Oral history with Professor Charles Marx, state highway patrolman, retired

              Oral history with Professor Charles Marx, State highway patrolman, retired
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Charles Marx was born November 23, 1932, in the small town of McComb, Mississippi, to a family several generations settled in the state. His parents were separated early in his life and his mother was the breadwinner for the family. He recalls that " she, myself, and my brother. We were a closely knit little family."
Mr. Marx attended schools in McComb until his mother moved the family across the state to the small town of Beaumont to manage a cafe and service station which had been purchased by Charles's grandfather. He recalls that " my mother ran the cafe and I ran the service station." At the age of fifteen " a conspiracy was formed and we lied" and Charles enlisted in the United States Air Force and served three years, three months in a heavy bombardment wing of the Strategic Air command based at Roswell, New Mexico. He recalls that " I was discharged and it always struck me as being rather comical that at that time I was then eligible to enter, age- wise."
Having become acquainted with several members of the state highway patrol, Charles decided to make that a career. He took the required examinations, attended the patrol school, and embarked upon a career which was to extend over more than two decades and encompass the historic period of civil rights conflict. Charles Marx was not content simply to be a highway patrolman, and he pressed on with his studies - working and attending law school. He passed the Mississippi Bar, was admitted to practice in federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, and was appointed attorney for the highway patrol.
Because he had served sufficient time for early retirement from the patrol and " I had been caught up in the pressures of the day to day politics of Mississippi, fighting the battles, in the courtrooms, of the patrol until I was somewhat weary," Charles did retire to accept a position teaching Criminal Justice at the University of Southern Mississippi. Subsequently, in 1980, with the new gubernatorial administration of William Winter he left the university to become special assistant to the state attorney general, Mr. Bill Alain, a position in which he was in at this writing.
Mr. Charles Marx is married to the former Ernestine Gatlin, of Webster County, Mississippi, and they are parents of three children, two sons and a daughter. mus- coh. marxc. doc Page 1 of 63