Editor gives letters to the library

In the fall of 1962, the University of Mississippi was going through one of the most important transitional phases in its long history, and Sidna Brower Mitchell, the editor-in-chief of The Mississippian, got to witness it first hand. 

Fifty years later, Mitchell is donating to the Ole Miss library many of her letters and souvenirs from her time at the paper. 

“I’m bringing back a lot of letters to the editor from back during that time — some photographs, some old newspapers, whatever I’ve collected,” Mitchell said. “Part of it will be from my Pulitzer Prize scrapbook.”

On Sept. 30, 1962, riots broke out over the enrollment of James Meredith, the first African-American to attend the university. 

Mitchell can still recall details of that night almost half a century later. 

“All hell was breaking loose,” she said. “I think the scary part was what the people were throwing at the U.S. Marshals that surrounded the Lyceum.”

She remembers running back to the journalism building, which was also being used by the national media. Several people knocked on the door. 

“They were obviously outsiders, obviously very angry and obviously segregationist,” Mitchell said. 

“I can remember one young man, almost like a boy, asking ‘Where is that ------? We’re going to kill him.’ At that point, I locked the doors.”

The ongoing riots inspired Mitchell to write an editorial, that she said was trying to appeal to the rioters sense of law and order. 

“My editorial basically said don’t riot, don’t cause disturbances — this is a public university,” Mitchell said. “We were threatened to have our accreditation pulled, which for those of us that were seniors was very disturbing.”

Even though Mitchell’s piece did not mention the name “Meredith” or the words “Negro student,” the following morning on Meredith’s first day of school, Mitchell found herself under scrutiny as well. 

Her editorial, “Violence will not help,” ran that day and did not receive a favorable reaction among the students and Southern residents. 

Letters to the editor came from all over the country.

“It amazes me that a Southern girl, of all people, could in any way condone the unconstitutional use of brute Federal force in Mississippi,” a man from Virginia wrote. 

“Despite all of their red herring speeches, the real purposes of the NAACP is the ultimate destruction of the white race and our civilization that has required more than a thousand years to develop.”

“The moment is rapidly approaching when you must decide whether to aid the cowardly federal tyrants who converted Mississippi into a bloody battleground for immoral political purposes, or defend our beloved Southland in its hour of trial and tribulation,” wrote a man from Alabama. 

“Regardless of my personal love for life, I prefer death to capitulating to an unholy cause which my innermost convictions tell me is wrong.”

Though many were angry with Mitchell and her editorial, there were some that supported her decision. 

“May God bless you and always give you the moral courage to stand up for what is right,” wrote a man from North Carolina. 

Nine days after Meredith first laid foot on campus as a student of Ole Miss, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote an editorial entitled “Voice in Mississippi,” which praised Mitchell’s efforts.

“In its comments on the Meredith case, the student paper at the University of Mississippi has shown more good sense and principle than the Governor, the Legislature, the Bar and most of the rest of the Mississippi press,” the editorial said. 

The editorial also mentioned Mitchell by name, admiring her courage to write about what she believes. 

“It takes some courage for a young editor to stand up to the yowls of a mob and the mummery of the authorities in a racially inflamed situation, more especially when the editor is a young woman. We pay our respects to Editor Brower of The Mississippian.”

The campus senate tried to censor her, but after finding out they did not have the power to do that, they then voted to censure Mitchell three months after Meredith began at the university.

“That did happen,” Mitchell said. “National media covered it and I got a lot of positive press all over the world. Unfortunately an action like that reflected poorly on the university.”

Mitchell remembers being in a history exam before being pulled out by a state trooper and subpoenaed. 

“I remember being taken to the alumni house,” she said. “And there were these old men who were sitting around and they all wanted to know why I didn’t uphold the principles of the South.”

Mitchell said that while it wasn’t altogether unexpected, in a way she was shocked to find out about the censure.

“I certainly found out who my friends were and who my enemies were,” she said.

Mitchell said some of those who came out against her were only doing it for political reasons.

“I had a congressman that came out against me, and when I got to New York, he called and apologized and said he only did it to help his election,” she said.

As a result of her editorials, Mitchell received a number of job offers, including an internship with Scripps Howard news service. 

“Even though I had my choice of about 17 newspapers, I thought, ‘Why not go to New York?’ That was almost every journalist’s dream.”  

Mitchell thought she would stay in New York for a while and then come back and work for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, but that didn’t happen. 

“I have now been a damn Yankee for about three times as long as a Southerner,” Mitchell laughed. 

“But my heart is still in the South.”

Almost 40 years later, the censure was rescinded. 

“That was one of the most emotional things in my life,” Mitchell said.