we maintain a segregated society. ... In all fairness, I admit that we are not encouraging Negro voting," he said. "The Negroes prefer that control of the government remain in the white man's hands." Kennard was finally released on parole in 1963, when he was terminally ill with cancer; he died six months later.
By the early 1960s, national pressure was growing to integrate Mississippi's institutions of higher learning. McCain was well known to vehemently oppose having any black students at Mississippi Southern. In 1962 James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi, the state's flagship institution. His enrollment was accomplished after white rioting and use of federal troops to end the violence.
By the fall of 1965 both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University had been integrated—the former violently, the latter peacefully. McCain, USM, and state leaders recognized that the state needed to integrate to appeal to businesses outside the state. They made extensive confidential plans for …
