Mississippi: A New Note or Two

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With only a week to go in the campaign for Mississippi's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, most of the seven candidates are working over the usual villains—the Supreme Court, the Federal Government generally, New York City, "uppity niggers," etc. But some new notes have also been heard.

Daddy-Bird & Bobby-Sox. Consider former Governor Ross Barnett, 69, an archsegregationist who wants his job back. He urges listeners to read Theodore Bilbo's Separation or Mongrelization of the Races—Take Your Choice, insists that "the South has been right all along," and twits Congressman John Bell Williams, a formidable rival, for playing footsie in Washington with "Daddy-Bird Johnson and Bobby-Sox Kennedy." But he also acknowledges that "the law must be obeyed, and advances made in the state's economy and educational program."

Williams, 48, a stubborn segregationist who was stripped of his House seniority when he bolted the Democratic Party to support Barry Goldwater in 1964, is campaigning as—of all things —a middle-of-the-roader, and tries to avoid the old racial cliches.

Running ahead of everybody else, according to local polls, is State Treasurer William Winter, 44, who by Ole Miss standards is practically a radical. Winter started off his campaign with the hope that it would be devoted to "bread-and-butter issues, not the old emotional ones—not racial issues."

That, clearly, was too much to hope. Under fire as a "weak-kneed, wishy-washy liberal," as Barnett put it, Winter felt obliged to declare: "As a fifth-generation Mississippian whose grandfather rode with General Forrest, I was born a segregationist and raised a segregationist. I have always defended this position. I defend it now." Nonetheless, he has also managed to steer the debate toward Mississippi's myriad shortcomings—which include the nation's lowest per capita income ($1,751 v. a national average of $2,940).

A graduate of Ole Miss's law school, Winter won all five elections he entered in the past 20 years, served three terms in the state legislature and one as tax commissioner. His excellent record as state treasurer won him the respect of banking and industrial leaders. Moreover, his grass-roots organization is the strongest in the state.

Among the other six candidates, either Barnett or Williams is expected to go up against Winter in an Aug. 29 run-off between the top two vote getters. Governor Paul Johnson, prevented by the state constitution from succeeding himself, finds himself instead in the odd position of campaigning for the lieutenant-governorship, a job he held under Barnett. Among Johnson's five opponents: Byron De La Beckwith, under indictment for the 1963 murder of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers.

No Help. The big unknown is the Negro vote. Negro registration has surged from 30,000 to 194,000 since 1963, and 120 Negroes are running for office—making it likely that Mississippi soon will have its first black sheriffs and legislators since Reconstruction. White registration, however, rose by 140,000 during the same period, to 600,000.