Date of Award
Spring 5-2015
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Studies and Research
Committee Chair
Thomas V. O'Brien
Committee Chair Department
Educational Studies and Research
Committee Member 2
Lilian H. Hill
Committee Member 2 Department
Educational Studies and Research
Committee Member 3
Lin Harper
Committee Member 3 Department
Educational Studies and Research
Committee Member 4
Aubrey K. Lucas
Committee Member 4 Department
Educational Studies and Research
Abstract
The University of Mississippi School of Law (Ole Miss Law) was the fourth public law school founded in the United States. The school was established to prevent men from leaving the state for legal education due to fears that they were being indoctrinated by eastern schools where ideologies were not consistent with those of Mississippi. One hundred years after her founding, Ole Miss Law entered into a period of turbulence as race and politics clashed on campus. From the time of the Brown decision through the Civil Rights Era, the deans and law professors at the law school were subjected to multiple waves of attack by members of the legislature, the Board of Trustees, the White Citizens’ Council, and private citizens. All had earned advanced law degrees at Yale University School of Law while studying under the Sterling Fellowship. However, the prestige associated with the Ivy League law school would eventually become viewed by Mississippians to be synonymous with liberalism, and progressive ideals regarding race and states’ rights were not compatible with traditional ideals held by the majority opinion of Mississippians. Using the concepts of space and place, this study explores the events that unfolded at Ole Miss Law School during this era of progressivism. This work locates the spaces and their associated ideologies as situated in and among the political and educational places of Mississippi and demonstrates that as race and politics in the state were inseparable, that space, place, and race co-evolved on the campus of Ole Miss Law.
Copyright
2015, Jennifer Paul Anderson
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Jennifer Paul, "Rebel Yale: Yale Graduates and Progressive Ideals at the University of Mississippi Law School, 1946-1970" (2015). Dissertations. 92.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/92