Four of America’s 100 U.S. senators will hail from Mississippi after California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to replace longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last week at age 90.
Butler, a 44-year-old native of Magnolia and alumna of Jackson State University, is the head of the group EMILY’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights. She will be the third Black woman to serve in the Senate and the first LGBTQ member of the Senate from California.
Butler, who is currently a Maryland resident but will soon switch her voter registration to California, landed the appointment from Newsom to fill the remainder of Feinstein’s term, which ends in 2024.
“I am honored to accept Gov. Newsom’s nomination to be a U.S. Senator for a state I have long called home,” Butler said in a statement Monday. “I am humbled by the Governor’s trust. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s leadership and legacy are immeasurable. I will do my best to honor her by devoting my time and energy to serving the people of California and the people of this great nation.”
Butler will join three other Mississippi natives in the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, is from Pontotoc and graduated from University of Mississippi. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s junior senator, is from Brookhaven and graduated from University of Southern Mississippi. And Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee’s senior senator, is from Laurel and graduated from Mississippi State University.
In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with restauranteur Randy Yates. Yates founded and owns Ajax Diner on the Square in Oxford, Miss.
Opened in 1997, Ajax Diner fed Oxford as the city changed and grew. Yates talks about the highs and lows of the restaurant business, including the challenges faced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monument in Syracuse, N.Y., now honors citizens’ rescue of William “Jerry” Henry, who had escaped slavery in the South. Credit: Onondaga Historical Association
Citizens of Syracuse, New York, broke into the city jail and freed William “Jerry” Henry, who had escaped slavery in the South and was now working as a barrel-maker. A monument now honors that rescue.
Henry, who had been arrested, faced a hearing on whether he would be returned to Missouri and enslaved again. The Rev. Samuel J. May, a Unitarian minister and abolitionist, visited Henry in jail and told him to stay calm.
“Would you be calm with these irons on you?” Henry asked. “What have I done to be treated so? Take off these handcuffs, and then if I do not fight my way through these fellows that have got me here, then you may make me a slave.”
May whispered to Henry that they planned to rescue him. May, like others, had been moved by the sight of Henry “dragged through the streets, chained and held down in a cart by four or six others who were upon him; treated as if he were the worst of felons; and learnt that it was only because he had assumed to be what God made him to be, a man, and not a slave — when this came to be known throughout the streets, there was a mighty throbbing of the public heart; an all but unanimous uprising against the outrage. There was no concert of action except that to which a common humanity impelled the people. Indignation flashed from every eye. Abhorrence of the Fugitive Slave Bill poured in burning words from every tongue. The very stones cried out.”
Henry’s case also drew support from prominent abolitionists Gerrit Smith and Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen, A Methodist minister who had once fled slavery himself.
At the ring of a church bell, thousands stormed the jail, where Henry was being held, and some began to pelt the jail windows with stones. After a marshal fired a shot, the crowd used a battering ram to break down the jail door and free Henry, whose wounds were treated and his shackles removed.
Days later, men secretly transported him to an Underground Railroad stop in Mexico, New York, and from there across the border into Canada, where he lived for the next 41 years —free. Oct. 1 became a local holiday known as “Jerry Rescue Day,” the day when people stood up against slavery.
About a decade of “emergency-style budgeting” at Delta State University has all but maxed out its credit and created an $11 million hole that is poised to be an unavoidable existential threat.
Fixing the budget won’t be easy, Daniel Ennis, the new president, warned the campus during a town hall on Thursday. It must happen within five years and will require across-the-board cuts, including to salaries and positions, in part because the regional college’s single-best source of revenue — enrollment — has cratered by 48% in the last 16 years.
“Delta State has to exist,” Ennis said. “It must — for the Delta, for the region and for the state.”
The grim update comes a week after Ennis spoke to the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees during its annual retreat, which was held this year at the White House Hotel in Biloxi. Unlike most IHL board meetings, the retreats are not live-streamed.
“If I’m giving this information to the IHL, I should give it to you and then give you the opportunity to ask questions,” Ennis told the campus.
Though he presented roughly the same information at both events, Ennis expanded on the situation in Biloxi, telling trustees that he likely won’t be able to reduce the university’s budget from $51 million to $40 million without becoming the “most unpopular president in Delta State’s history.”
“I don’t care as long as there is another president at Delta State,” he said.
Al Rankins, the IHL commissioner, was also forthright about the stakes: “There’s nothing, nothing, nothing more important than the financial health” of Delta State.
“You have my support,” Rankins added, “because … any friends you have, you’re going to lose them.”
Delta State isn’t alone in some of the issues it faces — colleges across the country are struggling with declining enrollment and its resulting financial woes.
Much of that is outside Delta State’s control. The downturn in undergraduate students correlates “almost perfectly” with population loss in the Mississippi Delta, Ennis said at the town hall. In 2006, when the university had 3,298 undergraduate students, about 70% were from the Mississippi Delta — a percentage that has dropped to just over half of the 1,708 undergraduate students this year.
But, Ennis added, the university’s budget problems are largely self-inflicted. The budget is around $51 million when it should be more like $40 million.
In his first four months in office, Ennis said he found inadequate spending controls and contracted but unbudgeted expenses, such as an employee on payroll who had been hired with pandemic relief funds that had run out. The university repeatedly overestimated its revenue from facilities, merchandise and other non-tuition sources.
“The running of deficits year after year has eaten into our reserves,” he said.
And there were a number of “unexpected” and costly legal and personnel issues, which Ennis said weren’t clear to him when he applied for the job. Among those issues was a lawsuit from a former Iranian art professor who alleged he was discriminated against by the Turkish department chair. In late July, the university decided to settle after a federal court decided the case could go to trial.
“Every university and every large organization has legal and personnel issues,” Ennis said. “There was just, I thought, an unusual number for the size of the institution.”
In his first month of the job, Ennis said he had to find $1 million so the university could meet its statutory obligation to balance the books.
“I had one night of sleep and then the next day we’re in a new fiscal year with a new deficit already in place,” he said. “So, a challenge. Not what I expected, but that’s where we are.”
Though enrollment appears to be on the slight uptick — mainly due to an increase in graduate students — the university won’t clear its financial hurdles through better recruitment alone.
Delta State’s location in Cleveland puts it in a kind of double-bind: It exists to serve the Delta, but there are increasingly less people in the Delta.
“You should be really proud of the fact that you work at a place that cares about a disadvantaged group of people in a part of America that many folks write off or don’t even think about,” Ennis said. “The challenge is, if your investment is in recruiting students from the Delta, and the Delta writ-large is losing population at an alarming rate — for reasons that have nothing to do with Delta State and everything to do with social economic opportunity in other parts of the United States, then you can see we have declined.”
There has to be more fundraising, Ennis said. Delta State should be receiving more federal funding. He also committed to doubling the university’s capital campaign to $100 million. Though unorthodox, Ennis said this is his only chance to increase the endowment.
There will also be cuts that Ennis said will be decided through a budget committee composed of administrators, faculty and staff.
But individual sacrifices will have to be made, Ennis said. He tried to encourage everyone to not turn against each other — or against him — when it comes time for budget cuts.
“At a certain point there’s going to be less of everything,” he said. “Personnel, money, equipment and opportunities because we have to right-size the budget. And there’ll be all kinds of temptation to start thinking about my area, my budget, my place, my stakes.”
When Ennis took questions, Don Allan Mitchell, an English professor, said he understood that “everything is on the table” but wanted to know specifically if Ennis will also consider cuts from the presidential and vice presidential level. Ennis said yes.
Jamie Dahman, a professor who joined the music department in 2016, thanked Ennis for his seeming honesty and transparency.
“That’s something that’s been missing from Delta State leadership since I’ve been here,” he said.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Friday voted to confirm the appointment of Todd Gee to run the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, which is overseeing what officials have called the largest public fraud case in state history.
At a time when appointments to the U.S. Department of Justice have been particularly politicized amid the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, Gee’s confirmation was pushed through with help from Mississippi’s senior U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker.
The Senate confirmation comes more than a year after President Joe Biden appointed Gee to the post.
“I talked to my colleague and friend Roger Wicker about Mr. Gee,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio who previously worked to block any appointments to the nation’s lead law enforcement agency. “He assured me he’s a good person. We don’t have any major red flags in the background, so we ultimately voted yes. But the problem is, with all these nominations, is their boss. It’s not them, it’s their boss, who is (U.S. Attorney General) Merrick Garland.”
Historically, unless there was some question of a nominee’s fitness, the Senate would approve the president’s picks en masse by a voice vote, but some Republican senators like Vance have insisted on confirming Gee and others through a roll call vote.
“The president is entitled to his or her nominees,” said University of Richmond Law Professor Carl Tobias. “This cuts against a long standing tradition.”
Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, could be seen on the Senate floor throughout the duration of Gee’s confirmation vote on Friday at times conversing with other senators.
President Joe Biden nominated Gee, who had been serving as deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, a little over a year ago. Gee’s appointment had stalled until U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith returned a “blue slip” — an informal congressional practice that signaled her support for the nominee — in April. It took another five months for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to agree to bring the nomination of Gee to a vote.
“It’s unfortunate that Mississippi had to wait a year for that,” Tobias said. “It just doesn’t make any sense at all, especially when it’s not on the merits of the nominee. It just shows you the dysfunction of the Senate.”
Senators voted 82-8 on Friday to approve Gee. Opposing his nomination were Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri).
Mississippi’s southern district, which encompasses the capital city Jackson, has not had a permanent U.S. attorney at its helm since Mike Hurst stepped down in January of 2021. Interim U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca has led the office since.
Gee will take the lead on prosecuting Mississippi’s historic welfare fraud case, in which several people have already admitted to using millions of federal grant funds that should have assisted Mississippi’s most vulnerable families instead to make favors for political allies or enrich their friends and family. Seven people, including former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis and prominent nonprofit founder Nancy New, have pleaded guilty to state or federal charges within the scheme, but none of them have been sentenced as they continue to cooperate with investigators.
Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who secured the first indictments in the case, said last year at Davis’ plea hearing that his office was continuing to review evidence, such as text messages and other communication, as it “continue(s) to move up … the ladder” to prosecute more individuals. But since then, no one in a position above Davis has been charged.
Tobias said the U.S. Attorneys Office might have decided to wait to bring more charges, especially if it is looking at higher profile individuals, until the office had a permanent leader.
“I think it gives the public and lawyers and everyone a higher comfort level when it’s not just an acting attorney but rather someone who’s been nominated by the president, confirmed by the senate and that person checks out in terms of qualifications,” Tobias said. “That’s important. Especially if it’s high profile, because that person is going to have to do some very difficult things, maybe, if it involves these high ranking political officials. So you want the full weight of the office there.”
State Auditor Shad White, who made the initial arrests in the case in early 2020, said in a statement Friday morning that his office will continue to assist Gee’s office in the case.
“More than three years ago, my team and District Attorney Jody Owens put a stop to the welfare scheme in Mississippi with the indictment and arrest of six people,” White said. “We also turned all our evidence over to federal authorities to show the public that the case would be fully investigated, all the way. At that time three years ago, federal investigators and the U.S. Attorney asked to take the lead on prosecuting any additional people beyond the first six defendants. My office agreed to assist them in any way possible. We have enjoyed a good relationship with federal prosecutors since then as they have deliberated about whom to charge. They make that call. And the appointment of Mr. Gee changes nothing in our posture. We will continue to work with federal prosecutors to bring the case to a conclusion.”
Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe reported this story from Jackson. Freelance reporter Matt Laslo reported this story from Washington. Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance contributed to this report.
The entire U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will rule, again, on whether Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of certain felonies is unconstitutional.
The decision of the 5th Circuit to hear the case en banc vacates a three-judge August ruling that did find the lifetime ban unconstitutional. Now, the entire 5th Circuit — around 20 judges — will decide whether the provision in the 1890 Constitution imposing the lifetime ban on voting is constitutional. Whatever the 5th Circuit decides, that decision most likely will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It will mark the second time the state constitutional provision on felony suffrage will be considered by the full 5th Circuit. The current lawsuit contends that the lifetime ban on voting imposed by Mississippi is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment.
In 2-1 decision in August, a panel of the 5th Circuit said, “By severing former offenders from the body politic forever, Section 241 (the lifetime ban provision of the Mississippi Constitution) ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the terms their culpability requires and serves no protective function to society. It is thus a cruel and unusual punishment.”
But that decision will be reconsidered by the full 5th Circuit.
In a separate case, the U.S. Supreme Court refused in June to hear another case seeking to find Mississippi’s lifetime felony voting ban unconstitutional. That case, which also was heard by the full 5th Circuit, sought to have the felony voting ban declared unconstitutional because it was originally adopted as part of the 1890 Constitution in an attempt to prevent Black Mississippians from voting.
The framers at the time admitted they placed the lifetime ban in the Mississippi Constitution as a tool to keep African Americans from voting. The framers said they believed Black Mississippians were more likely to commit some crimes. Those crimes placed in the constitution where conviction costs a person the right to vote are bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and burglary.
Under the original language of the constitution, a person could be convicted of cattle rustling and lose the right to vote, but those convicted of murder or rape would still be able to vote — even while incarcerated. Murder and rape now also are exclusionary.
The lawsuit that was addressed by the three-judge panel and pending before the full 5th Circuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and others on behalf of Mississippians who have lost their voting rights. The office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch is opposing the lawsuit on behalf of the state.
Mississippi is one of about 10 states imposing a lifetime ban for people convicted of some felonies.
Hospitals must give a 30-day notice about closure or the discontinuing of services, under a Mississippi State Department of Health proposed rule.
News of the proposed change came after Mississippi Today sought answers about the closing of Patient’s Choice Medical Center of Smith County in Raleigh, which was at the time still listed as open on the Health Department’s facilities directory.
The Health Department said the proposal is not related to any specific situation.
While the Health Department for some time has required facilities to notify the agency of a complete facility closure under Rule 41.5.1, the proposed revision seeks to improve communication and maintenance of records, according to the department.
“The new requirement for notification of closure of service lines is to ensure MSDH has visibility of closures that could impact patient care within the state,” the Office of Licensure at the state Health Department told Mississippi Today via email.
The proposed amendment will be on the agenda at the State Board of Health meeting in October.
According to the state Health Department’s Office of Licensure, Patient’s Choice did not notify the department of its closing.
The licensure office told Mississippi Today that when state health inspectors arrived at Patient’s Choice to do a survey on May 15, they found the building was no longer in use.
Ptient’s Choice Medical Center of Smith County in Raleigh has sat empty for over three months and voluntarily terminated its Medicare certification on July 3, 2023. Credit: Pam Dankins/Mississippi Today
Patient’s Choice has sat empty for over threemonths, but it could reopen under new management.
Gregg Gibbes, president and chief executive officer at South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel, told Mississippi Today in August he was eager to discuss the circumstances surrounding Patient’s Choice.
“That’s gonna be one of the biggest healthcare news stories this year. It’s very exciting,” Gibbes said.
When Mississippi Today reached out to Gibbes days later for further clarification, he wouldn’t answer any questions.
Over the past four years, Gibbes has served as CEO and administrator at Simpson General Hospital (2020), Magee General Hospital in Mendenhall (2019) and Collins-based Covington County Hospital (2016).
All three hospitals fall under the South Central Regional Medical Center’s partnership with multiple rural community hospitals in the state’s south-central region, according to a news release from South Central Regional Medical Center.
In late July 2023, before the Health Department updated its Directory of Mississippi Facilities removing Patient’s Choice, the hospital was listed as having 29 general acute care beds, 10 of which were in a geriatric psychiatric unit.
Any more specifics about what services were offered or changes in services would have to come from the facility itself, the state Health Department said.
Mississippi Today reached out to a doctor and worker who were employed at the hospital during the administration of the late Paulette Butler. Both declined to speak about the services offered at Patient’s Choice or other questions related to the facility.
Mississippi Today also reached out three times to a former chief executive officer at the facility, Tim Cockrell, but he was not available for comment before publication. Mississippi Today also could not reach the facility’s current owner, Robert Hall. No current contact number was available.
Based on the Office of Licensure records, the facility voluntarily terminated its Medicare certification on July 3, 2023.
To understand the medical center’s conditions before it officially closed Mississippi Today obtained from the state Health Department the three most recent inspection reports for Patient’s Choice Medical Center, dated 2019, 2015 and 2011.
The facility was initially assessed as not up to code in the 2011 and 2019 reports. The inspection in between, in 2015, found it in compliance. In July 2015, the facility was noted as in compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation for Mississippi Hospitals after a Medicare recertification survey was conducted.
According to the 2019 inspection report, the last one done of the hospital, the human resources director said there were four rooms used for acute care patients and 13 rooms had not been in use since 2014. The director also told inspectors that the acute care floor was shut down in May 2019 and not in use.
The facility also had a senior care floor, according to the inspection report.
The report stated that a registered nurse “confirmed no call lights were operable in any of the senior care patient rooms and maintenance is aware.”
Once Patient’s Choice provided a plan of correction addressing all deficiencies, the state Department of Health dated the corrections as completed no more than a month later.
In August 2011, the report documented the facility was deemed not up to code for reasons including incomplete patient documentation, storage of expired medications and a failed fire alarm system in the senior care unit. After getting up to compliance, a letter dated in November 2011 was sent to the chief executive officer finding the facility’s “credible allegation of compliance for its Medicare deficiencies has been found acceptable.”
For now, talks with the potential new management to take over the hospital are in limbo, said District 3 Smith County Supervisor Benjie Ford.
“It’ll be close to November or December before they ever give us an update on what’s going on,” Ford said.
According to September records, the Health Department’s Division of Health Planning and Resource Development has no certificate of need application in process for Patient’s Choice to reopen.
Galloway United Methodist, the downtown Jackson church where incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is a member, will host a series of lectures on how providing access to health care is a Christian value.
The featured speakers in late October are expected to tout Medicaid expansion, a federal-state program that would provide health care coverage to an estimated 300,000 poor, working Mississippians. Reeves, serving in two of the state’s top leadership roles for the past 12 years, has adamantly opposed the program, disparagingly likening it to “welfare expansion.”
That’s clearly not how the governor’s pastor sees it.
“Obviously, with a topic like ours, the issue of Medicaid expansion looms large,” Galloway Senior Pastor Cary Stockett said in an email to reporters announcing the lectures. “And I believe each of our speakers are in favor of Medicaid expansion. We do not look to it as a panacea, nor do we wish these conversations revolve around the legislative football that subject has become.
“So, while we will not avoid mention of Medicaid expansion, our purpose is to bring people of faith to see good healthcare as a corollary of Jesus’ command, to love your neighbor as yourself,” Stockett continued. “We want it understood that this is a kingdom of God issue, grossly ignored right in the middle of the Bible Belt. We want the people who quote John 3:16 to understand that it matters to Jesus that there are people (our Mississippi neighbors) without real access to good healthcare…and so it should matter to us, too.”
No doubt, Stockett had no intention of inserting himself into a political debate. In his announcement of the lectures, he certainly didn’t mention Reeves or the 2023 elections.
But as more Mississippians than ever are tuned in to the state’s worsening health care crisis — and as the lectures will be held right against the backdrop of the November governor’s election — the contrast in views is impossible to ignore.
The Galloway lectures will take place Oct. 27-28, just 10 days before the Nov. 7 general election. Reeves faces Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, who has made his strong support for Medicaid expansion a top issue of his campaign. Independent candidate Gwendolyn Gray, also on the ballot, supports expansion.
Reeves publicly touts his Christian values, regularly posting Bible verses to social media and discussing his faith on the campaign trail. He even hosted live-streamed prayer services on his Facebook page during the COVID-19 lockdowns. He said it was his “pleasure” to declare Christian Heritage Week of Sept. 21, which also happened to be the date of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement in the Jewish faith and the religion’s holiest day.
Though the governor speaks publicly of his religion and even his membership at Galloway, he has never publicly equated health care access with his faith.
Mississippi, which has the nation’s highest rate of people without health insurance, is one of just 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid, thus leaving more than $1 billion in federal money on the table annually. Reeves has gone out of his way for more than a decade to block it.
The state is also in the throes of a hospital financial crisis in which nearly half of rural hospitals are at risk of closure and even larger hospitals have been forced to slash services or lay off staff. The hospital crisis is exacerbated by the fact that hospitals themselves must cover the health care service costs for uninsured patients.
After years of inaction on the health care crisis, Reeves last week announced a plan that would provide additional funding to hospitals. Much of the new funding would come from an increase in hospital taxes that would then allow the state to draw down additional federal funding through a Medicaid reimbursement program.
Experts say the Reeves proposal will help hospitals, but they said the plan will provide no relief to uninsured Mississippians. In the press conference announcing his plan, Reeves was asked why he supported drawing down federal money to help hospitals under his plan but opposed drawing down federal money to help uninsured patients via Medicaid expansion.
“We need more people in the workforce,” Reeves said. “… So adding 300,000 able-bodied Mississippians to the welfare rolls, I would argue, is a bad idea.”
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 61% of Medicaid recipients work and another 30% of recipients are students, people who are disabled, or caregivers. Medicaid expansion is designed, in part, to provide health insurance to people who work in jobs where their employers do not provide health insurance and they do not earn enough to afford private insurance.
“Until Medicaid is expanded, Mississippians will continue to pay the price in lost dollars, lost jobs, and lost lives,” Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, said of Reeves’ recent announcement. “This is a state executive branch, making a health policy decision based largely in myth and an ideological belief structure. The reality is hundreds of thousands of Mississippians are not paid enough to afford health insurance coverage.”
Without question, the moral arguments being made by Stockett, Mitchell and others for health care access for poor Mississippians will continue regardless of the outcome of the 2023 governor’s election.
The Galloway lecture series will begin Oct. 27 at 5:30 p.m. and Oct. 28 at 8:30 a.m. at Galloway, located a block from the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson. The lecturers are:
Rev. Chuck Poole, former pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson and now working with Together for Hope.
Dr. Dan Jones, former chancellor of the University of Mississippi and former dean of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Rev. Jason Coker, president and director of Together for Hope, a collation working to improve the standard of living in rural areas such as the Delta and Appalachia.
Dr. Sandra Melvin, a public health doctor and chief executive officer of the Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health.
Von Gordon, executive director of the Alluvial Collection, previously known as the William Winter Institute.
Dr. Michelle Owens, an OB-GYN in Jackson and the president of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure.
The event is part of Galloway’s T.W. Lewis Lecture Series on Jesus and a Just Society. The series was started by an anonymous donor in honor of T.W. Lewis, an ordained elder in the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church and professor emeritus of religious studies at Millsaps College — the governor’s alma mater.
Former Gov. and Mrs. Ross Barnett at Paul Johnson’s Inauguration Credit: Wikipedia
Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett spoke at halftime of the University of Mississippi’s game against Kentucky. Barnett whipped up the all-white crowd, which some compared to a Nazi rally in Nuremberg. While Confederate battle flags waved defiantly, Barnett told the crowd of more than 40,000 gathered, “I love Mississippi. I love her people. Our customs. I love and respect our heritage.”
The next day, an insurrection took place on the Ole Miss campus after the admission of James Meredith, the first known Black student to attend.
