Clyde Kennard

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Clyde Kennard (1927–July 4, 1963) was an African-American student born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi^[1] who attempted several times to enroll at Mississippi Southern College, still reserved for whites in the segregated 1950s. Instead, Kennard was framed by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which conspired to have him arrested on false charges. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.

1 Early years
2 The fight for education
3 Imprisonment
4 Cancer and death
5 Pardon efforts
6 Resolution
7 Cultural legacy
8 External links
9 References

[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. In 1955, at the end of his junior year at the University of Chicago, Kennard returned to Mississippi because his stepfather became disabled. Kennard purchased land in Eatonville to start a chicken farm.^{[citation needed]} He taught Sunday school at the Mary Magdalene Baptist Church.^{[citation needed]}

[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, 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.

At the behest of Zack Van Landingham of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, J. H. White, the African-American president of Mississippi Vocational College, tried to persuade Kennard to end his quest to break the color barrier at Mississippi Southern College. When Kennard could not be dissuaded, Van Landingham and Hattiesburg, Mississippi lawyer Dudley Connor worked together to exact revenge on him for his stand. Files from the Sovereignty Commission that were opened in 1998 showed that members considered a variety of options, including forcing Kennard into an accident or bombing his car.^[2]

[edit] Imprisonment

The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission instead conspired to have Kennard 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 was 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.^[3] On November 21, 1960, an all-white jury deliberated only 10 minutes before finding Kennard guilty. He 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. Years later 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."^[4]

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 was diagnosed with 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 that they be allowed to make regular visits to check on his condition. Instead, authorities sent him back to Parchman Prison, where he worked as a laborer.

Civil rights leaders in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, embarked on a campaign to secure Kennard's release. After the story gained national attention in 1963, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett gave Kennard an "indefinite suspended sentence."

Kennard was released on January 30, with comedian Dick Gregory's 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 cancer 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 his 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.^[5] Mitchell, who had been investigating the case for many years, had previously helped close 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 (renowned for helping reopen the "Mississippi Burning" case) and Professor Steven A. Drizin of the Northwestern University School of Law, Center On Wrongful Convictions, spearheaded a movement to convince Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to issue Kennard a full pardon.^[5]^[6] Standing alone against the advice of leading Mississippi politicians, academics, and media outlets, Barbour declined the opportunity to do so. He stated there was no precedent for a posthumous pardon.^[2] He ignored the fight led by U.S. Senator Trent Lott which resulted in a posthumous pardon for Jefferson Davis. Instead he designated March 30 as Clyde Kennard Day, saying that it was the appropriate way to honor Kennard.

African-American students from the University of Southern Mississippi joined the fight, collecting more than 1,500 signatures in support of the pardon. The students noted that the school then had more than 2,000 blacks attending, the acceptance Kennard had wanted. Despite pleas from four former Mississippi governors, on May 10, 2006, the Mississippi State Parole Board refused to recommend a pardon. 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 Board's decision. He stated the state appeared to be looking to avoid any potential litigation damages over wrongful imprisonment.^{[citation needed]} The Kennard family had already stated publicly that they had no interest in seeking damages.

[edit] Resolution

Faced with the 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 former Federal judge Charles Pickering and former Mississippi governor William Winter, who fashioned precedent-making legal strategy.

Using the historical research done by Bradford and the students, and the exhaustive legal research prepared by Professor 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, "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."^[7]

Even with this conclusion, 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 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. Barrett's appeal to the Mississippi State Supreme Court was likewise dismissed, thus ending the legal saga.

[edit] Cultural legacy

In February 1993, the University of Southern Mississippi renamed its campus Student Services Building Kennard-Washington Hall in honor of Clyde Kennard and Dr. Walter Washington (then president of Alcorn State University).^[8]