Simeon Gates

Date of Award

8-2024

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Academic Program

History BA

Department

History

First Advisor

Kevin Greene, Ph.D.

Advisor Department

History

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explain the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission’s use of red baiting tactics against civil rights activists. Civil rights activists in Mississippi weathered countless physical, economic, and reputational attacks. The movement took off during the 1950s at the same time as the nation entered the Cold War. White supremacist southerners fought to preserve segregation through violent and nonviolent means. As the rest of the nation slowly came out of Cold War-fueled hysteria known as the second red scare, segregationists in the south were influenced by it. They cast the entire civil rights movement as a Communist plot to overthrow America. Dubbed by historian Jeff Woods as the “southern red scare,” this blend of anti-Communist and pro-segregationist sentiment combined concerns over national security with those of southern identity and white supremacy.[1] At the time, one of the most contentious battlegrounds over Jim Crow was Mississippi.[2] For Black people, any mistake or defiance could be deadly.[3]

Like many at the time, Clyde Kennard and the students at Tougaloo College chose to defy social order. Tougaloo was a private black college whose unique set up facilitated a culture of progressivism. It became an important place where activists could gather resources, and students and faculty participated in the movement directly. This activity soon drew the attention of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, who sought to destroy it.[4] Tougaloo’s president, white liberal Dr. A.D. Beittel, made himself a target with his support of activism on campus. His downfall would signal the end of Tougaloo’s golden era of activism.[5]

Years earlier in a different part of the state, veteran and aspiring college graduate Clyde Kennard tried to apply to Mississippi Southern College. His actions prompted a months-long campaign from the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission to stop him, either through shaming or smearing his name. Kennard’s refusal to back down led to him being convicted for crimes he did not commit. He ultimately died of cancer after being denied treatment while in prison. His story is considered one of the many tragedies of the civil rights era.[6]

This paper seeks to draw a connection between the segregationists’ anti-Communist viewpoint and the downfall of Kennard and Dr. Biettel’s presidency at Tougaloo. The “communist” label added some legitimacy to southern segregationists’ arguments, enough for many to shy away from the movement and those involved. It was this fear of being labeled by the association that caused Brown University, who wanted to enter a partnership with Tougaloo, to work with Tougaloo’s board of trustees to fire Beittel ahead of securing an important grant. In Kennard’s case, it influenced the commission’s attacks against him. The sovereignty commission’s attacks on Clyde Kennard and Tougaloo College exposed how the civil rights movement had no substantial defense against red baiting.

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