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Southern White Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Summer 8-2016 "Black and White Together, We Shall Win": Southern White Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Olivia Bethany Moore University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the American Studies Commons, Oral History Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Moore, Olivia Bethany, ""Black and White Together, We Shall Win": Southern White Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement" (2016). Master's Theses. 188. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/188 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “BLACK AND WHITE TOGETHER, WE SHALL WIN”: SOUTHERN WHITE ACTIVISTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Olivia Bethany Moore A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of History at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. Kevin Greene, Committee Chair Assistant Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Max Grivno, Committee Member Associate Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Chester M. Morgan, Committee Member Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School August 2016 COPYRIGHT BY Olivia Bethany Moore 2016 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT “BLACK AND WHITE TOGETHER, WE SHALL WIN”: SOUTHERN WHITE ACTIVISTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Olivia Bethany Moore August 2016 During the Civil Rights Movement, Mississippi has often been characterized as a simple battle of white racists against black activists. Drawing heavily on oral histories, personal publications, and Mississippi Sovereignty Commission reports, this thesis examines the unconventional stories of white southerners who transcended the segregationist environments in which they were born. As southern white activism took many forms, this work offers biographical insights to three individuals who have received little scholarly attention: journalist P.D East, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) activist Buford Posey, and William Carey president Ralph Noonkester. While their contributions between 1950-1971 differed, being white and active in the Deep South connects all three lives. A closer examination of what spurred their involvement sheds light on how activism should be defined, how it developed, and how it was received in Mississippi. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Kevin Greene, for his continuous support throughout my time at USM. His encouragement, insight, and expertise have been invaluable. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Max Grivno and Dr. Chester M. Morgan for kindly dedicating their time to serve on my committee. Additionally, thank you to Dr. Andrew Haley for his crucial support in the early stages of this project. This thesis would not have been possible without the staff and resources at the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage (COHCH), and McCain Library and Archives. I would like to extend special thanks to Stephanie Scull- DeArmey, Ross Walton, and Jennifer Brannock. Their kindness and guidance have been greatly appreciated. iii DEDICATION I am extremely grateful for my friend, Hayden McDaniel. Thank you for listening to me talk through ideas, reading parts of my thesis, and accompanying me on a research trip to Neshoba County. Thank you also to my family and Alexander Herty for supporting and encouraging me throughout my degree. This would not have been possible without you. I would like to extend a special dedication to my late grandfather, Michael Moore. Thank you Grandad for always nurturing my interest in history. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II – P.D. EAST: “A PROFESSIONAL NON-CONFORMIST.” .................. 18 CHAPTER III - BUFORD POSEY: “NOT TIMID, NOR SHY.” ................................... 43 CHAPTER IV – RALPH NOONKESTER: “THE WHOLE ROOF FELL IN.” ............. 74 CHAPTER V - CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 97 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 103 v CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION “Posey, we’ve eliminated three of your friends tonight, and you’re next.” In the early hours of June 22, 1964, Neshoba County, Mississippi, resident Buford W. Posey hung up the telephone on a man he assumed was the infamous Ku Klux Klan Kleagle Edgar Ray Killen. Later that week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an exhaustive manhunt for three men who Posey knew were already dead.1 Freedom Summer had barely completed its first week organizing African American voters in Mississippi when the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a notoriously violent faction based out of Laurel, Mississippi, kidnapped and murdered James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. After entering the hostile environment, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) volunteers disappeared during a visit to the recently torched Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In the weeks before Goodman and Schwerner departed, Posey warned the native New Yorkers of the risks that would accompany their journey to the Magnolia State. When visiting Schwerner in Meridian, Posey added, “Mickey, don’t go to Neshoba County. They’ll kill you.”2 The two men expected a certain level of violence, but neither imagined that their lives were seriously at risk. Despite weeks of preparation and intense training at Ohio’s Western College for Women, nothing could prepare the northern volunteers for the hate that engulfed the state of Mississippi. 1 Buford Posey. Interview by Wesley French. 12 October 2007. Transcript. Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage (COHCH). McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Mississippi Digital Library, USM Libraries. Web. 12. January. 2016. 2 Joe Atkin, “The Ghosts of Buford Posey: A Civil Rights Legend,” Hattiesburg American, September 4, 1995, 5. 1 Posey, on the other hand, had lived through the terror. As the first and only white member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Neshoba County branch, he witnessed the forceful backlash against the Civil Rights Movement firsthand. With the resurgence of militant white supremacy in the early 1950s, the threat of violence followed anyone who challenged the deep-rooted system. Unlike Goodman and Schwerner, Posey as a white southerner was familiar with the risks attached to activism. In an environment in which whiteness and racism were inseparable, his contribution to the fight for racial equality was an aberration and one worthy of greater attention. On that fateful June morning in 1964, Posey received little attention. His extensive knowledge of the dangerous networks in Neshoba County was unusual, but the FBI did not treat his report of a threatening phone call from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) with urgency. Only in the weeks following the disappearance of the three Freedom Summer workers did anyone acknowledge Posey’s previously ignored voice. On July 1, 1964, he agreed to a live national interview on NBC News.3 Fully aware of the risks it involved, Posey used this forum to speak out publicly against the Philadelphia residents responsible for killing Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. In doing so, Posey was one of the first people to implicate the city’s sheriff and suspected KKK member, Lawrence A. Rainey. Unsurprisingly, Posey was increasingly ostracized in the weeks following the broadcast. Many in his local community viewed his willingness to challenge segregation as a serious betrayal. The NBC interview so angered one local woman that she slammed 3 “$1 Million Suit Filed Against NBC, others,” Neshoba-Democrat, July 23, 1964. Accessed November 12, 2015. http://archive.is/RDNHw. 2 her hands on her television set proclaiming, “Buford Posey does not represent the thinking people of Neshoba County.”4 Forced to leave the Masonic Lodge where he was staying at the time, he fled to Tennessee. Posey left Philadelphia’s hostile environment on June 30, 1964. Initially intending to travel through Jackson, he changed his route in response to rumors of a KKK plot to kill him in the capital. Before heading to his final destination, Posey stopped for gas at a service station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In the overwhelmingly violent atmosphere, being recognized for his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement could have
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