Mississippi: Laughable, but Not Funny

“That’s news to me.” exclaimed Mississippi’s Governor Ross Barnett. “I hadn’t even dreamed of it.” Barnett had just been informed that the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered the Department of Justice to bring criminal contempt charges against him and his lieutenant governor, Paul B. Johnson Jr.. for their part in obstructing the entrance of Negro James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Barnett may have been dismayed by the news, but he could hardly have been surprised ; as a highly successful lawyer in private life, he must have known that the federal court would not forgive his defiance of its orders.

Yet even while U.S. law was moving, so—in its own fashion—was Mississippi law. In Oxford last week, when a grand jury met to investigate the Ole Miss riots. Circuit Court Judge Walter O’Barr, 39, issued a diatribe that would have been laughable had it not reflected the deep feelings of so many Southern citizens. Said Native Mississippian O’Barr, a former mayor of Okolona (pop. 2,622):

“It is a deplorable circumstance to have to begin a court term with American soldiers camped at the edge of Oxford and riding around the square at this time wearing steel helmets and side arms in violation of every constitutional right . . .

“A great instrument which has been able to stand the test of time for over 150 years has within a very short time been shorn of all meaning by a diabolical political Supreme Court made up of political greedy old men who are not and have not been qualified to serve as a judge of any court, much less as a judge of the highest tribunal of the land. They have done the very thing prohibited by the Constitution in taking over the function of the legislature. This court, together with the hungry, mad, ruthless, ungodly, power-mad men who would change this Government from a democracy to a totalitarian dictatorship have attempted to crush the people of this state through the excuse of upholding and enforcing an unlawful order that had not become final . . .

“Gentlemen, just because a man works for the federal or the state government does not give him immunity from prosecution for his crimes . . . This applies not only to the most ignorant human being on the face of the earth, but also John F. Kennedy. Little Stupid Brother Robert Kennedy, [Federal Marshal James] Mc-Shane or any other human being.”

At week’s end. the grand jury returned its report—which was of predictable content. The U.S. deputy marshals who had been assigned to protect Meredith, it said, committed “many cruel and inhuman acts of violence.” It commended Mississippi’s state cops for “dedicated action.” The encirclement of the Ole Miss administration building by marshals “was apparently done for the sole purpose of agitating and provoking violence,” and Chief Marshal McShane’s order to fire tear gas “was done for the purpose of inciting a riot.” The jury then returned sealed indictments against two people. From the report, it was clear that they named Marshal McShane and an Army G.I. who had fired a rifle into a dormitory a few weeks ago during a student demonstration.