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Hazel Brannon Smith's Fight for Free Speech and Justice in Mississippi

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Hazel Brannon Smith's Fight for Free Speech and Justice in Mississippi Automated Template A: Created by James Nail 2011 V2.02 “Through Hazel Eyes”: Hazel Brannon Smith’s fight for free speech and justice in Mississippi 1936-1985 By Jeffery Brian Howell A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Department of History Mississippi State, Mississippi December 2013 Copyright by Jeffery Brian Howell 2013 “Through Hazel Eyes”: Hazel Brannon Smith’s fight for free speech and justice in Mississippi 1936-1985 By Jeffery Brian Howell Approved: ____________________________________ James C. Giesen (Director of Dissertation) ____________________________________ Jason M. Ward (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Anne E. Marshall (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Michael V. Williams (Committee Member) ____________________________________ Peter C. Messer (Graduate Coordinator) ____________________________________ Greg Dunaway Dean College of Arts & Sciences Name: Jeffery Brian Howell Date of Degree: December 14, 2013 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: History Major Professor: James C. Giesen Title of Study: “Through Hazel Eyes”: Hazel Brannon Smith’s fight for free speech and justice in Mississippi 1936-1985 Pages in Study: 327 Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Hazel Brannon Smith, a prominent white newspaper owner in Mississippi before, during, and after the civil rights era was an avowed supporter of Jim Crow segregation for the first half of her career, until pressure from the white establishment and the changing political and social milieu of the 1950s and 1960s pushed her to become an ally of the black struggle for social justice. Smith's biography reveals how many historians have miscast white liberals of this period. Smith was considered a liberal by her peers, but her actions reveal the firm limits of white liberalism in the rural South during the Civil Rights era. While this dissertation undergirds scholarly research over the last twenty years which viewed the fight for civil rights from a grounds root level, it shows how Smith was unique. She never fully escaped her white paternalistic sentiments, yet she spoke out consistently against racial extremism in Mississippi in the 1960s. Based upon newspaper accounts, personal collections, oral histories and recent scholarly treatments, this work argues that the white response to the civil rights movement in Mississippi was far from uniform. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to my parents, Lee Howell and Lucy Howell. Their hard work provided the opportunities that allowed me to pursue my academic career. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Attaining a PhD has been a long, arduous, maddening, and satisfying experience. I could not have finished this project without the help of many, many people. I want to thank my wife Anita and my son Justin for their patience as I worked to finish this dissertation. A special thanks goes to my committee chairman, Dr. James “Jim” C. Giesen. Jim guided me through this process with patience and humor, even when I wanted to abandon it. I also want to thank my committee, Dr. Anne Marshall, Dr. Michael V. Williams, and Dr. Jason Ward for their comments and encouragement. In 2002, I befriended and studied under Dr. Donald J. Mabry at Mississippi State. He has been one of my best friends ever since. Don’s continual encouragement saw me through some tough times as I struggled through the process of researching and writing this dissertation. I also want to thank my mother, Lucy Howell, and my brothers, Mike and Barry Howell. They continually cheered me on and convinced me I could finish. I want to offer a very special thank you to my friend and colleague, Dr. Andi Knecht. We mutually encouraged each other to finish our dissertations, and now we can call each other Doctor! Finally, I want to say thank you to my colleagues at East Georgia State College, specifically Dr. Thomas Upchurch. I have known “Tommy” since I was six years old, and he has been my friend through thick and thin. I have the privilege of now being his colleague at EGSC. His continual encouragement helped me see that I could finish the project and attain my goal of earning a PhD. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 II. "I AIN'T NO LADY, I'M A NEWSPAPER WOMAN": THE BATTLE WITH BOOTLEGGING AND ORGANIZED CRIME .................................................................................................12 III. "THIS IS WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY AND BOTH RACES KNOW IT": DEFENDING OF JIM CROW .....................................................55 IV. FROM POPULAR TO PARIAH: REJECTING MASSIVE RESISTANCE .....................................................................................99 V. “WHEN MODERATE BECAME A DIRTY WORD,” THE FIGHT FOR ECONOMIC SURVIVAL ........................................................147 VI. “THIS FEMALE SCALAWAG DOMICILED IN OUR MIDST”: TRANSFORMING INTO A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST ...............186 VII. “THE LIBERAL HAZEL BRANNON SMITH”: SUPPORTING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT .........................................................219 VIII. "THE PRICE OF SPEAKING THE TRUTH HAS BEEN HIGH”: SURVIVING IN THE POST CIVIL RIGHTS ERA .........................259 IX. EPILOGUE ....................................................................................................302 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................312 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In 1930, a precocious sixteen-year-old Alabamian named Hazel Brannon received her diploma from Gadsden High School in Alabama.1 A driven young woman, she had worked hard and graduated from high school two years early. In The Crucible, the school’s yearbook, the editor took three words to describe each of the school’s 125 graduates for 1930. Prophetically, the editor described the young Brannon as “industrious, independent,” and, “indomitable.”2 These qualities would prove vital to the career the young Brannon chose and the period in which she lived. In the 1930s, social custom expected most middle class white women to get married, stay at home, and raise children. Brannon took a different route. She chose the career of journalist, but she did not want to be a mere reporter. To the amazement of her family and friends, she stated that if she was going into journalism, then she had to “write my own newspaper.” This young woman wanted to be the boss. What made this declaration even more astounding was the fact that she planned on starting a newspaper in the middle of Great Depression. By the late 1950s, this 1 Hazel Brannon established a professional journalistic identity in Holmes County, Mississippi in 1936 when she bought the Durant News. She married Walter D. Smith when she was thirty-six years old in 1950. For consistency, I refer to her as Brannon Smith or Smith for consistency. 2 Hazel Brannon Smith, “Looking at the South Through Hazel Eyes,” Alicia Patterson Fellowship Reporter, Vol. 6#5, 1983. Accessed 10 January 2012. http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0605/Brannon_Smith/Brannon_Smith.html. 1 determined woman eventually owned four newspapers in the neighboring state of Mississippi.3 Brannon Smith’s willingness to challenge the status quo in Mississippi, a state known for its benighted ways, makes her story important. She gained a national reputation in the decade after World War II for her fight against bootleg liquor, malfeasant officials, and organized crime. In a time when most rural Mississippi newspapers turned a blind eye to such things, Brannon Smith blasted the fetid and lawless atmosphere in her column, “Through Hazel Eyes.” Her campaign brought national attention to the region’s problems and earned her a reputation as the “fighting lady editor.” Brannon Smith’s stance for law and order not only brought her fame and popularity, it also provided a lavish lifestyle that included owning convertible Cadillacs, wearing the latest fashions, dating the most eligible bachelors, and taking trips to New York and Europe.4 Her story got more complicated when it came to the issue of race. Brannon Smith was brought up within and affirmed Jim Crow etiquette. During the first twenty-five years of her career (1936-1961), she stood as an avowed supporter of segregation and believed it was the best solution for harmony between white and black southerners. Yet, as white southerners employed intimidation and violence to maintain Jim Crow in the decade after the 1954 Brown decision, Brannon Smith grew in her dissent. She refused to subvert law and order and free speech in the name of racial integrity. In the late 1950s while facing economic and social backlash, the editor pleaded for white southerners to 3 T. George Harris, “The 11-Year Siege of Mississippi’s Lady Editor,” Look (11 November 1965), 122. 4 William Engle, “Fighting Lady Editor,” San Antonio (Texas) Light, 6 July 1947. 2 step back from overt and covert lawlessness and find solutions with African Americans. While the pressure grew on her to conform, she steadfastly defended her right to speak her mind. In 1964, she became the first
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