The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission,In 1954 the Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education m

The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission,In 1954 the Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education made segregation of public schools illegal in the US. As a result of the ruling, in 1956 the Mississippi State Legislature formed the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, with the stated purpose of protecting the State of Mississippi from encroachment of the Federal Government. In reality, the Sovereignty Commission was a de facto spy agency and secret police force created to prevent desegregation in the state and defend racist Jim Crow Laws against Civil Rights activists. During its existence, the Sovereignty Commission used agents to infiltrate Civil Rights groups, organize boycotts against businesses, churches, and organizations that supported desegregation, produce propaganda which supported segregation and Jim Crow Laws, obstruct voter registration of African Americans, and encourage police violence against African Americans and Civil Rights Activists. They also funneled state money to white supremacist groups such as the White Citizen’s Council, which was essentially a polished form of the KKK.  The Sovereignty Commission was even complicit in murder on a few occasions. Throughout the late 1950′s and 1960′s the Sovereignty Commission had it’s hands in almost every major Civil Rights event that occurred in Mississippi. For example,—In 1960 a black man named Clyde Kennard applied for an education at Mississippi Southern College. He was framed for armed robbery, the evidence being fabricated by the Sov-Com. Kennard was sentenced to 7 years of hard labor in a maximum security prison.—In 1963 Civil Rights activist Medgar Evens was murdered by White Citizens Council member and KKK member Brian De La Beckwith. During the two trials of Beckwith Sov-Com agents provided information on potential jurors to the defense lawyers during jury selection. This info allowed the defense to dismiss potential jurors who might rule against Beckwith. Both juries failed to produce a verdict.— In 1964 the Sov-Com tipped off the identities and location of three Civil Rights Workers to a lynch mob consisting of local klansmen and sheriffs deputies. Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwermer and James Chaney were forced off of a secluded road in the middle of the night, shot execution style, and their bodies buried at a local dam.The murder of the three activists would result in one of the largest and most high profile FBI investigations in US history. The investigations resulted in the Conviction of six men, all local Klansman and sheriffs deputies, but none served more than six years in prison.These are only three high profile cases in which the Sovereignty Commission was involved, but as it would be later discovered, the Sov-Com extent in Civil Rights affairs would be widespread. The Sovereignty Commission came to an end in 1973 with the rise of Bill Waller as Governor. Waller, an anti-segregation and pro-civil rights Democrat, ironically was the prosecutor of Brian De La Beckwith. Gov. Waller vetoed further funding for the Sovereignty Commission. Three years later the defunct agency was officially disbanded. Its files were ordered sealed until 2027, however series of lawsuits unsealed the records in 1998. It was then that the full extent of the Commission’s activities were revealed.  Among the records were the files of 87,000 people.The files of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission can be accessed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History,http://www.mdah.ms.gov/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/scagencycasehistory.php -- source link

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