Mississippi: The Closed Society

Some Letters from the Closed Society

Some Letters from the Closed Society In this brief book I have made no effort to tell the day-by-day story of the events in Mississippi leading up to and since the insurrection of September 30, 1962. This is a story crying to be told, but it would require more tune than is at my disposal. Furthermore it would require a thorough search into the files of the United States Department of Justice, the Board of Trustees of Higher Learning, the offices of the governor and attorney general of Mississippi, dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country, and many other agencies and individuals. That would be a mere beginning. Such a project would necessitate above all free access to the minds of major participants, an unlikely prospect now or later. It is extremely doubtful that some of those ultimately involved in the various state-federallocal clashes could give an accurate account of their participation even if they were so disposed. As an on-stage observer of much that happened, I wrote many hundreds of letters, of some of which I made carbons. While these letters may contain errors of fact and perhaps of judgment, they do reveal thoughts and emotions in tunes of stress in a way which is impossible for me to recapture now. Although I am somewhat doubtful of the wisdom of publishing these bits of evidence so soon after the events described, I have decided to do it hi the interest of getting before the public, and 159 160 Mississippi: The Closed Society particularly the people of Mississippi, a partial narrative of what really happened at Ole Miss. This may encourage others to do the same, and as the testimony piles up, the chances of getting at the whole truth will be measurably enhanced. Most of these letters were written to my son and daughter, both of whom lived on the campus of the University of Mississippi from infancy. At the time of the correspondence Betty (Virginia Elizabeth) was a twenty-year-old junior at Wellesley College. Bill (James William) had graduated from Harvard University inJune, 1962, had been commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the United States Army in August, and was first home on leave (September-December, 1962), then for a period (December -February, 1963) in France as a civilian, home again for a week or so, and thereafter at Fort Benning, Georgia. Their nine-year-old sister, Gail, frequently mentioned, was at home in Faculty House 6. There are several letters (self-explanatory, I hope) addressed to Mississippi and Tennessee newspapers, and a few to individuals who are identified. For the period involved I have saved well over a thousand letters from people of every frame of mind. I am aware that where two sides to a correspondence exist, it is far better historical practice to disclose both. For obvious reasons, however, only my own letters (and several of William Silver's) are printed here. To be sure, I did not answer every letter I received. Some could not be answered, some I chose not to answer in kind, many I could only answer by writing this book. There are, in addition, a few self-explanatory communications by other hands. Some Letters from the Closed Society 161 Published in the New York Times October 2, 1962 DISAGREEMENT OF FACULTY To the Editor of the New York Times: Your coverage of the Meredith case has been generally excellent . It is not true, however, that Governor Barnett had unanimous university support. The Mississippi professors have never reached consensus on a solution for the race problem; they range from stanch segregationist to integrationist. Hardly one among them, however, has failed to take offense at Governor Barnett's handling of the present crisis. Education, even to the most advanced degrees, does not guarantee anyone a monopoly on truth. At the same time, men who have spent their lives mastering and teaching the various disciplines guard their "facts" jealously. So it was when Governor Barnett committed Mississippi to a course which in all its particulars flew in the face of these facts he insulted the Ole Miss faculty's intelligence, and won its passive resistance. The "never-never land" which the Governor described, in which Mississippi could successfully ignore Federal law, struck even the most confirmed Southerners among the educators as unparalleled folly. Most found it hard to believe that the Governor could seriously propose "interposition...