The Conversion of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission Records

Drawing theoretical insight from political sociology's state-society literature and organizational theory's new institutionalism, I examine the case of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and its relationship with the Citizens' Council to illustrate that the state-countermovement relationship can be highly variable-much more so than the existing literature often assumes. As different actors came to occupy positions of power within the state of Mississippi, they responded differently to relevant audiences and affected the degree to which the council could exercise leverage with the commission to control protest. The analysis focuses on how the state-countermovement ties of ideology and funding changed over time, even though membership overlap between the commission board and the council remained relatively constant. Three relational structures-frustrated, aligned, and stifled-are identified and discussed as influencing the degree to which the council could gain leverage in Mississippi's multilevel state structure where multiple audiences mattered.

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From Civil Rights to Economic Empowerment

The War on Poverty in Mississippi ◽

10.14325/mississippi/9781496827395.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 26-49

Author(s):

Emma J. Folwell

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Community Organizing ◽

State Sovereignty ◽

War On Poverty ◽

Economic Empowerment ◽

Massive Resistance ◽

Poverty Program ◽

Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission ◽

Development Group

Chapter one traces the development of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty. It explores how the nation’s first anti-poverty program—the Child Development Group of Mississippi—formed a central part in the fight for African Americans’ economic empowerment, building on the state’s long tradition of community organizing. White Mississippi launched a renewed massive resistance campaign against the Group, led by Senator John Stennis and the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. While the campaign was only partially successful, it was hugely significant in shaping the state’s war on poverty. White segregationists drew on a color-blind language that Senator Stennis had been using to oppose civil rights advances for years, calling for “local responsible people” to take control of the war on poverty. Their calls were little more than a thinly veiled request for whites to enact a “defensive localism” that enabled whites to re-establish their control over African American advancement.

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