Message from Mississippi; circa 1960

              THE MESSAGE FROM MISSISSIPPI
Address prepared for volunteer speakers of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
Gentlemen of the Club and Guests:
We appreciate so very much your kind invitation to bring you a program on Mississippi because we are concerned about what you think about us, our racial situation, our state laws, and our general way of life.
We know there is another side of the story which seldom reaches the ears of the North. It is a credit to your organization that you are interested in this other side, because it is fundamentally American to hear both sides of any controversial subject in order to form fair and objective opinions.
Every citizen of the United States must be able to recognize legitimate differences and unite on the support of basic principles essential to national security and worldwide leadership.
We, as American people, must realize that all liberals are not Communists, that all conservatives are not Fascists and that citizens who protect their sovereign rights are not defiers of the law nor violators of the Constitution.
Sometimes we have felt in Mississippi that the North seemed to know all the answers to our problems without having and knowing the problem. It makes a big difference. I invite you now to examine with me Mississippi's situation. In Mississippi 42 percent of our population is colored. In over one- third of our 82 counties, the colored outnumber the whites by either a simple majority, a two to one majority, and even a three to one majority.
This situation has brought problems - problems inconceivable to people in the North, who are accustomed to a ratio of only five percent, ten percent, or possibly fifteen percent. But this situation has also inspired a system of social and educational separation under which both races share mutual respect and progress, work together on beneficial projects, and yet do
not force themselves on each other.
We offer the colored race outstanding educational facilities. For many years we have been in the midst of a school construction program which, when completed, will exceed one hundred million dollars. Seventy percent of this money is being spent on colored schools and thirty percent on white schools. The State Legislature contributes $ 15 for each colored student in average daily attendance and $ 12 for each white student. Ninety- two colored high schools have
been named in honor of outstanding Negro teachers or civic leaders.
Another thing, this separate school system furnishes employment for over 7,000 colored principals and supervisors and classroom teachers. At the state level, they are paid annual salaries which total nearly $ 19,000,000 and extra pay is furnished at the local level. Their salaries average $ 3,100 per year, and they can increase this salary as they get higher degrees and fall into a higher pay bracket. The salaries of white classroom teachers average $ 3,500 per year. This gap