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The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency, directed by the governor of Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
, that existed from 1956 to 1977. The commission's stated objective was to "[...] protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states" from "federal encroachment." Initially it was formed to coordinate activities to portray the state and segregation in a more positive light. The "sovereignty" the state was trying to protect was against federal enforcement of the US Supreme Court ruling on integrating schools, and laws that protected citizens against state encroachment on suffrage and basic civil rights.






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The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency, directed by the governor of Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
, that existed from 1956 to 1977. The commission's stated objective was to "[...] protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states" from "federal encroachment." Initially it was formed to coordinate activities to portray the state and segregation in a more positive light. The "sovereignty" the state was trying to protect was against federal enforcement of the US Supreme Court ruling on integrating schools, and laws that protected citizens against state encroachment on suffrage and basic civil rights. The state also opposed the Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights Act

Civil Rights Act may refer to:...
 of 1964 and Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act

The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States....
 of 1965.

As the state's public relations campaign failed to dampen rising civil rights activism, the commission put people to work as a de facto
De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning the fact" or in practice but not necessarily ordained by law. It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique that are found in the common experience as created or developed without or contrary to a regulation....
 intelligence organization trying to identify those citizens in Mississippi who might be working for civil rights, be allied with communists, or just tipped state surveillance if their associations, activities, and travels did not seem to conform to segregationist norms. Swept up on lists of people under suspicion by such broad criteria were tens of thousands of African-American and white professionals, teachers, and government workers in agricultural and other agencies, churches and community organizations.

Formal structure

The Mississippi Legislature
Mississippi Legislature

The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower house Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper house Mississippi Senate, with 52 members....
 created the commission in 1956, in reaction to federally ordered school integration following the Supreme Court
Supreme court

A supreme court, also called a court of last resort or high court, is in some jurisdictions the highest court within that jurisdiction's court system, whose rulings are not subject to further review by another court....
 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education

'Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka', Case citation , was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, which overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy v....
 (1954). The membership was composed of 12 appointed and legislatively elected members, and the Governor of Mississippi, Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi

The Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi is the second-highest ranking executive officer in Mississippi, right below the governor. The office of lieutenant governor was established when Mississippi became a state, abolished for a few decades in the first half of the 19th century, and restored later in the century....
, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Mississippi and the Attorney General of Mississippi ex officio; the governor sat as the chairman. Its initial budget was $250,000 a year.

Activities

The commission's activities included attempting to preserve the state's segregation and Jim Crow laws, opposing school integration, and ensuring portrayal of the state "in a positive light". Among its first employees were a former FBI agent and a transfer from the state highway patrol. "The agency outwardly extolled racial harmony, but it secretly paid investigators and spies to gather both information and misinformation."

Staff of the commission worked closely with, and in some cases funded, the notorious White Citizens' Council
White Citizens' Council

The White Citizens' Council was an United States white supremacy organization. With about 15,000 members, mostly in the Deep South, the group was well known for its opposition to racial integration in the South....
s. From 1960 to 1964, it secretly funded the White Citizens Council, a private organization, with $190,000 of state funds.

The commission officially closed in 1977, four years after Governor Bill Waller
Bill Waller

William Lowe "Bill" Waller, Sr. is an United States politician. A United States Democratic Party, he served as List of Governors of Mississippi of Mississippi from 1972 to 1976....
 vetoed funding. After the agency was disbanded, state lawmakers ordered the files sealed until 2027 (50 years later).

After a lawsuit, in 1989 a federal judge ordered the records opened, with some exceptions for still-living people. Legal challenges delayed the records' availability to the public until March 1998. Once unsealed, records revealed more than 87,000 names of people about whom the state had collected information, or included as "suspects." Today, the records of the commission are available online for search by computer. (See link below.)|

The records also revealed the state's deep complicity in the murders of three civil rights workers at Philadelphia, Mississippi, because its investigator A.L. Hopkins passed on information about the workers, including the car license number of a new civil rights worker, to the commission. Records showed the commission passed the information to the Sheriff of Neshoba County, who was implicated in the murders.

Readings


W. Ralph Eubanks, Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey into Mississippi's Dark Past, New York: Basic Books, 2003

External links