Clyde Kennard project
Donation protected
The Clyde Kennard case is one of the saddest of the civil rights era. Born in 1927, Kennard was a decorated World War II and Korean War veteran from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who spent a total of six years in the military. He was also bright, energetic, and by all accounts, a kind, compassionate man who lived to help others. A devout Baptist, he never turned down a chance to serve those who needed him. He did not smoke, drink alcohol, or even consume soft drinks.
After his discharge from the military, he moved up north in 1953, began living with his sister, and attended the University of Chicago. In mid-1955 he was forced to return home after his stepfather suffered a stroke, where he took over the duties of running the family farm. Because he wanted to continue his education but had to remain close to home, he applied to enter Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi), located right in Hattiesburg. He was the first black student to do so. Even though this occurred after the Brown v Board of Education decision of 1954, the South, especially Mississippi, fought back against this integration decision of the US Supreme Court and did all it could to keep white schools white. Kennard's application was denied.
After his stepfather died in 1956, Kennard put his education goals on hold for a few years, but in late 1958 he again applied to attend his local college. This prompted the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a three-year-old spy agency overseen by the governor's office, to conduct a secret investigation into his past, where they hoped to dig up dirt to disqualify him from acceptance without having to mention race. They could find nothing negative on him at all, and so the lead investigator found respected black men in Kennard's community and urged them to talk Kennard into withdrawing his application. Kennard also attended a secret meeting with Mississippi governor J. P. Coleman, who threatened to close all the public schools in the state if Kennard persisted.
Kennard withdrew his application, but within months he resubmitted it. Again, the Sovereignty Commission worked behind the scenes to find a way to disqualify him legally. When Kennard met with college president William McCain in September 1959, Kennard received an official rejection letter, but when he left the office and went to his car, two police constables were there waiting. They arrested him, telling Kennard he had been driving recklessly between his home and the campus. Once he got to the jail, the constables told him they found five bottles of alcohol in his car. Mississippi was a dry state; thus, liquor was illegal. Internal memos of the Sovereignty Commission show that they suspected immediately that Kennard had been framed, and even knew about people who had threatened to set him up this very way. Despite what the Commission, local police, and the college know knew, everyone with this information kept silent as Kennard was tried and convicted.
Because Kennard remained vocal and public about his rights to attend Mississippi Southern College, in September 1960 he was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed (Kennard ran a poultry farm). The man who carried out the theft was given five years’ probation, but Kennard was sentenced to seven years of hard labor at Parchman Farm, the state penitentiary. A felony conviction would forever disqualify him from entering a state sponsored school.
While at Parchman, Kennard developed intestinal cancer. He was not allowed treatment at first, but when he became too weak to work in the prison’s fields, he was finally allowed to go to the hospital, where he was diagnosed and underwent surgery. The warden at first would not allow him to go to his follow up visits to the doctor, but instead sent him back to the fields. His condition worsened and finally, after a campaign to free him made headlines, Gov. Ross Barnett commuted his sentence and let him go home in January 1963. By then it was too late. Kennard died less than six months later on July 4 at age thirty-six.
In 2006, the man who had carried out the chicken feed theft admitted to a reporter that Kennard never asked him to steal, and that Kennard had done nothing wrong at all. Because of this retracted testimony, a sworn affidavit that followed, and through the very dedicated work of others dedicated to justice in this case, Kennard's conviction was posthumously overturned. Years earlier in 1993 the University of Southern Mississippi named its student services building after Kennard and Walter Washington, the first black student to receive a PhD from the institution. In 2018 Kennard was also awarded an honorary doctorate from this school—the one that had rejected his application decades earlier.
This book is coming along nicely. It will be as thoroughly researched and will be as compelling a read as my book, Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement. I expect to finish it before the end of 2019 and hope to see it published in 2020.
The Kennard story is an important one, and although it was well-known in its day, it has been largely forgotten. I want my book to make him a household name.
If you donate to this project, you will help me get this book done and allow me to meet my deadline. I anticipate two more trips to Mississippi to conclude my research and have several photo rights to purchase. If you choose to help me, your donation will result in your receiving the following:
Level 1- Donations of $15-24: Your name will appear in the book in a special acknowledgements section, thanking you for your contribution.
Level 2- Donations of $25-49: You will receive the above acknowledgement in the book, plus a more prominent shout-out online on the book's page within my forthcoming website, deveryanderson.com.
Level 3- Donations of $50-99: You will receive everything from levels 1 and 2, plus I will send you PDFs of my research, which will include thousands of documents, newspapers, court transcripts, interviews, etc.
Level 4- Donations of $100 and beyond: You will receive everything from levels 1, 2, and 3, plus a signed copy of the book after it is published.
Thanks so much for your help with this project. I think you will be pleased with the result.
Devery
After his discharge from the military, he moved up north in 1953, began living with his sister, and attended the University of Chicago. In mid-1955 he was forced to return home after his stepfather suffered a stroke, where he took over the duties of running the family farm. Because he wanted to continue his education but had to remain close to home, he applied to enter Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi), located right in Hattiesburg. He was the first black student to do so. Even though this occurred after the Brown v Board of Education decision of 1954, the South, especially Mississippi, fought back against this integration decision of the US Supreme Court and did all it could to keep white schools white. Kennard's application was denied.
After his stepfather died in 1956, Kennard put his education goals on hold for a few years, but in late 1958 he again applied to attend his local college. This prompted the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a three-year-old spy agency overseen by the governor's office, to conduct a secret investigation into his past, where they hoped to dig up dirt to disqualify him from acceptance without having to mention race. They could find nothing negative on him at all, and so the lead investigator found respected black men in Kennard's community and urged them to talk Kennard into withdrawing his application. Kennard also attended a secret meeting with Mississippi governor J. P. Coleman, who threatened to close all the public schools in the state if Kennard persisted.
Kennard withdrew his application, but within months he resubmitted it. Again, the Sovereignty Commission worked behind the scenes to find a way to disqualify him legally. When Kennard met with college president William McCain in September 1959, Kennard received an official rejection letter, but when he left the office and went to his car, two police constables were there waiting. They arrested him, telling Kennard he had been driving recklessly between his home and the campus. Once he got to the jail, the constables told him they found five bottles of alcohol in his car. Mississippi was a dry state; thus, liquor was illegal. Internal memos of the Sovereignty Commission show that they suspected immediately that Kennard had been framed, and even knew about people who had threatened to set him up this very way. Despite what the Commission, local police, and the college know knew, everyone with this information kept silent as Kennard was tried and convicted.
Because Kennard remained vocal and public about his rights to attend Mississippi Southern College, in September 1960 he was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed (Kennard ran a poultry farm). The man who carried out the theft was given five years’ probation, but Kennard was sentenced to seven years of hard labor at Parchman Farm, the state penitentiary. A felony conviction would forever disqualify him from entering a state sponsored school.
While at Parchman, Kennard developed intestinal cancer. He was not allowed treatment at first, but when he became too weak to work in the prison’s fields, he was finally allowed to go to the hospital, where he was diagnosed and underwent surgery. The warden at first would not allow him to go to his follow up visits to the doctor, but instead sent him back to the fields. His condition worsened and finally, after a campaign to free him made headlines, Gov. Ross Barnett commuted his sentence and let him go home in January 1963. By then it was too late. Kennard died less than six months later on July 4 at age thirty-six.
In 2006, the man who had carried out the chicken feed theft admitted to a reporter that Kennard never asked him to steal, and that Kennard had done nothing wrong at all. Because of this retracted testimony, a sworn affidavit that followed, and through the very dedicated work of others dedicated to justice in this case, Kennard's conviction was posthumously overturned. Years earlier in 1993 the University of Southern Mississippi named its student services building after Kennard and Walter Washington, the first black student to receive a PhD from the institution. In 2018 Kennard was also awarded an honorary doctorate from this school—the one that had rejected his application decades earlier.
This book is coming along nicely. It will be as thoroughly researched and will be as compelling a read as my book, Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement. I expect to finish it before the end of 2019 and hope to see it published in 2020.
The Kennard story is an important one, and although it was well-known in its day, it has been largely forgotten. I want my book to make him a household name.
If you donate to this project, you will help me get this book done and allow me to meet my deadline. I anticipate two more trips to Mississippi to conclude my research and have several photo rights to purchase. If you choose to help me, your donation will result in your receiving the following:
Level 1- Donations of $15-24: Your name will appear in the book in a special acknowledgements section, thanking you for your contribution.
Level 2- Donations of $25-49: You will receive the above acknowledgement in the book, plus a more prominent shout-out online on the book's page within my forthcoming website, deveryanderson.com.
Level 3- Donations of $50-99: You will receive everything from levels 1 and 2, plus I will send you PDFs of my research, which will include thousands of documents, newspapers, court transcripts, interviews, etc.
Level 4- Donations of $100 and beyond: You will receive everything from levels 1, 2, and 3, plus a signed copy of the book after it is published.
Thanks so much for your help with this project. I think you will be pleased with the result.
Devery
Organizer
Devery S. Anderson
Organizer
Salt Lake City, UT