Oral history with Mr. Kenneth Dean

              Oral history with Mr. Kenneth Dean
F341.5 . M57 vol. 691
Funding for this project provided by The Mississippi State Legislature, The Mississippi Humanities Council, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This transcription of an oral history by the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage of The University of Southern Mississippi may not be reproduced or published in any form except that quotation of short excerpts of unrestricted transcripts and the associated tape recordings is permissible providing written consent is obtained from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. When literary rights have been retained by the interviewee, written permission to use the material must be obtained from both the interviewee and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
The Rev. Kenneth Dean is a native of Rogersville, Tennessee. He attended Colgate Rochester, a Baptist divinity school in Rochester, N. Y., and later served as chair of the school’s social action committee. From 1964 to 1970, he served as executive director of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations. In 1970, Rev. Dean and the United Church of Christ won a lawsuit to strip the FCC license from WLBT, a Jackson television station. Rev. Dean worked as the station’s president until 1980. Currently, Rev. Dean works as the assistant to the mayor of Rochester, N. Y.
Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Race relations growing up
III. School desegregation
IV. Freedom of choice
V. Resistance to racial mixing
VI. Black leadership
VII. Joe Patterson and John Bell Williams
VIII. Local reactions to desegregation
IX. John Stennis and James Eastland
X. WLBT license challenge
XI. Public accommodations
XII. FBI agents; personal threats
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