolmen and taken to jail. He later
was placed in the state mental hospital
at Whitfield by court order. He subse
quently was adjudged sane by psychia
trists and was released. He now lives
in Los Angeles, Calif., after leaving
Mississippi following abandonment of
an effort to enroll his small daughter
in the white public school at Gulfport.
ii nji i ■ i ' XJ
COMMUNITY ACTION
Governor-elect Ross Barnett told the
more than 1,000 attending the Sept. 8
fund-raising dinner of the Jackson
Citizens’ Council that “Mississippi
faces troubled times during the next
four years.” He is a member of the
organization which is dedicated to
“preservation of segregation, constitu
tional government and states rights.”
“Our laws, customs and traditions
will come under assault as never be
fore,” the 61-year-old Jackon attor
ney said. “I promise you that I will
exert every effort to give Mississippi
the leadership needed if we are to win
this mortal struggle.”
Gov. J. P. Coleman, who has worked
outside the Citizens Councils during
his administration, was invited to the
dinner but had a previous commit
ment. The governor has been termed
in some circles a “moderate.” How
ever, his administration has preserved
segregation without any disturbance.
TWO-FOLD PROBLEM
Barnett said the South’s problem is
two-fold: 1) to separate the South’s
true voices from the false; and 2) to
find ways of making the South’s true
voices heard throughout our nation—
GOV.-ELECT ROSS BARNETT
No Room For Moderates
and that is what Ross Barnett wants
to do.”
“The way things are today, the
South’s false prophets are held in high
regard in certain sections of our na
tion,” he said. “We hear a lot now
adays about ‘moderates.’ In fact, this
has become almost a sacred word with
the northern press. They keep telling
us that if all of us segregationists
would shut up, then the ‘moderates’
could sneak in and take over, and ev
erything down South would be fine.
“These ‘moderates’ we’ve been hear
ing so much about are nothing more
than southern burglars. They want
to rob us of our priceless heritage, and
they tell us that we shouldn’t com
plain, as long as they steal it a little
bit at a time.
“Another expression we’re being
bombarded with these days is ‘token
integration.’ The people who control
the big newspapers and magazines and
television and radio networks keep
their best brains busy, plotting new
ways to hide and twist the truth about
the South.
‘PLOTTERS’
“These plotters aren’t content with
painting a totally false picture of the
South in the minds of the people in
the rest of the country. No, the north
erners are also being brainwashed sys
tematically about what is going on in
their own back yards.
“I dare say that here in Mississippi
we have heard and read more about
the teenage gangs of Washington and
New York than the residents of those
two cities. Well, folks in New York
City are finally finding out that they’ve
got a big problem on their hands.”
Barnett said, “In spite of all the
propaganda the race-mixers can pro
duce, in spite of all the phony ‘bro
therhood’ being advocated, the fact re
mains that the average white Amer
ican, wherever he lives, doesn’t want
to integrate.”
“To win this life-or-death fight,
we must start with a total mobilization
of all our resources. This has been de
layed too long already. There is no
room for halfway measures.
“All our resources—both public and
private—must be fully utilized. There
are certain fields where private agen
cies—such as the Citizens Councils—
can be more effective. There are other
activities that the people should un
dertake through their state govern
ments.
“Our leaders must get in step with
the people.
‘MUST MOBILIZE’
“We must mobilize our physical re
sources. Physical courage is a trait
sadly lacking in altogether too many
of the South’s so-called leaders. We
must separate the men from the boys.
We must identify the traitors in our
midst. We must eliminate the cowards
from our front lines.
“No victory can ever be won if we
sit back and wait for our enemies to
attack us. Our enemies wish we would
continue such a policy.
“The left-wing elements in this na
tion must be completely and utterly
crushed—and that’s just what we in
tend to do, using as our chief weapon
the impact of nationwide public opin
ion.”
Barnett said the South must also
stand united in the field of national
politics.
“The South must go to the Demo
cratic national convention united—and
the South must remain united, either
in the convention or out,” he said. “By
forceful, determined and courageous
leadership, the South must act boldly
to preserve the self-respect of a proud
and honorable people.”
Barnett added, “As far as national
policies are concerned, I am a Mis
sissippi Democrat and when I go to
the national convention in Los Angeles
next year, I will conduct myself at all
times as a Mississippi Democrat.”
“I will remember at all times that
as governor of Mississippi, I am at that
convention representing you—the peo
ple of our great state. The racial integ
rity of our people is not for sale on the
political auction block.”
Barnett said if the federal Civil
Rights Commission’s recommendation
that federal officials be appointed to
conduct a wholesale registration of Ne
gro voters in the South is adopted
“then the NAACP would be in virtual
control of Mississippi’s political affairs.”
“We must meet this challenge in
advance,” the governor-elect said. “I
shall have specific recommendations to
the legislature about regulating the
NAACP and other similar organiza
tions in Mississippi.”
Declaring that “the day of the artful
dodger in Mississippi is ended,” Barnett
said “the time of the apologist is gone.
Rose Barnett is a Mississippi segrega
tionist and proud of it.”
“And, as your governor, I will do
everything within my power to pre
serve our sacred heritage, and to unite
the South behind a bold and deter-
minded program that will breathe new
vitality into the words ‘Solid South.’
“The ‘Solid South’ -will again become
a force to be reckoned with and I as
sure you its voice will be heard
throughout the nation,” he said.
EVERS SPEAKS
Meanwhile, Medgar Evers, Mississippi
NAACP field representative, said in
a speech at Panama City, Fla., that
Barnett’s acceptance of the invi
tation to address the Jackson Citizens
Council fund-raising dinner put him in
position of agreeing to help spread race
hatred.
Evers charged that the money to be
raised “will be used to spread race
hatred and dissemination of vile prop
aganda and to arouse the emotions of
the illiterates and borderline whites
who thrfive on bigotry and race pre
judice.”
He described the councils as “fascist
like,” and charged that Barnett
“showed his true colors when he agreed
to address the segregationists.”
EDITOR’S COMMENT
Negro Editor Percy Greene said in
his weekly Jackson Advocate that
“there never had been a spontaneous
effort by a Negro family in the South
to integrate a white school.”
“Every movement to put Negro chil
dren in white schools in the South
has been urged by the NAACP and
usually with some financial guarantee
to the family of the child or children
involved,” he said. “The southern Ne
groes do not want public shool in
tegration.”
At Jackson, Negroes in the Van Win
kle community of Hinds County were
successful in keeping a white store
owner from building his home in the
all-Negro neighborhood.
PETITION FILED
As the result of a petition signed by
82 Negro residents, W. J. Garrett
abandoned his plan to build a home
for himself and three daughters in the
Negro section.
The petition, filed with the Hinds
County Board of Supervisors stated:
“We believe the races should be
segregated as far as possible, and for
these purposes this petition is re
spectfully submitted.
“It would be our impression that if
the situation were reversed you would
some way prevent a colored person
from doing the same thing in an ex
clusively white neighborhood.
“Some of us have our homes paid
for. We are proud of our homes and
our community.
“Mr. Garrett has three teen-age
daughters, and, of course, there are
a lot of young colored boys in this
area. We do not want anything to
happen which would cause any trou
ble.”
In his next book, ’’The South Strikes
Back,” Hodding Carter, m, son of the
Greenville editor and reporter on his
father’s newspaper, the Delta Democrat
Times, asserted the Citizens Councils
face self-destruction because they com
prise a negative movement.
In the final chapter of the book
which deals with the history of the all-
white organization, Young Carter said:
“The basic factor which will ulti
mately destroy the council is the fact
that it is essentially a negative move
ment, founded on the defense of the
status quo and dedicated to its pres
ervation, and dependent on the exist
ence of a similarly negative outlook
among the white population.
“Defense of the status quo is an
arduous task at best. When, in a de
mocracy such as ours, it involves the
repression of a minority, it becomes an
impossibility.”
The book, published by Doubleday
and Co., Inc., is based largely upon
newspaper accounts of the councils.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Editor Oliver Emmerich of the Jack-
son State Times and McComb Enter
prise, and Attorney O. B. Triplett of
Forest, participated in a panel discus
sion at a Methodist Church conference
on human relations at Southern Meth
odist University at Dallas, Sept. 2
Emmerich, taking the side of segre
gation, argued the issue with Thurgood
Marshall, general counsel of the
NAACP. Emmerich stressed asserted
advantages of voluntary segregation,
especially in Mississippi where it re
mained unchallenged.
Marshall contended it was not possi
ble for a Negro to study law at the
expense of the state of Mississippi.
Emmerich said there is a law which
permits Negroes to study any subject
at out-of-state schools if the courses
are not made available to them in the
state.
Marshall said Negroes had attempted
to enter Mississippi high schools and
had been run out of town. Emmerich
denied the assertion.
Triplett said “the overwhelming ma
jority of people in the South—both
whites and Negroes—do not favor in
tegration.”
In a letter to friends in Mississippi,
Negro Clennon King, who failed to
gain entrance to the University of
Mississippi, wrote that racial condi
tions in California are “far worse than
in Mississippi but without any national
or international alarmed concern.”
King, now living in Los Angeles,
wrote:
“My brief experience in Mississippi
soundly taught me one thing—that de
spite all the hullabaloo there is far
more genuine bilateral concurrence
there in Mississippi than the current
racial propaganda admits.
“Unfavorable racial matters and dis
liked racial thinking are more hush-
hush in California, while soiled reports
from the South get predominant bill
ing.”
King also pointed out that Los An
geles has the highest per capita rate
of major crime in the nation and that
most of it is committed by Negroes.
“My resented observation is hypoc
risy,” he said. “How, for instance, the
excessive crime figures of liberal and
progressive California compare with
those of reactionary and backward Mis
sissippi. Even among my own people,
the Mississippi figures don’t come any
thing near those in California.”
A look into the heretofore secret
files of the Sovereignty Commission,
the state’s segregation “watchdog”
agency has been given by Chief In
vestigator Zack VanLandingham to
Robert Webb, associate editor of the
Jackson State Times. It was the first
time officials of the agency, created in
1956, had been willing to discuss op
erations of the commission.
The former FBI special agent dis
closed that his files cover a wide range
of headings from “individual” to “crim
inal cases.” They include other sub
heads such as integration organizations,
school integration cases, complaints,
(See MISSISSIPPI, Page 4)