stunning national news.
June 25, 1962, was James Meredith’s 29th birthday. It was also the day a federal appeals court sent shivers down the spine of the entire white power structure in Mississippi. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the state court ruling and found that Meredith had been denied entry solely because of his race, victimized by “a carefully calculated campaign of delay, harassment, and masterful inactivity.” The court ordered that Meredith be admitted that September. The order set the stage for a dramatic showdown between Governor Barnett and President Kennedy aided by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The clock was ticking. The start of the fall semester was just a few months away.
In July, the Sovereignty Commission rushed Hopkins and Downing back to Attala County in a desperate effort to unearth damaging information on the Merediths. The investigations again proved fruitless.
As fall approached, Commission public relations director Erle Johnston rushed an order to the printer for more than a million postcards with a preprinted message expressing resentment at the “unnatural warfare being waged against the sovereign state of Mississippi.” The cards—to be signed by white voters throughout the South—were addressed to President Kennedy, White House, Washington, D.C.
On the evening of September 13, Governor Barnett went on statewide television and declared the standoff to be “our greatest crisis since the War Between the States” and pledging to resist “the evil and illegal forces of tyranny.” Repeating his promise that “no school will be integrated while I am your governor,” Barnett asked for the resignation of any state official unwilling to “suffer imprisonment for this righteous cause.”
On the afternoon of September 20, Barnett entered a boardroom on the Ole Miss campus, ready for the first of what would prove to be several dramatic face-to-face confrontations with federal marshals who had been assigned to escort Meredith to register for the fall semester. The governor read a statement denying the application, and the marshals and Meredith walked away to try again another day. In a similar confrontation on September 25, Barnett pulled out his trademark humor to endear himself to his supporters and to frustrate his foes. Surrounded by his white supporters as a phalanx of white federal marshals led Meredith into the room, Barnett looked into the sea of white faces and asked, “Which one of you is Mr. Meredith?” The federal agents scowled, Meredith smiled, and the onlookers howled.
As events continued to unfold, Barnett was buying time by carrying on secret phone conversations with President Kennedy and Attorney General Kennedy, who were now committed to enforcing the court order despite the probable loss of support from powerful southerners in Congress. The governor tried unsuccessfully to convince the Kennedy brothers to postpone the enrollment indefinitely, warning that bloody riots would shake the campus if a black student were allowed to enroll.
Barnett, needing a point man for the delicate negotiations with the Kennedys, turned to his close friend and confidant Tom Watkins, a successful private attorney and member of the governing board of the Sovereignty Commission. Manning the phone line to Washington, Watkins became the key conduit between Barnett and the two Kennedys.
With all sides grappling for a solution, Watkins proposed a series of schemes designed to get Meredith safely ensconced at Ole Miss and to allow Barnett to save his reputation as a staunch, unbending segregationist. Watkins warned that “if there is to be any school integration in Mississippi, it would have to be done forcefully.” In one carefully orchestrated scheme, a federal marshal was to shove Barnett aside and move past him to register the student. Feigning shock, Barnett would save face by condemning the use of federal force against a sitting governor. The
June 25, 1962, was James Meredith’s 29th birthday. It was also the day a federal appeals court sent shivers down the spine of the entire white power structure in Mississippi. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the state court ruling and found that Meredith had been denied entry solely because of his race, victimized by “a carefully calculated campaign of delay, harassment, and masterful inactivity.” The court ordered that Meredith be admitted that September. The order set the stage for a dramatic showdown between Governor Barnett and President Kennedy aided by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The clock was ticking. The start of the fall semester was just a few months away.
In July, the Sovereignty Commission rushed Hopkins and Downing back to Attala County in a desperate effort to unearth damaging information on the Merediths. The investigations again proved fruitless.
As fall approached, Commission public relations director Erle Johnston rushed an order to the printer for more than a million postcards with a preprinted message expressing resentment at the “unnatural warfare being waged against the sovereign state of Mississippi.” The cards—to be signed by white voters throughout the South—were addressed to President Kennedy, White House, Washington, D.C.
On the evening of September 13, Governor Barnett went on statewide television and declared the standoff to be “our greatest crisis since the War Between the States” and pledging to resist “the evil and illegal forces of tyranny.” Repeating his promise that “no school will be integrated while I am your governor,” Barnett asked for the resignation of any state official unwilling to “suffer imprisonment for this righteous cause.”
On the afternoon of September 20, Barnett entered a boardroom on the Ole Miss campus, ready for the first of what would prove to be several dramatic face-to-face confrontations with federal marshals who had been assigned to escort Meredith to register for the fall semester. The governor read a statement denying the application, and the marshals and Meredith walked away to try again another day. In a similar confrontation on September 25, Barnett pulled out his trademark humor to endear himself to his supporters and to frustrate his foes. Surrounded by his white supporters as a phalanx of white federal marshals led Meredith into the room, Barnett looked into the sea of white faces and asked, “Which one of you is Mr. Meredith?” The federal agents scowled, Meredith smiled, and the onlookers howled.
As events continued to unfold, Barnett was buying time by carrying on secret phone conversations with President Kennedy and Attorney General Kennedy, who were now committed to enforcing the court order despite the probable loss of support from powerful southerners in Congress. The governor tried unsuccessfully to convince the Kennedy brothers to postpone the enrollment indefinitely, warning that bloody riots would shake the campus if a black student were allowed to enroll.
Barnett, needing a point man for the delicate negotiations with the Kennedys, turned to his close friend and confidant Tom Watkins, a successful private attorney and member of the governing board of the Sovereignty Commission. Manning the phone line to Washington, Watkins became the key conduit between Barnett and the two Kennedys.
With all sides grappling for a solution, Watkins proposed a series of schemes designed to get Meredith safely ensconced at Ole Miss and to allow Barnett to save his reputation as a staunch, unbending segregationist. Watkins warned that “if there is to be any school integration in Mississippi, it would have to be done forcefully.” In one carefully orchestrated scheme, a federal marshal was to shove Barnett aside and move past him to register the student. Feigning shock, Barnett would save face by condemning the use of federal force against a sitting governor. The
Similar Books
