Mississippi Heroes: White Champions of Racial Justice, 1954-1974 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798218682002)

Between 1954-1974 hundreds of courageous Black individuals in Mississippi defied intimidation, police arrests, violence, and death to gain justice and equality in the courts, in education, job opportunities, and the right to vote. A very small minority of White Mississippians supported their efforts by championing racial justice and equality in the courts, in educational opportunity, in job opportunities, and the right to vote. There was a much larger silent minority who, for a variety of reasons, did not publicly articulate their views on equality and racial justice for Black Mississippians. In many instances, connections with family, church, business, profession, and organization combined with the coercion of the Sovereignty Commission, intimidation and threats from the Ku Klux Klan, meant that public discourse exposed them and their families to substantial risks. Undeterred by these pressures and threats, this minority persevered in championing racial justice for Black Mississippians.

This book hails this minority as Mississippi Heroes. It is inspired in part by Mississippi Heroes, edited by Dean Faulkner and Hunter Cole, and published in 1980 by the University Press of Mississippi. It consists of scholarly essays about ten Mississippi heroes who contributed to the state's identity. They define a Mississippi hero as an individual whose contribution was marked by "a kind of religious conviction, qualities of leadership, charisma, and aura" that differentiates them from ordinary people. Although they specify "hero" is generic for both genders, no women and only one Black, Medgar Evers, are included. In contrast, this book reflects the current focus of civil rights scholarship on ordinary White Mississippians whose support for racial justice in the 1950s helped unleash forces that produced momentous social and political changes in Mississippi. These White champions of racial justice and equality for Black Mississippians were considered traitors whose activities would destroy the Mississippi way of life. Undeterred by estrangement from friends and family, social and financial pressure to recant, and intimidation through threats of violence, they stayed the course and merit recognition as Mississippi Heroes.