Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, State Government Funded Racist Department: Greenwood

Monday, July 09, 2012

Fr. Nathaniel and the Greenwood, Mississippi Movement (civil rights)

Interesting reading -- Fr. Nathaniel and the Greenwood Movement.

Rev. Nathaniel Maciejewski, O.F.M. (St. Francis Mission - Greenwood, MS)

Here is a fascinating link to a scholarly paper by PAUL T. MURRAY, professor of sociology at Siena College in Loudonville, New York. This article is part of a larger research project on the involvement of
Catholics in the Civil Rights Movement

http://mdah.state.ms.us/pubs/JMH_fall2010_murray.pdf

and a link to a Mississippi Sovereignty Commission file on Fr. Nathaniel

CLICK HERE

You can also search for this file, here.

Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Links

On Wikipedia: ” The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency directed by the governor of Mississippi 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 the legal racial segregation enforced by the state, in a more positive light.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_State_Sovereignty_Commission Facts About Mississippi Sovereignty Commission: Some facts about the now-defunct Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, whose files were opened to the public Tuesday. FOUNDED: Created by legislative act in 1956, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education outlawed segregated schools. MISSION: The Legislature created the commission to "protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi and her sister states" from federal government interference. In practice, it worked to preserve a segregated society and to oppose school integration. In secret, the commission harassed and spied on activists, branding many of them racial agitators and communist infiltrators. http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/bh/badco/missSov.htm MDAH Digital Collection: Sovereignty Commission Online http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/ The Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission by Jo Freeman (2001): “On Thursday, August 18, 1966 I entered the Bellflower Church in Grenada, Mississippi, which the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was using as its headquarters for a voter registration project. I had been a fieldworker for SCLC for over a year but in Mississippi only since June.” http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/FSMMiss.htm