The South: This Righteous Cause

As far as most Mississippians are concerned, any Negro who tries to get himself educated in a white school ought to have his head examined—and sometimes does. Four years ago, the first Negro to attempt to register at the University of Mississippi was clapped into a mental institution for a couple of weeks. Last year a Negro who sought admission to Mississippi Southern College was sentenced to seven years’ hard labor on a charge of stealing $22 worth of chicken feed. Last week Mississippi was back in the battle to keep its schools lily white.

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black ruled that the University of Mississippi must admit Negro Air Force Veteran James Meredith. But Democratic Governor Ross Barnett has no intention of complying. He demanded that all state officials “uphold and enforce the laws duly and legally enacted by the legislature . . . and interpose state sovereignty and themselves between the people of the state and any body politically seeking to usurp such power.” In invoking the doctrine of “interposition,” which has been held unconstitutional, Barnett declaimed that “there is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration,” promised that “we will not drink from the cup of genocide” by submitting to “the tyranny of judicial oppression.” For his part, he was willing to go to jail rather than accept Black’s order. Furthermore, he advised “any official who is not prepared to suffer imprisonment for this righteous cause” to resign.