Dates: 1955-1956.

Biography:
Robert Patterson

Robert Patterson was born in Clarksdale, Coahoma County, Mississippi, on December 13, 1921, to Henry Clark Patterson (b. February 6, 1884 – d. August, 1969) and Sylvia (Crawley) Patterson (b. June 30, 1893 – d. October, 1983). Robert B. Patterson was the younger of Henry and Sylvia’s two children with the oldest being Grace Patterson (b. December 12, 1919 – d. April 14, 2011). Educated in the Clarksdale public school system, Robert B. Patterson graduated from high school in 1939. On August 9, 1939, Patterson hitchhiked to Starkville, Mississippi, for a tryout with Mississippi State University’s football team. Patterson earned a full scholarship and majored in agriculture. Patterson was a member of the 1942 Mississippi State football team. As the team’s captain, Mississippi State went undefeated and won the Orange Bowl versus Georgetown University. Patterson graduated from Mississippi State University in January 1943.

On December 5, 1943, Patterson enlisted in the United States Army. In June 1944, Patterson was promoted to the rank of captain and was later assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. During WWII, Patterson saw combat in five major campaigns including: Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), Rhineland and Central Europe. Prior to entering Berlin, General Gavin appointed Patterson Provost Marshal of the 82nd Airborne Division. Patterson was discharged in January of 1946 with the rank of Major.

Upon returning from World War II, Patterson found employment with Glenwild Plantation. Through a mutual friend, Patterson met and married Mary Agnes Chism (b. August 25, 1924 – d. August 24, 2014) on August 22, 1946. The couple had four children: Mary Chism, Nancy, Clark, and Bob Patterson. The Pattersons moved to Germantown, Tennessee, where he managed Lake Crest Farms from 1946 to 1951. After being denied entry into the Army during the Korean War, Patterson moved to Holly Ridge, Sunflower County, Mississippi, to manage a plantation. Patterson’s white supremacist and segregationist views became apparent with the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Patterson called together a meeting attended by a group of fourteen white men in Indianola, Sunflower County, Mississippi, on July 11, 1954. From this meeting, the first Citizens’ Council was formed. In October 1954, the statewide Association of Citizens’ Councils of Mississippi was established and Patterson was elected Executive Secretary. From November through December of 1954, Patterson traveled extensively; building councils throughout the state and nationally. In March 1955, Patterson received the Indianola Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year award. In 1966, Patterson assisted in establishing the first all-white-private-Council school, Pillow Academy, Lefleur County, Mississippi. In addition to travelling for the purpose of building local Councils, Patterson was a propagandist, usually submitting opinion pieces to newspaper publications and the Council’s official magazine, the Citizen. Patterson’s editorials overwhelmingly renounced integration, while advocating for a segregated society. Up until 1989, Patterson traveled the nation – but especially Mississippi and the southeastern states – assisting in the organization of Citizens’ Councils. However, in 1989, the Citizens’ Council officially ceased all operations.

Patterson presently resides in Itta Bena, Carroll County, Mississippi.

Citizens’ Council

The Citizens’ Council was organized on July 11, 1954, in Indianola, Sunflower County, Mississippi, at the home of Dave Hawkins, manager of a cotton compress. The organization’s founders consisted of white businessmen, planters, and professionals: Ed Britt, Arthur Clark, Jr., Alton East, Dink Gibson, Billy Gist, Dave Hawkins, W. D. Hemphill, Bill Hendon, Jim Metcalf, Herman Moore, Robert B. Patterson, Mayor Tom Pitts, Dr. J. C. Shirley, and Frank Tindall. The Citizens’ Council was created in protest to the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education forbidding segregation in public schools. The Citizens’ Council sought to influence public opinion through a program of education that involved the circulation of pro-segregationist literature and speakers. The group’s guiding principles concerned the promotion of states’ rights and racial integrity through the maintenance of segregation. Shortly after its creation, W. J. Bill Simmons, member of a prominent banking family from Jackson, Mississippi, joined the organization and became a prominent and vocal leader in the movement rejecting integration and civil rights. By September 1955, the Citizens’ Council proclaimed a membership of 60,000 white Mississippians. During this same period, the Council declared that 168 statewide councils had been created. Moreover, the Citizens’ Council had developed chapters in the states of: Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Missouri. By 1956, a national body known as the Citizens’ Council of America was formed with a board consisting of Senators James O. Eastland, J. Strom Thurmond, and Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin.

The Citizens’ Council was primarily funded by membership dues and grants from the publicly funded and now defunct state agency – Sovereignty Commission. Created by an act of the Mississippi legislature on March 29, 1956, the Sovereignty Commission held broad powers that allowed it to function as Mississippi’s official counter civil-rights-agency until 1973. As a result of this funding, the Citizens’ Council was able to publish its bimonthly magazine, the Citizen; produce a weekly telecast, "Forum" on WLBT-TV; and establish Council schools throughout the state.

The Citizens’ Council’s preferred tactic was the application of economic intimidation against individuals attempting to undermine the status quo. The leadership of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) were the targets of such pressure. Consequently, prominent black professionals and activists such as Dr. Emmett Stringer and Dr. T. R. M. Howard were continuously harassed by the Citizens’ Council. Stringer, who operated a dental practice, found that the local bank would not extend him credit, his car insurance was canceled, and his patients were instructed to find another physician. Such pressure resulted in Stringer lowering his profile by late 1954, wherein, he announced that he would not seek a second term as a candidate for the state president of the NAACP. The Citizens’ Council employed the same strategy against Dr. T. R. M. Howard. In late 1954, Howard, who was also a successful physician, was in the process of purchasing land. Once the matter was brought to the attention of the Citizens’ Council, the sellers demanded immediate payment. Howard lost thousands of dollars in real-estate assets. Moreover, the local draft board attempted to reclassify Dr. Howard as being 1-A, which would have qualified him for the draft, despite the fact he was forty-seven years old. In addition, Howard received countless threats on his life. Needless to say, the Citizens’ Council’s economic pressure was successful in curtailing voter registration and integration efforts from 1954 through the mid-1960s. The tactic of applying economic pressure against blacks challenging Mississippi’s status quo allowed the Council to maintain segregated public schools and suppress black voter registration efforts.

By the 1970s, the influence of the Citizens’ Council began to wane as more Southern whites’ perceptions began to evolve on the issues of integration and the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation. By 1989, the Citizens’ Council ceased publication of the Citizen. That same year, the Citizens’ Council terminated its active operations.

Seeing a need to revive the Council, Gordon Baum, a devout white supremacist, attorney, and the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) Midwest field director called together a group of thirty white men including: former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox and future Louisiana Congressman John Rarick for a meeting in Atlanta in 1985. As a result of this meeting, the Council of Conservative Citizens was formed. Just as its predecessor, the CCC advocated for segregation and opposed non-white immigration to the United States.

 
Scope and Content Note:

The Robert Patterson News Clippings Files are arranged alphabetically by subject matter. Patterson, a founding member of the Citizens' Council, collected news clippings relating to statewide and national coverage of civil-rights-related events. Of note is coverage of the murder of Reverend W. G. Lee of Belzoni, Humphreys County, Mississippi, and the NAACP’s position that Reverend Lee was murdered as a result of his open advocacy for increased black voter registration in the majority black county. Of additional interest is the coverage of the murder of Emmett Till and the subsequent trial. Till, a native of Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Leflore County, Mississippi, was kidnapped and murdered in 1955. Furthermore, the collection contains articles and editorials regarding the system of segregation in the south – especially in relationship to segregated public schools.

Series Identification:

Series 1: News clippings. 1955-1956.

Box 1, folders 1-15