Clyde Kennard
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Clyde Kennard (born 1927 - died July 4, 1963) was an African-American student from Mississippi who attempted several times to enroll in the state's public institutions of higher learning during the 1950s. Instead, he became a victim of the endemic racism of the era when his efforts resulted in false criminal charges that sent him to prison.
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[edit] Early Years
Kennard was born in Mississippi in 1927, moving to Chicago at the age of 12 to aid his injured sister, Sarah. He then stayed and graduated from Wendell Phillips High School, then entered the U.S. Army. After serving as a paratrooper during the Korean War, he returned to the United States, and in 1955, at the end of his junior year at the University of Chicago, Kennard's stepfather became disabled, forcing him to take over operation of the family's chicken farm.
[edit] The Fight for Education
On three separate occasions (1956, 1957 and 1959), Kennard sought to enroll at Mississippi Southern College, one of Mississippi's premier educational institutions and whose student body was exclusively white. Despite offers from Mississippi governor James P. Coleman to pay for his tuition anywhere else in the state where he could gain acceptance, Kennard declined, stating that the school was closest to his home, a major factor given his family situation.
J. H. White, a fellow African-American and president of Mississippi Vocational College (at the behest of Zack Van Landingham of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission), tried to persuade Kennard to end his quest to break the color barrier at M.S.C.
After Kennard could not be dissuaded, Van Landingham and Hattiesburg, MS lawyer Dudley Connor worked together to exact revenge on him for his stand. Files from the Sovereignty Commission that were released in 1998 showed that members considered a variety of options, including bombing Kennard's car or forcing him into an accident.
[edit] Imprisonment
The Sovereignty Commission instead conspired to have him framed for a crime. On September 15, 1959, Kennard was arrested for reckless driving upon returning to his car from a meeting with Mississippi Southern College President William D. McCain. After he was jailed, police officers claimed to have found five half pints of whiskey, along with other liquor, under the seat of his car. Kennard was subsequently cited for illegal liquor possession.
He was convicted and fined $600 for the latter offense, and soon became the victim of an unofficial local boycott whereby his credit cut off. He was then arrested again on September 25, 1960 with an alleged accomplice for the theft of $25 worth of feed from the Forrest County Cooperative warehouse. Kennard went to trial, with the accomplice, Johnny Lee Roberts, testifying that Kennard paid him to steal the feed. On November 21, 1960, an all-white jury deliberated only 10 minutes before finding him guilty, and Kennard was sentenced to seven years in prison to be served in Parchman Penitentiary, a high-security facility. Despite his alleged role in the crime, Roberts was given five years probation and freed.
Just after the conclusion of the trial, Mississippi NAACP official Medgar Evers was cited for contempt after issuing a statement stating that the 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 the conviction.
[edit] Cancer and Death
While imprisoned in 1961, Kennard contracted colon cancer and taken to the University of Mississippi hospital for surgery. The medical staff recommended that Kennard either be put in their custody or allowed to make regular visits to check on his condition. Instead, authorities sent him back to Parchman Prison, where he was used as a laborer.
Civil rights leaders in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then embarked on a campaign to secure Kennard's release, and after the story gained national attention in 1963, Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett gave Kennard an "indefinite suspended sentence."
Kennard was released on January 30, with comedian Dick Gregory paying for his flight back to Chicago. He twice underwent surgery at Billings Hospital on the University of Chicago campus over the next five months, but succumbed to the disease just 10 days after the latter procedure.
On July 7, a funeral service for Kennard was held at Metropolitan Funeral Parlor in Chicago, with an April 16, 1962 poem written by Kennard read to the congregation. Sensing his limited lifespan, he titled the poem, Ode to the Death Angel:
- Oh here you come again
- Old chilly death of Ol'
- To plot out life
- And test immortal soul
- I saw you fall against the raging sea
- I cheated you then and now you'll not catch me
- I know your face
- It's known in every race
- Your speed is fast
- And along the way
- Your shadow you cast
- High in the sky
- You thought you had me then
- I landed safely
- But here you are again
- I see you paused upon that forward pew
- When you think I'm asleep
- I'm watching you
- Why must you hound me so everywhere I go?
- It's true my eyes are dim
- My hands are growing cold
- Well take me on then, that
- I might at last become my soul
Three days later, he was buried in the family's plot at Mary Magdelene Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
[edit] Pardon Efforts
In an interview with award winning reporter Jerry Mitchell published December 31, 2005, the informant Roberts asserted that his testimony in 1960 was false, and Kennard had no connection to the crime ([1]). Mitchell, who had been investigating the case for man years, had previously helped clos several other infamous "cold cases" from the Civil Rights Era.
In 2006, three high school students from Illinois: Mona Ghadiri, Agnes Mazur, and Callie McCune, working with their teacher, Barry Bradford (famous for previously helping reopen the Mississippi Burning Case) and Steven A. Drizin of the Northwestern University Law School, spearheaded a movement to convince Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to issue Kennard a full pardon.
Standing alone gainst the advice of leading Mississippi politicians, academics, and media outlets, Barbour declined the opportunity to do so, stating that there was no precedent for a posthumous pardon. He ignored the fight led by U.S. Senator Trent Lott which resulted in a posthumous pardon for Jefferson Davis.
In addition, he ignored the precedent set in almost two dozen other states and by the Federal Government. He thus became the only Governor in the history of the United States to refuse to pardon a falsely convicted man whom the Governor stated was innocent. He instead designated March 30 as Clyde Kennard Day, saying that it was the appropriate way to honor Kennard.
Joining this fight were African-American students from the University of Southern Mississippi, who collected more than 1,500 signatures in support of the pardon. The students noted that the school now has more than 2,000 blacks attending.
On May 10, 2006, the Mississippi State Parole Board refused to recommend a pardon, despite pleas from four former Mississippi governors. Tellingly, the Board's vote was split according to racial lines, with all of the white members voting to oppose a pardon recommendation. 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 decision, saying that it was based on the premise that the state was looking to avoid any potential litigation damages over wrongful imprisonment. However, the Kennard family had already publicly stated that they had no interest in seeking money.
[edit] Resolution
Faced with the a setback on the pardon request, Bradford and the students from Illinois shifted their efforts to using the courts to secure a reversal of the conviction. They contacted controversial former Federal Judge Charles Pickering and former Mississippi Governor William Winter, who fashioned precedent making legal strategy.
Using the historical research conducted by the high school students and the exhaustive legal research prepared by Prof. Drizin and Bobby Owens, a Northwestern University law student from Mississippi, the effort to clear Kennard's name finally paid off. After arguments by Pickering and Winter, heading a blue-ribbon legal team, on May 17, 2006, Judge Bob Helfrich threw out Kennard's original burglary conviction, stating that "To me, this is not a black and white issue; it's a right and wrong issue. To correct that wrong, I am compelled to do the right thing" ([2]).
Even with this seemingly final act, the Kennard case still stirs emotions on both sides of the issue. Six days after Helfrich's decree, white supremacist Richard Barrett filed documents to throw out the decision. Barrett, who believes that all black Americans should be deported and returned to Africa, was a vocal supporter of Edgar Ray Killen, the man convicted in June 2005 of manslaughter in the killing of three civil rights workers in 1964. Barrett's motion was later summarily dismissed by Judge Helfrich.
