Ross Barnett
Ross Barnett | |
---|---|
53rd Governor of Mississippi | |
In office January 19, 1960 – January 21, 1964 | |
Lieutenant | Paul B. Johnson Jr. |
Preceded by | James P. Coleman |
Succeeded by | Paul B. Johnson Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | Ross Robert Barnett January 22, 1898 LLB) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Ross Robert Barnett (January 22, 1898 – November 6, 1987) was an American politician, 53rd
Early life
Background and learning
Born in
He served in the
In order to save money, he worked as schoolhouse janitor, barber, brass band organizer, and door-to-door salesman for WearEver aluminum products.[4]
Legal career
His first legal case was, while he was still at Ole Miss, over a
After trying and failing to join an existing law firm, he rented space near Charles Crisler's office, and soon founded his own law firm; over the next quarter century, Barnett became one of the state's most successful trial lawyers, earning more than $100,000 a year with specialty in damage suits against corporations. Most of his clients were poor Whites and Blacks, and tales were told about an elderly black man was injured in a traffic accident and asking for "Doctor Ross Barnett" when asked which doctor to call.[4][5]
Ole Miss Law School Dean Robert Farley described him as such : "He was not a brilliant lawyer, He was a brilliant jury manipulator, but I don't think anybody ever accused Ross of knowing much law".[4]
He often donated his skills to causes and served as president of the Mississippi Bar Association for two years beginning in 1943.[6]
Personal life
In 1929, he married Mary Pearl Crawford, a school teacher; the couple had two daughters and a son.
Political life
First steps
Using the income derived from his legal fees, Barnett sought to enter politics, unsuccessfully running twice in the Democratic primary for
On his third try in 1959, he won the nomination, in a campaign which mostly ran on segregation, publishing the brochure "Dynamic Leadership – To Keep Segregation and Improve Our Standard of Living"[7][8] and making statements such as "The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him. His forehead slants back. His nose is different. His lips are different, and his color is sure different."[2][9] His song "Roll with Ross," whose tune was later used for the state anthem "Go, Mississippi", contained the following:[10][11][12][13]
Roll with Ross, roll with Ross, he's his own boss
For segregation, one hundred percent
He's not a moderate like some of the gents
He'll fight integration with forceful intent.
No Republican even filed, and Barnett was unopposed in the November general election. His inauguration was on January 19, 1960. During his term in office, he celebrated the centennial of the American Civil War. Barnett traveled to Civil War sites to pay homage to fallen "Sons of Mississippi".
In 1960, Barnett Ran in the Democratic Party presidential primaries as a favorite son candidate. He ran to protest leading candidate John Kennedy's support of the civil rights movement, but lost. Following this, Barnett attempted to establish a third-party movement akin to the Dixiecrat movement of 1948. He aimed to counter the civil rights plank adopted by the Democratic National Convention in 1960, which he found repulsive. However, his efforts to garner support from fellow southern governors failed. Consequently, Barnett proposed a group of uncommitted Democratic electors, who triumphed over the Mississippi slate committed to endorsing Kennedy in the November elections. Ultimately, these electors allocated the state's eight electoral votes to Senator Harry F. Byrd.[14]
Governorship
During his first months as governor, the state legislature saw the introduction of 24 new bills advocating segregation, and directives were issued to circuit clerks, instructing them to withhold voter registration data from the Justice Department. In his capacity as the chairman of the State Sovereignty Commission, Barnett financially supported the Mississippi Association of Citizens Councils, granting them more than $100,000 in state grants 1962.[15] Barnett, a staunch segregationist, became known for his tumultuous clashes with the civil rights movement which dominated his term.
Barnett arranged for the arrest of Freedom Riders in 1961 and then imprisoned them at Parchman Farm. While their offenses were minor, the Freedom Riders were strip-searched, had beds taken away, and were humiliated and brutalized in the prison. Barnett reportedly said to the guards "Break their spirits, not their bones".[16][17][18]
While this approach gained approval in the state, it was done in part to blunt the criticism that he was receiving for multiple reasons: failing to follow through with promises of jobs for office-seekers; filling those jobs with acquaintances, and attempting to wrest control of state agencies from the legislature.[9] Barnett was a member of the white supremacist Citizens' Councils movement.[19]
In 1962, the state agency in charge of universities and colleges, the Institutions of Higher Learning, appointed Barnett the registrar in order to oppose James Meredith's efforts to desegregate Barnett's alma mater, the University of Mississippi. With the accreditation of the state's medical school and other universities in jeopardy due to the political interventions, the IHL board reversed their action after the riots on the campus.[20] Barnett was fined $10,000 and sentenced to jail for contempt but never paid the fine or served a day in jail.[9] This was because the charges were terminated (civil) and dismissed (criminal) by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals because of "substantial compliance with orders of the court," and "in view of changed circumstances and conditions." Only two Mississippi legislators opposed Barnett's efforts to defy the federal authorities, Joe Wroten and Karl Wiesenburg. On September 13, he said that "There is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration. We will not drink from the cup of genocide."[21]
On the night before the
I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs. I love and I respect our heritage.[22][23]
Many Mississippians linked segregation to the Bible. Barnett, a
In 1963, Barnett tried to prevent the men's basketball team of
After his term
Challenge from Republicans
Barnett's term as governor officially expired on January 21, 1964, with the swearing-in of his successor, the outgoing
Johnson and Gartin faced the challenge of the Republicans Rubel Phillips and Stanford Morse, the first Republican ticket for governor and lieutenant governor to run in Mississippi in decades. Barnett urged his state's Democratic voters to "push out this Republican threat" and added that he was "fed up with these fence-riding, pussy-footing, snow-digging Yankee Republicans", a reference to northern transplants coming into Mississippi.[26]
Barnett was expected by some to run in the
Shortly after he left office, Barnett's looming presence was evident at the first
Ole Miss controversy with Robert F. Kennedy
On March 18, 1966, former
He also drew laughter by recounting another plan where Meredith would go to Jackson to enroll while Barnett remained in Oxford "and when Meredith was registered, he (Barnett) would feign surprise." Both plans were approved by Kennedy and failed only because of the development of events.[33] When Kennedy finished his speech and question-and-answer session, he was greeted by a standing ovation.[34]
The next day Barnett bitterly attacked Kennedy's version of events:
It ill becomes a man who never tried a lawsuit in his life, but who occupied the high position of United States attorney general and who was responsible for using 30,000 troops and spent approximately six million dollars to put one unqualified student in Ole Miss to return to the scene of this crime and discuss any phase of this infamous affair. ... I say to you that Bobby Kennedy is a very sick and dangerous American. We have lots of sick Americans in this country but most of them have a long beard. Bobby Kennedy is a hypocritical, left-wing beatnik without a beard who carelessly and recklessly distorts the facts.[35]
Later life
Barnett attempted a political comeback by running for governor again in 1967 but lost, finishing a distant fourth in the state primary. He then returned to the practice of law, but remained unrepentant about his past, saying, "Generally speaking, I'd do the same things again."[9] He also farmed and spoke before various groups, such as the American Legion.[1]
Barnett expressed no remorse for his role in segregation. Asked in 1982 about the Ole Miss riot, Barnett said, "'I have no regrets, no apologies to make."[36]
Ross Barnett Reservoir, located northeast of Jackson, is named in his honor. In May 2022, a petition began to be circulated to rename the reservoir after outdoors writer R. H. Cleveland.[37] In Smith County, a lake was named after him before it was renamed Lake Prentiss Walker.[38]
References
- ^ a b "Barnett Banquet Speaker As Local American Legion Post Ends Drive", Minden Press-Herald, Minden, Louisiana, November 8, 1967, p. 1
- ^ a b "Mississippi Mud". Time. September 7, 1959. Archived from the original on September 23, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-86518-017-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-385-50487-4.
- ISBN 978-1-4516-7474-3.
- ^ Joseph, Peter (1973). Good Times. p. 191.
- ISBN 978-1-4968-0270-5.
- ^ Blankenhorn, David (May 24, 2016). "In Defense of the Practical Politician". The American Interest. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
- ^ a b c d "Ross Barnett, Segregationist, Dies; Governor of Mississippi in 1960s". The New York Times. November 7, 1987.
- ^ Sez, Col Reb (December 10, 2012). "ColRebSez: If states can't choose their own license plates, then there may be no right to choose state songs, either". ColRebSez. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Roll with Ross". Brian Perry via Youtube. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ISBN 9789991746159.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56751-388-2.
- ^ Richard Dean Burns, and Joseph M. Siracusa, Historical Dictionary of the Kennedy-Johnson Era (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) p. 57–59.
- ^ Burns, and Siracusa, Historical Dictionary of the Kennedy-Johnson Era (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) p. 57.
- ^ 'Freedom Riders Documentary, NJTV'
- ^ Oshinsky, David M. (1997). Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. Free Press. p. 235.
- ^ "Secret Histories | Inside "Parchman" - Crave Online". Mandatory. November 3, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
- ISBN 9781931082280. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
- ISBN 1-57806-805-3
- ^ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Congress. Vol. 108. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1962. pp. 19737–19738.
- ^ Bryant 2006, 66.
- ^ "OTL: Ghosts of Mississippi". ESPN. February 10, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
- ^ Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 12, 1963
- ^ Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 25, 1963; James W. Silver, Mississippi: The Closed Society (New York, 1966), pp. 273-274
- ^ Hattiesburg American, October 16, 1963; Time magazine, October 25, 1963, p. 29
- ISBN 978-0-87855-344-0
- ISBN 978-0-300-12999-1.
- ^ Rauh, Joseph L. (1964). Brief submitted by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (PDF). p. 25.
On the 4th of July of this year he termed President Johnson a "counterfeit confederate who resigned from the South and may one day soon resign from the white race as well..." A few days later he said, "I would vote for Senator Goldwater before I would vote for Lyndon Johnson, a counterfeit confederate." And on July 22nd the Clarion-Ledger reported from Houston, Texas : "Calling Lyndon Johnson 'a counterfeit confederate,' Barnett said 'he'll need more than an 87-vote landslide in Texas' to win the November election."
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
"The American people have a choice to vote either for a candidate for President of the United States who fanatically advances and is ardently supporting the present trend," Mr. Barnett said, "or another candidate for President who is opposed to the present trend. "I am going to vote for the conservative — Senator Barry Goldwater — who had the courage to vote against the civil rights bill.".
- ^ "Hung Jury". Time. February 14, 1964. Archived from the original on September 23, 2009.
- ^ Bryant 2006, 63.
- ^ Bryant 2006, 63., 66.
- Clarion-Ledger, March 19, 1966, p. 1, 8.
- Clarion-Ledger, March 20, 1966, p. 1, 14A.
- ^ Stuart, Reginald (October 3, 1982). "20 YEARS AFTER ADMITTING MEREDITH, OLE MISS MERGES ITS OLD AND NEW IMAGES". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2019.
- ^ Broom, Brian (May 18, 2022). "Ross Barnett Reservoir: Could the name be changed to R.H. Cleveland Reservoir?". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ^ Lake Ross Barnett in Smith County, MS Retrieved 2017-05-22.
Further reading
- Doyle, William. An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 (Anchor, 2003). online
- Goudsouzian, Aram. Man on a Mission: James Meredith and the Battle of Ole Miss (University of Arkansas Press, 2022) online.
- Hollingsworth, Bradley S. "About an Oath: The Mississippi National Guard at the Battle of Ole Miss" (US Army School for Advanced Military Studies, 2020) online.
- Irons, Jenny. Reconstituting whiteness: The Mississippi state sovereignty commission (Vanderbilt University Press, 2010) online.
- King, Desmond, and Robert C. Lieberman. " 'The Latter-Day General Grant': Forceful Federal Power and Civil Rights." Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 6.3 (2021): 529–564. online
- Watkins, James H. " 'Returning to Mississippi by Choice' Autobiographical Self-Location and the Performance of Black Masculinity in James Meredith's Three Years in Mississippi." The Mississippi Quarterly 69.2 (2016): 253–276. online
External links
- Ross Barnett at Find-A-Grave