Movement
Clearing Clyde Kennard: the Sovereignty Commission files and the 2006 exoneration
How Sovereignty Commission files, journalists and students helped clear Clyde Kennard's name in 2006, and how the University of Southern Mississippi honors him.
In short
In 1991 the Jackson Clarion-Ledger published secret Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission documents showing that the state agency had worked to stop Clyde Kennard from enrolling at Mississippi Southern College. After a campaign by journalists, students and supporters, Circuit Judge Robert Helfrich declared Kennard innocent of all charges on May 12, 2006, nearly 43 years after his death. The University of Southern Mississippi later named a student services building for him and Walter Washington and runs the Kennard Scholars Program.
- Files published
- 1991, Jackson Clarion-Ledger
- Agency
- Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
- Declared innocent
- May 12, 2006, Forrest County Circuit Court
- Judge
- Robert Helfrich
- USM honors
- Kennard-Washington Hall; Kennard Scholars Program
What did the Sovereignty Commission files show?
Records of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, published by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in 1991, showed that the state's segregation agency had worked to keep Clyde Kennard out of Mississippi Southern College. The commission, created in 1956, investigated people who challenged segregation and coordinated with local officials and private citizens. The Mississippi Encyclopedia says the documents showed Kennard had been framed.
The commission's papers were sealed when it closed in 1977 and opened to the public in 1998 after a long court fight. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History now makes them searchable online. They include files on many civil rights workers, Fannie Lou Hamer among them.
How was Kennard cleared?
Supporters asked the state for a pardon, and when that stalled, they went to court, where on May 12, 2006, Forrest County Circuit Judge Robert Helfrich declared Kennard innocent of all charges. Journalists, high school and college students and civil rights veterans had worked on the case for years. The man who had testified against Kennard had by then said that Kennard had nothing to do with the theft.
How does the University of Southern Mississippi remember him?
The University of Southern Mississippi, formerly Mississippi Southern College, named a student services building for Clyde Kennard and Walter Washington and runs the Kennard Scholars Program. Washington was a USM graduate and longtime president of Alcorn State University. The building's name puts Kennard's name on the campus that refused him.
Why does this matter for Hamer's story?
Kennard was sent to Parchman in Sunflower County, Hamer's home county, and his case shows the same machinery she faced. The officials who arrested him, the jury that convicted him and the commission that watched him were the system Hamer described in Atlantic City. This address, c_kennard.html, comes from an earlier site on this domain; his biography is at kennard.html.
Questions readers ask
What was the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission?
A state agency created in 1956 to defend segregation. It spied on civil rights workers, kept files on thousands of people, including Fannie Lou Hamer, and worked with local officials to block integration. It was closed in 1977, and its records were opened to the public in 1998.
Where can I read the Sovereignty Commission files?
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History holds the records and offers an online search of them.
Sources
- Clyde KennardMississippi Encyclopedia
- Sovereignty Commission OnlineMississippi Department of Archives and History
We checked every date and name on this page against the sources above. If you find an error, write to contact@fannielouhamer.info.
Continue in the archive
- PeopleClyde KennardThe life of Clyde Kennard, an Army veteran and farmer who tried to enroll at Mississippi Southern College, was framed for theft, and died of cancer after prison.
- PlacesExhibits and collectionsOnline exhibits, archives and recordings where you can see primary sources about Fannie Lou Hamer, from the SNCC Digital Gateway to the Library of Congress.
- MovementVeterans and the movementHow Black World War II and Korean War veterans such as Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry and Clyde Kennard helped start the Mississippi movement Hamer joined.
- MovementEmancipation to the ballotHow Black Mississippians voted after the Civil War, how the 1890 constitution took the vote away, and why Hamer still faced a literacy test in 1962.