ACCORDING TO ROSS BARNETT, MISSISSIPPI IS "A HAPPY LAND"
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) "The first big gun from Dixie to testify on the civil rights bill," Governor Ross Barnett* of Mississippi, described a Mississippi "that James Meredith** and other members of his race might not recognize."
Mary McGrory writes that the Governor pictured his state to the Senate Commerce Committee as "a happy land where Negroes and whites work side by side in peace and harmony."*
The Governor's explanation of the civil unrest that has spread across the country concerning equal rights is that it is "largely Communist-inspired."
JFK+50 NOTE
As governor, Ross Barnett arranged for the Freedom Riders to be arrested & imprisoned in 1961. He was a staunch segregationist who never apologized for it.
*Ross Robert Barnett (1898-1987) was born in Standing Pine, Mississippi. His father was a veteran of the Confederate army & RRB served in the US Army in WWI. RRB was educated at the University of Mississippi & served as governor of the state 1960-1964.
**James Howard Meredith (b. 1933) Kosciusko, MS was the 1st African-American to attend the University of Mississippi & earned his law degree at Columbia University Law School.
SOURCE
"Barnett's Is a Happy State," by Mary McGrory, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 13, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
