Page 1:

Senate resolution commends Kennard

By Jerry Mitchell
The Clarion-Ledger

The Mississippi Senate unanimously passed a resolution Friday honoring a forgotten civil rights pioneer.

“When Clyde Kennard refused to give up his quest to become the first black student to enroll at the University of Southern Mississippi, authorities sent him to state prison in 1960 for seven years,” the resolution reads.

State Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, commended senators for its passage – then questioned why the wording was changed from what he originally penned to omit the declaration that Kennard, a decorated Korean War veteran, was innocent of the burglary charge that sent him to prison.

[On the right side of the above paragraph is a black-and-white headshot of Kennard in military uniform and below the photograph is a caption that reads “Kennard”.]

“This was a cowardly act because we all know this man was poorly treated, and the state had a part in it,” Horhn said. “Forty-six years after this occurred, we as a state can’t acknowledge we did something wrong and we dropped the ball.”

Senate President Pro Tem Travis Little said the wording of the resolution was changed under the advice of attorneys. What the Senate didn’t want to do, he said, was set a precedent in declaring someone’s innocence.

On Friday afternoon, Horhn sent Gov. Haley Barbour a letter, requesting Kennard’s pardon: “New evidence shows that Mr. Kennard was an innocent victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.”

On Dec. 31, The Clarion-Ledger reported that Kennard was falsely convicted of burglary in 1960 before being given the maximum sentence. Forty-five years later, the man who testified then that Kennard put him up to the burglary now has acknowledged to The Clarion-Ledger that Kennard never asked him to do anything illegal.

The Senate resolution passed Friday cites that fact that USM in 1993 renamed its student services building after Kennard and Walter Washington, who became the first black to receive a doctorate from the university.

The Senate resolution, expected to be presented to the surviving members of Kennard’s family, says: “We do hereby remember the legacy of the late Clyde Kennard, the first black student to apply for admittance at the University of Southern Mississippi, for his significant role in the history of the university and for his significant role in the history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi.”