The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights

In 1956, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously outlawed legally imposed racial segregation in public schools, Mississippi created the State Sovereignty Commission.

This was the executive agency established "to protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi . . . from encroachment thereon by the Federal Government." The code word encroachment implied the state's strong resolve to preserve and protect the racial status quo. In the nomenclature the formality of…