Miss. Papers Praise Barnett's Speech

Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett was quite satisfied with his recent visit to Harvard, according to reports in Mississippi newspapers. And Mississippi citizens must be pleased with their governor, as their papers told them Barnett was "courageous...Daniel invading the lion's den."

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger (by its own admission "Mississippi's Leading Newspaper") gave the governor full and sympathetic coverage. Its, story said "Barnett threw would-be hecklers off guard by almost entirely ignoring the segregation issue. An audience that came to hiss and boo and heckle became strangely attentive to the Mississippians's words."

"Stole Professors' Thunder"

Charles Mill, the paper's reporter, decided the three law school professors on the panel "had their thunder taken away by the Barnett address." Observing the audience, Mill thought the students "learned something of their own state, giving rapt attention."

Another newspaper thought that "Barnett took his hecklers by surprise, presenting such a factual address that the audience learned things it had not anticipated."

Barnett's journey was at first criticized by some Mississippi journals, with one paper printing an editorial urging "Stay home, Ross!" But afterwards the press apparently thought Barnett's "statesman like masterpiece" might have "expressed the thinking of many conservative businessmen in Kennedyland."

Reporter Mill wrote a special article to explain the Harvard custom of hissing. He said Sanders Theatre could be described as a "snake-pit," and thought an "anti-his-ta-mine" would help cure the problem. In any event, he observed that Barnett "seemed to calm the situation with a masterful address."

"Yep," concluded the Clarion-Ledger's man on the scene, "we think he deflated them, students, professors, and picketers all." Barnett himself was convinced "we made an impression and some friends."