Citadel of the Citizens Council
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University of Mississippi eGrove Clippings Citizens' Council Collection 11-12-1961 Citadel of the Citizens Council Hodding Carter Citizens' Councils of America Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/citizens_clip Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Carter, Hodding and Citizens' Councils of America, "Citadel of the Citizens Council" (1961). Clippings. 75. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/citizens_clip/75 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Citizens' Council Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Clippings by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • , It -, / .... J '... #~ '/,",, .... \ . ~ . I . 'I ,. ," , I ., " • • I ':"- I It) I """ '-_. I , ... , () , .,t'..,. ~.) , - I • • • "'-. t HODDING CARTER III is • young (Prince ita e 0 e I Izens oune ton -57) former Marine Corps officer who became the managing editor of The Delta While other Southern ' states move toward at least token desegregation. Democrat-Times in Greenville, Miss., last year. He is the author of "The South Strikes Bac"" ia Mississippi the diehard while-supremacists are firmly In control. I • NOVEMBER 12, 19.1 / I I By HODDIlfG CARTER m / I GREENVILLE, Miss. HE roll-call of Southern commu BR more ~portant to the Council'e Citadel of the nities which have begun at least purposes, however, and better illustra token pu bllc-school integration tive of its grip on the state govern in response to Federal court prodding ment, was the decision by the State was significantly lengthened this fall Sovereignty Commission in late 1960 to \ (Oontinued from, Page. 23) the. difficulties of collecting with the peaceful desegregation of donate $5,000 a month- from state tax ) same. One may screen new dues to the fornlulation of a schools in Dallas, Memphis and At money to support the Council'S radio members more rigorously plan to deal with a local white or Negro "trouble-maker." One lanta. In the last t\yo cities, massive and television program, Citizens Coun than another; sOine are rela~ will resistance on the secondary school level cil Forum. The members of the com tively inactive. Most hold an or two hotheads jump up in the Deep South was shattered for mission, formed by the Legislature in nual membership drives dur and let loose with impassioned •• speeches calling for ' radical the first time. While the number of 1956 "to protect the sovereignty of the ing which they make heavy and immediate. action-usually children involved was not impressive, state of Mississippi," include the Gov use of newspaper advertising. .. a midnight call on the · the psychological effect on the rest of ernor, and are nearly to a man Coun One Council advertised that a prospective member need offender. The conservatives the Black Belt South was immense. cil members. then will make themselves merely "walk into the bank." But one state, which shares with The grant,; combined with a lump'~ heard, calm down the fire • In another town, a member Alabama and South Carolina the dis- sum donation of $20,000, has brought brands and' smother the pro ship application could be filled . tinction of main taining total segrega the Council nearly $100,000 from the posal. tion at all levels in the public schools, out at the local hotel. In public treasury. Although an internal countless restaurants across shows no signs of yielding to a process power struggle in the Sovereignty a result of the perpetu most white Southerners have grudging the state, Citizens Council As Commission resulted in a $500-a-mon th literature can be picked up ation of conservative control, ly begun to accept as inevitable. The cut in the donation, no one seriously with the toothpicks at the no act of racial violence in state is Mississippi. After seven years belie.ves the commission will elin1inate cashier's coWlter. Mississippi has ever been di of mounting pressure, it is still vir it altogether in the near future. rectly connected to the. Citi tUally impossible to find any public The local organization's zens Council. Those incidents manifestations of the fatalism many There are many other examples of president is invariably a that have occurred may be in whites are privately expressing. the COlmcil's influence in the state gov prominent citizen, and the· directly traceable ' to the cli As the pressure has intensified, in ernment. Perhaps most significant is board of directors is drawn mate engendered by the Coun the fact that William Simmons, editor fact, Mississippi resistance has tended largely trom the community's cil, but it is a theoretical re , ,. of the Council's newspaper and ad to stiffen rather than crum·ble. It is Who's Who. When meetings lationship. The Council has -, . the one Southern state which showed ministrator of the state Council asso are held, which isn't often, found it doesn't need to oper , a completely unified front in defying Ciation, has become a constant com the same rough fonn of Rob ate that way to get results. • • . - the recent Interstate Commerce Com panion of Governor Barnett, traveling erts Rules of Order followed Ini UaUy, the use of e.conom mission ruling on the desegregation of with him when he makes out-of-state in most civic clubs is observed. ic pressure against dissenting interstate facilities. State laws were talks (many of which Simmons reput-. The chaiI'lnan begins by call whites and Negroes was the ing on a minister-most to invoked in every city to preserve seg edly writes) and sitting in as an "ob main weapon, and some ex r • . regation in the local wa.ltlng rooms server" at most meetings of the Sov often a Baptist-for a prayer. tent it is st111 used. particular .. Committee reports, if any, r and terminal restaurants, anda.1though ereign ty Commission. ly against Negroes. But as the are heard, and the main busi the Justice Department promptly asked During the last regular session of Council has developed it has ness of the evening follows. found that the isolation ot Federal courts for a restraining order, the legislature in 1960, that body acted moderate and liberal whites there was little doubt that resistance , I as little more than a rubber stamp for often as not, the meet from the rest ot the white will be maintained untU the last legal bills which had Council endorsement. ing will be open to the public, community and the complete maneuver is exhausted. One gave local congregations the right and will feature a main destruction of interracial com " The observer would be hard pressed to se.cede from their parent churches, speaker and several lesser munication are infinitely more to find a major chink in Mississippi's taking church property with them, if . lights. The featured attraction productive and far easier to segregationist forces. There is a hand they found themselves in conflict with inevitably urges continued ad accomplish. ful of wl!ite diSSidents, and there: is a the national denominations' doctrines. herence to segregation and To a degree which is hard growing number of Negro militants, It was passed despite claims that it. states' rights, lashes the Su to convey to someone who does bu t neither is formed in to a strengtb violated the constitutional separation preme Court, the National not live in Missrssippi, the that can influence greatly. Support of church and state. And many of Gov- Association for the Advance- Citizens Council has managed ,. ,-. 1 ... .. ,. __...... _______________________________ .:.. ___-...-- ______________........... ..........,.......----- __' _, _ ' b___ t ... ....-, _I._ .. ~_ w_ __.... _ .. ~-··_ ... __ .. :. _ .. _r._ ' ............ -- _._ .. _ .... ....__ ._ •• • I • • I . • I 4' I . .. (COftU'U6"d /-,om Prec"dhlg Page) the Councll an Immediate shot r .,# ~, .. .. .... ,. • newspapers, its leaders and in the arm. , most of its estimated BO,OOO In the past six months, , members. Since this slogan Mississippi has experienced touches a theme which has for the first time sit-ins. voter been central to Mississippi his registra tion drives. Freedom tory since. the Civil War. the Riders, Federal vote suits and approach Is highly successful. court action for the desegrega There are numerous exam· tion of the state university. pIes of the price demanded for The Council has hastened to failure to walk in the Coun capitalize on each. cil-enforced lockstep. Se.vera) Nothing, however, has been years ago, a mini~ter chose to as much of a godsend to the defend two whi te men accused Council as the. continued of being ·'integrationists" at foraY'3 ot the Freedom Riders. a Citizens Council-inspired Even while their exploits were m~ meeting held to demand focusing national attention on they leave the county. Within segregation in interstate facili a few months, the pastor was ties in the South, Council deprived of hi5 church by a leaders were singling out the unanimous vote of its govern "friction riders" as a con· ing board. Other ministers venient symbol of "outside in • across the state got the mes terference." The success with sage! which officials in the capital .~. ., .. , '. city of Jackson kept the "( Jo' ~/-:;" , :. ~ ~ ./' «y ~. :' .' segregation lid on while main IN the same county, the wo taining law and order as hun man editor of a small weekly dreds of Freedom Riders has battled the Council since poured into the. city was m-:\de the day it was organized. ~ f'K.' W '·~""; " to-order propaganda for the .. ~ ............ ~ ,.. - When a whispering campaign • Council, which has always CITIZENS COUNCIL-Meeting in J4IIc:hon, ib memben represent the "better people:- and advertising boycott failed promised that segregation to drive her out of business, could be preserved without a group of Ci tlzens Co\mcil violence.