Clyde Kennard

American soldier and civil rights leader

Clyde Kennard (June 12, 1927July 4, 1963) was an American Korean War veteran and civil rights leader from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at the all white Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) to complete his undergraduate degree started at the University of Chicago. Although the United States Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, the college rejected him. Kennard was among the thousands of local activists in the 1940s and 1950s who pressed for their rights. Kennard returned to Chicago after his service, starting college at the University of Chicago. In 1955, after completing his junior year, Kennard returned to Hattiesburg to help his mother after his stepfather died.

Given his need to stay in Hattiesburg, Kennard sought to enroll at Mississippi Southern College, a state institution, in 1956, 1957 and 1959. It was still segregated despite the ruling by the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Mississippi governor James P. Coleman offered to have the state pay Kennard's tuition elsewhere at a private college, but Kennard declined. He preferred that college as it was the closest to his home, a major factor given his family situation. On December 6, 1958, Kennard published a letter in the Hattiesburg American newspaper. He wrote that he was a "segregationist by nature" but "integrationist by choice." He gave a reasoned explanation as to why segregation in education was impractical and bound to be replaced by an integrated system. Instead, they framed him for a criminal offense.

The Sovereignty Commission conspired to have Kennard framed for a crime. On September 15, 1959, he was arrested in Hattiesburg by constables Charlie Ward and Lee Daniels for reckless driving. After he was jailed, Ward and Daniels claimed before Justice of the Peace T. C. Hobby to have found five half pints of whiskey, along with other liquor, under the seat of his car. Mississippi was a "dry" state, and possession of liquor was illegal until 1966. Kennard was convicted and fined $600. He soon became the victim of an unofficial local economic boycott (also a tactic of the Sovereignty Commission and White Citizens Councils), which cut off his credit. Kennard was arrested again on September 25, 1961, with an alleged accomplice for the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed from the Forrest County Cooperative warehouse. Kennard was prosecuted and his illiterate "accomplice," Johnny Lee Roberts, testified against him. On November 21, 1960, an all white jury deliberated 10 minutes and found Kennard guilty. (At this time, because of having been disenfranchised under the 1890 constitution and unable to vote in Mississippi, blacks were also excluded from juries.) Kennard was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served in Parchman Penitentiary, the state's high security facility. This sentence prevented his ever applying again to any of Mississippi's all white colleges. Roberts was given five years' probation and freed. In 2005, when an investigation was re opened into the case, Roberts testified under oath that Kennard was innocent: "Kennard did not ask me to steal, Kennard did not ask me to break into the co op, Kennard did not ask me to do anything illegal." Just after the conclusion of the trial, Medgar Evers, president of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP, was cited by the court for contempt after he issued a statement that Kennard's conviction was "a mockery of judicial justice." Evers was fined $100 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, but on June 12, 1961, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

While imprisoned in 1961, Kennard was diagnosed with colon cancer and taken to the University of Mississippi hospital for surgery. The medical staff recommended that he be put in their custody or that they be allowed to make regular visits to check on his condition. Mitchell, who had been investigating the case for many years, had previously aided investigations in some other infamous "cold cases" from the Civil Rights Era. In 2006, the cause was joined by teacher Barry Bradford and three of his high school students from Illinois: Mona Ghadiri, Agnes Mazur, and Callie McCune, as well as Professor Steven A. Drizin of the Northwestern University School of Law, Center On Wrongful Convictions. They led a coalition to convince Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to issue Kennard a full pardon. He did acknowledge that Kennard was "entitled
to have his rights restored." Every major newspaper in Mississippi denounced the decisions of the Governor and the Board. Kennard's brother in law, Rev. Willie Grant, expressed disappointment over the Board's decision. He said the state appeared to be trying to avoid any potential litigation damages over wrongful imprisonment. The Kennard family had already said publicly that they had no interest in seeking damages.

Bradford and the students from Illinois shifted their efforts to using the courts to secure a reversal of the conviction. They contacted Charles Pickering, a former Federal judge, and William Winter, a former Mississippi governor, who fashioned precedent setting legal strategy. Using research by Bradford and the students, and the exhaustive legal research prepared by Drizin and Bobby Owens, a Northwestern University law student from Mississippi, Pickering and Winter finally succeeded in clearing Kennard's name. Judge Bob Helfrich accepted a petition from "Barbour, several former judges, a university president and others" to rehear the case. Barbour said that Helfrich's decision was the "appropriate, constitutional way for this innocent man to be exonerated." On November 14, 2013, the 50th anniversary of Clyde Kennard's death, a commemoration event with a portrait unveiling was held in Washington, D. C.
On February 2, 2018, the University of Southern Mississippi unveiled a Freedom Trail marker in front of Kennard Washington Hall commemorating Kennard's life and his role in the civil rights movement. On May 11, 2018, Clyde Kennard was awarded a Posthumous Honorary Doctoral degree by the University of Southern Mississippi. On May 27, 2021, The Clyde Kennard Memorial Highway was dedicated along US Hwy 49 in Hattiesburg Mississippi.