Oral history with Frank Ellis Smith

              Oral history with Frank Ellis Smith
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
Frank Ellis Smith, a six- term U. S. representative from Mississippi, is probably best known as the public official who favored James Meredith's entry to the University of Mississippi. He is also the author of six books, including The Yazoo River, Congressman from Mississippi, Look Away from Dixie, The Politics of Conversation, Mississippians All, and The Land Between the Lakes. For a more lengthy biography, please refer to the Mississippi Oral History Program's first interview with Mr. Smith. Since completing that interview, Mr. Smith has been named a Life Fellow of the Southern Regional Council and professor emeritus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Table of Contents
I. Politics in the Delta
II. Civil Rights Years
A. Citizens' Councils
B. Southern Manifest
C. Interaction with Senators from Mississippi
D. James Meredith
III. 1962 Congressional Elections
IV. 1964
Transcript
This is an oral history interview for the Mississippi Oral History Program at the University of Southern Mississippi with Frank Ellis Smith of Jackson, Mississippi, a former United States congressman from the state of Mississippi. The interview was recorded in Mr. Smith's bookstore, Choctaw Books, on 926 North Street, Jackson, Mississippi, on August 27, 1993. The interviewer is Yasuhiro Katagiri, a Fulbright scholar from Japan at Southern. mus- coh. smithf. doc Page 1 of 9