“The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him. His forehead slants back. His nose is different. His lips are different, and his color is sure different.” Ross Barnett-1959
To most African Americans, the name Ross Barnett is unfamiliar, unlike David Duke, George Wallace or Richard Spencer, the architect of Charlottsville, where one of his psycho followers killed Heather Heyer for her stance against racism. Ross Barnett was one of the biggest racist of the 20th century. He was also Governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964.
Barnett was born in 1898. He was the son of a Confederate War veteran. After a stint in the Army, he earned an undergraduate degree and later a LLB from the University Of Mississippi. After some success in private practice, he decided to throw his hat into politics. He ran for Governor twice before he was elected in 1960. His campaign song… ”
“Roll with Ross, roll with Ross, he’s his own boss
For segregation, one hundred percent
He’s not a moderate like some of the gents
He’ll fight integration with forceful intent.”
In 1962 a black man named James Meredith attempted to integrate the University of Mississippi.The day before at a football game between Ole Miss and Kentucky, the band played Go Mississippi, the states official state song.. Now “Roll With Ross,” has the same melody. The song was enthusiastically received in front of 41,000 fans at a formal dedication September 29, 1962, by Governor Barnett in Oxford, Mississippi. I bring this up because the very next day history records the “Ole Miss Riot Of 1962.” The Ole Miss riot of 1962 was fought between Southern racist and federal and state forces on the night of September 30, 1962. The racist were protesting the enrollment of James Meredith, a black US military veteran, at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. Two civilians were killed and over 300 people were injured, including one-third of the US Marshals deployed. Of course the #@@! happened at night because that’s when the racist come out. Reminds me of a song.. “The racist come out at night.. The racist come out at nightttt.. The racist come out at night..”
Anywho, It was Barnett who arranged for the arrest of Freedom Riders in 1961 and then imprisoned them at Parchman Farm. The Freedom Riders were strip-searched, had beds taken away, and were humiliated and brutalized in the prison. Until the 1960s, Mississippians had known no alternative to segregation, and many linked the separation to the Bible. Barnett, a Baptist Sunday school teacher, declared “The Good Lord was the original segregationist. He put the black man in Africa. … He made us white because he wanted us white, and He intended that we should stay that way.” Barnett said that Mississippi had the largest percent of black Americans because “they love our way of life here, and that way is segregation.” No Mississippi had the most cotton fields boss. That’s why there were so many African American’s there.They were the children of the slaves. I am trying to keep this article without commentary, but its hard when you discover this type of hard fully loaded racism.
In 1963, Barnett tried to prevent the men’s basketball team of Mississippi State University from playing an NCAA Tournament game against the racially integrated team from Loyola of Chicago. The team defied Barnett by sneaking out of the state and playing the game, which they lost to the eventual national champions. Oh yeah, something else I want to mention. For those that remember the character Clayton Townley in Mississippi Burning, he was the racist that owned the wood mill. Well at a Klan rally he attended in the movie he said, ” I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs. I love and I respect our heritage.” It was Barnett that said it at a football game in the middle of the field after he was introduced.
After his lost in 1964, he showed up again on the racist circuit at the first jury trial of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in February 1964. Beckwith was at that time accused and later convicted in the shooting death of Megar Evers. some 30 years later in 1994. In 1964 there were two trials. In the first trial the all white jury was unable to agree on a verdict and it was ruled a hung jury. It looked kinda shaky for Beckwith in the second trial until former Governor Ross Barnett interrupted the proceedings, while Myrlie Evers, Megar’s wife, was testifying, to shake hands with Beckwith. Are you starting to feel me.. This was a Mississippi Crispy White Grand Klegon Pointy Hat Of The First Order!!
Barnett attempted a political comeback by running for governor again in 1967 but lost, finishing a distant fourth in the state primary. He expressed no remorse for his role in segregation. Asked in 1982 about the Ole Miss riot, Barnett said, “‘I have no regrets, no apologies to make. Generally speaking, I’d do the same things again.” Barnett died in 1987 at the age of 89 from a hopefully long and painful death. May his rotten soul eat chicken and watermelon at the feet of really dark slaves in hell for all eternity.
JFK and Ross Barnett Fight Over Integration Of Ole Miss.
Reprint: © Hill1News 2019
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