Clyde Kennard (June 12, 1927July 4, 1963) was an American
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
veteran and civil rights leader from
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...
. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at the all-white
Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) to complete his undergraduate degree started at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. Although the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
had ruled in 1954 that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, the college rejected him. Kennard was among the thousands of local activists in the 1940s and 1950s who pressed for their rights.
After Kennard published a letter in the local paper about integrated education, the
Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (also called the MSSC or Sov-Com) was a state agency in Mississippi active from 1956 to 1973 and tasked with fighting integration and controlling civil rights activism. It was overseen by the List of G ...
, a state-supported agency, conspired to have him arrested on false charges. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years at
Parchman Penitentiary, the state's notorious high-security prison. He became terminally ill with cancer. The state governor refused to pardon him, but released him on parole in January 1963. Kennard died that year in July. After publication in 2005 of evidence that Kennard had been framed, supporters tried to secure a posthumous pardon for him, but Governor
Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he previously ser ...
refused. Supporters gained Barbour's cooperation in petitioning the court to review Kennard's case, and in 2006, his conviction was overturned completely.
Early life and education
Kennard was born in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...
, in 1927. When he was 12, he went to Chicago and lived with his older sister Sara, in order to go full-time to public school. He graduated from
Wendell Phillips High School. He enlisted in the US Army, serving for seven years: first in Germany after World War II, then during the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
serving as a paratrooper.
[Robert Shetterly, "Clyde Kennard"](_blank)
Americans Who Tell the Truth website, 2006-2015
Kennard returned to Chicago after his service, starting college at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. In 1955, after completing his junior year, Kennard returned to Hattiesburg to help his mother after his stepfather died.
He had purchased land for her in nearby
Eatonville, Mississippi where he started a chicken farm. He taught Sunday school at the Mary Magdalene Baptist Church he attended in Eatonville.
[Kemp, Ed (July 4, 2013)]
"Civil rights trailblazer Clyde Kennard remembered"
''The Clarion-Ledger'' (Jackson, MS), 5 July 2013.
Fight for education
Given his need to stay in Hattiesburg, Kennard sought to enroll at
Mississippi Southern College, a state institution, in 1956, 1957 and 1959. It was still segregated despite the ruling by the US Supreme Court in ''
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'' (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
James P. Coleman offered to have the state pay Kennard's tuition elsewhere at a private college, but Kennard declined. He preferred that college as it was the closest to his home, a major factor given his family situation.
On December 6, 1958, Kennard published a letter in the ''
Hattiesburg American'' newspaper. He wrote that he was a "segregationist by nature" but "integrationist by choice." He gave a reasoned explanation as to why segregation in education was impractical and bound to be replaced by an integrated system.
Zack Van Landingham of the
Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (also called the MSSC or Sov-Com) was a state agency in Mississippi active from 1956 to 1973 and tasked with fighting integration and controlling civil rights activism. It was overseen by the List of G ...
, which ostensibly encouraged the state's public image but worked to suppress activists for civil rights, urged J. H. White, the
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
president of
Mississippi Vocational College, to persuade Kennard to end his quest at Mississippi Southern College. When Kennard could not be dissuaded, Van Landingham and Dudley Connor, a Hattiesburg lawyer, collaborated to suppress his activism. Files from the Sovereignty Commission, which the state opened for public review in 1998, showed that its officials went to the extreme of considering forcing Kennard into an accident or bombing his car to stop his quest.
[About.com]
"Montana Governor pardons 70, Mississippi Governor pardons none"
. Retrieved March 16, 2007. Instead, they framed him for a criminal offense.
Framing, conviction and imprisonment
The Sovereignty Commission conspired to have Kennard framed for a crime. On September 15, 1959, he was arrested in Hattiesburg by constables Charlie Ward and Lee Daniels for reckless driving. After he was jailed, Ward and Daniels claimed before Justice of the Peace T. C. Hobby to have found five half-pints of whiskey, along with other liquor,
[, 23, 0, 56, 1, 1, 1, 1584 Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH).](_blank)
/ref> under the seat of his car. Mississippi was a "dry" state, and possession of liquor was illegal until 1966. Kennard was convicted and fined $600. He soon became the victim of an unofficial local economic boycott (also a tactic of the Sovereignty Commission and White Citizens Councils), which cut off his credit.
Kennard was arrested again on September 25, 1961, with an alleged accomplice for the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed from the Forrest County Cooperative warehouse. Kennard was prosecuted and his illiterate "accomplice," Johnny Lee Roberts, testified against him. On November 21, 1960, an all-white jury
Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...
deliberated 10 minutes and found Kennard guilty. (At this time, because of having been disenfranchised under the 1890 constitution and unable to vote in Mississippi, blacks were also excluded from juries.)
Kennard was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served in Parchman Penitentiary, the state's high-security facility. This sentence prevented his ever applying again to any of Mississippi's all-white colleges.[Timothy J. Minchin and John A. Salmond, "The Saddest Story of the Whole Movement": The Clyde Kennard Case and the Search for Racial Reconciliation in Mississippi, 1955–2007"](_blank)
, Mississippi Dept. of Archives & History, Fall 2009, accessed 18 June 2015 Roberts was given five years' probation and freed. In 2005, when an investigation was re-opened into the case, Roberts testified under oath that Kennard was innocent: "Kennard did not ask me to steal, Kennard did not ask me to break into the co-op, Kennard did not ask me to do anything illegal."
Just after the conclusion of the trial, Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and soldier who was the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. Evers, a United States Army veteran who served in World War II, was engaged in efforts ...
, president of the Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
chapter of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
, was cited by the court for contempt after he issued a statement that Kennard's conviction was "a mockery of judicial justice." Evers was fined $100 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, but on June 12, 1961, the Mississippi Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in 1818 per the terms of the first constitution of the state and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appeals from 1832 to 1869. The court ...
overturned his conviction.
Cancer and death
While imprisoned in 1961, Kennard was diagnosed with colon cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...
and taken to the University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...
hospital for surgery. The medical staff recommended that he be put in their custody or that they be allowed to make regular visits to check on his condition. Authorities sent him back to Parchman Prison, where he worked as a laborer.
Learning of his illness, civil rights leaders in Hattiesburg
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 48,730 in 2020, making it the 5th m ...
embarked on a campaign to secure Kennard's release. After the story gained national attention in 1963, as the Civil Rights Movement was growing across the Deep South, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett gave Kennard an "indefinite suspended sentence" or parole.
Kennard was released on January 30, 1963. Comedian Dick Gregory paid for his flight to Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
for medical treatment. Kennard twice underwent surgery at Billings Hospital on the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
campus over the next five months, but he died of cancer ten days after the second procedure.
On July 7, a funeral service for Kennard was held at Metropolitan Funeral Parlor in Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. A poem he wrote on April 16, 1962, was read to the congregation.
He had titled the poem "Ode to the Death Angel"
Oh here you come again
Old chilly death of Ol'
To plot out life
And test immortal soul
I saw you fall against the raging sea
I cheated you then and now you'll not catch me
I know your face
It's known in every race
Your speed is fast
And along the way
Your shadow you cast
High in the sky
You thought you had me then
I landed safely
But here you are again
I see you paused upon that forward pew
When you think I'm asleep
I'm watching you
Why must you hound me so everywhere I go?
It's true my eyes are dim
My hands are growing cold
Well take me on then, that
I might at last become my soul
Kennard was buried three days later in his family's plot at Mary Magdelene Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...
.
Pardon efforts
On December 31, 2005, Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter, published an interview with the informant Johnny Lee Roberts. He asserted that his testimony in 1960 was false, and that Kennard had no connection to the crime.[About.com]
"Mississippi exonerates Clyde Kennard."
Retrieved March 16, 2007. Mitchell, who had been investigating the case for many years, had previously aided investigations in some other infamous "cold cases" from the Civil Rights Era.
In 2006, the cause was joined by teacher Barry Bradford and three of his high school students from Illinois: Mona Ghadiri, Agnes Mazur, and Callie McCune, as well as Professor Steven A. Drizin of the Northwestern University School of Law
The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (formerly known as Northwestern University School of Law from 1891 to 2015) is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. The law school is l ...
, Center On Wrongful Convictions. They led a coalition to convince Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he previously ser ...
to issue Kennard a full pardon. (Bradford had worked with other high school students to collect information that led to the successful 2002 prosecution of murderers of the three civil rights workers in 1964.)
Against the advice of leading Mississippi politicians, academics, and media, Barbour declined to give the pardon, concerned that it was for a deceased person. His spokesman said that Barbour had never pardoned anyone and would not do so for Kennard. He did acknowledge that Kennard was "entitled
to have his rights restored." Barbour designated March 30 as Clyde Kennard Day in the state, to attract attention and to commemorate Kennard's "determination, the injustices he suffered, and his significant role in the history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi".
Students from the University of Southern Mississippi had previously joined the campaign to clear Kennard's name and collected more than 1,500 signatures in support of the pardon. They noted that in 2006, USM had more than 2,000 black students. Despite pleas from four former Mississippi governors, on May 10, 2006, the Mississippi State Parole Board refused to recommend a pardon. The Board's vote was split according to racial lines, with all of the white members voting to oppose a pardon recommendation.
Every major newspaper in Mississippi denounced the decisions of the Governor and the Board. Kennard's brother-in-law, Rev. Willie Grant, expressed disappointment over the Board's decision. He said the state appeared to be trying to avoid any potential litigation damages over wrongful imprisonment. The Kennard family had already said publicly that they had no interest in seeking damages.
Resolution
Bradford and the students from Illinois shifted their efforts to using the courts to secure a reversal of the conviction. They contacted Charles Pickering, a former Federal judge, and William Winter, a former Mississippi governor, who fashioned precedent-setting legal strategy.
Using research by Bradford and the students, and the exhaustive legal research prepared by Drizin and Bobby Owens, a Northwestern University law student from Mississippi, Pickering and Winter finally succeeded in clearing Kennard's name. Judge Bob Helfrich accepted a petition from "Barbour, several former judges, a university president and others" to rehear the case. After arguments by Pickering and Winter, heading a blue-ribbon legal team, on May 17, 2006, Helfrich threw out Kennard's original burglary conviction, stating, "To me, this is not a black and white issue; it's a right and wrong issue. To correct that wrong, I am compelled to do the right thing." Barbour said that Helfrich's decision was the "appropriate, constitutional way for this innocent man to be exonerated."
Six days after Helfrich's decree, white supremacist Richard Barrett filed documents to overturn the decision. Barrett was a vocal supporter of Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in federal court in June 2005 of manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964. Barrett's motion was summarily dismissed by Judge Helfrich. His appeal to the Mississippi State Supreme Court was likewise dismissed, ending the legal saga.
Legacy and honors
*In February 1993, the University of Southern Mississippi renamed its campus Student Services Building as Kennard-Washington Hall in honor of Clyde Kennard and Dr. Walter Washington (then president of Alcorn State University, a historically black college
Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
).
*On November 14, 2013, the 50th anniversary of Clyde Kennard's death, a commemoration event with a portrait unveiling was held in Washington, D.C.
*On February 2, 2018, the University of Southern Mississippi unveiled a Freedom Trail marker in front of Kennard-Washington Hall commemorating Kennard's life and his role in the civil rights movement.
*On May 11, 2018, Clyde Kennard was awarded a Posthumous Honorary Doctoral degree by the University of Southern Mississippi.
*On May 27, 2021, the Clyde Kennard Memorial Highway was dedicated along U.S. Highway 49 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
References
External links
* Timothy J. Minchin and John A. Salmond
"'The Saddest Story of the Whole Movement': The Clyde Kennard Case and the Search for Racial Reconciliation in Mississippi, 1955–2007"
''The Journal of Mississippi History,'' Fall 2009.
"Clyde Kennard"
Archives of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Many details on Kennard's life up to 1959 are available here - enough to considerably expand this article.
*Robert Shetterly
Painting of Clyde Kennard and biography
Americans Who Tell the Truth.
A compilation of Clyde Kennard's letters to the editor and other key documents about his case.
, Zinn Education Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennard, Clyde
African-American activists
1927 births
1963 deaths
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Chicago
Military personnel from Chicago
People from Hattiesburg, Mississippi
School desegregation pioneers
American civil rights activists
American anti-racism activists
Education segregation in Mississippi
Overturned convictions in the United States
Prisoners and detainees of Mississippi
Deaths from colorectal cancer in the United States
Deaths from cancer in Mississippi