Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights

In 1956, two years after the U.S. Supreme court unanimously outlawed legally imposed racial segregation in public schools, Mississippi created the State Sovereignty Commission.

This was the executive agency established "to protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi...from encroachment thereon by the Federal Government." The code word encroachment implied the state's strong resolve to preserve and protect the racial status quo. In the nomenclature the formality of the word sovereignty supposedly lent dignity to the actions of the Commission. For all practical purposes the Sovereignty Commission intended to wage this Deep South state's monolithic campaign against desegregation and against the ever intensifying crusade for civil rights in Mississippi.

In 1998 the papers of the Commission were made available for examination. No other state has such extensive and detailed documentary records from a similar agency. Exposed to public light, they unmasked the Comm