Author of Book on Clyde Kennard to Speak at USM April 28

Thu, 04/13/2023 - 03:56pm | By: David Tisdale

The author of a new book about Clyde Kennard, a Black U.S. Army veteran who made multiple attempts to enroll at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in the 1950s but was denied admission, will visit the school’s Hattiesburg campus for a presentation and book signing Friday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to noon in the R.C. Cook University Union, Room B. This event is free and open to the public.

A Slow, Calculated Lynching: The Story of Clyde Kennard (University Press of Mississippi) by Devery Anderson examines Kennard's efforts to become a student at the then-segregated USM. Kennard was later falsely accused of multiple crimes and ultimately sentenced to seven years at Parchman Farm, now the Mississippi State Penitentiary. While there, he was diagnosed with cancer but was denied proper medical treatment until he was critically ill. He was released on parole in January 1963 and died July 4, 1963, at the age of 36.

In 1993, USM renamed the student services building on its Hattiesburg campus Kennard-Washington Hall in honor of Kennard and Dr. Walter Washington, the first African American to receive a doctoral degree from the institution. In 2006, Kennard was exonerated in Forrest County Circuit Court after subsequent investigations showed he had been framed to undermine his quest to enroll at USM. During a February 2018 ceremony, a marker recognizing Kennard's sacrifices was placed in front of Kennard-Washington Hall as part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail. Kennard was also posthumously awarded a doctorate by USM in May of 2018.

“From the moment I learned about this case and read from historian John Dittmer that he believed it was, in many respects, the most tragic of the civil rights movement, I was drawn in,” Anderson said in reflecting on his decision to work on a book about Kennard. “When I learned the basic facts myself, I immediately agreed. Unlike so many racially motivated incidents, the case against Clyde Kennard wasn’t instigated by vigilantes, but by Mississippi state officials. 

“I hope readers will see that in the end, Kennard was exonerated posthumously for being falsely convicted, not for himself—he was gone—but so that Mississippi could heal from this terrible injustice. People came together—Black, white, liberal, and conservative citizens united for this purpose and got it done.” 

Anderson is also the author of Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement, which was the basis for the ABC-TV miniseries Women of the Movement, and coeditor of publications about Mormons and the West, two of which won the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary from the Mormon History Association in 2006.

For more information about Anderson’s scheduled presentation, contact Dr. Eddie Holloway, USM’s Senior Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, at eddie.hollowayFREEMississippi.