1. Clyde Kennard was an American Korean War veteran and civil rights leader from Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
21 Facts About Clyde Kennard
1. 2.
Clyde Kennard was convicted and sentenced to seven years at Parchman Penitentiary, the state's notorious high-security prison.
3.
Clyde Kennard enlisted in the US Army, serving for seven years: first in Germany after World War II, then during the Korean War serving as a paratrooper.
4.
Clyde Kennard returned to Chicago after his service, starting college at the University of Chicago.
5.
In 1955, after completing his junior year, Clyde Kennard returned to Hattiesburg to help his mother after his stepfather died.
6.
Clyde Kennard had purchased land for her in nearby Eatonville, Mississippi where he started a chicken farm.
7.
Clyde Kennard taught Sunday school at the Mary Magdalene Baptist Church he attended in Eatonville.
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Mary Magdalene 8.
Clyde Kennard preferred that college as it was the closest to his home, a major factor given his family situation.
9.
On December 6,1958, Clyde Kennard published a letter in the Hattiesburg American newspaper.
10.
The Sovereignty Commission conspired to have Clyde Kennard framed for a crime.
11.
Clyde Kennard soon became the victim of an unofficial local economic boycott, which cut off his credit.
12.
Clyde Kennard was arrested again on September 25,1961, with an alleged accomplice for the theft of $25 worth of chicken feed from the Forrest County Cooperative warehouse.
13.
Clyde Kennard was prosecuted and his illiterate "accomplice," Johnny Lee Roberts, testified against him.
14.
Clyde Kennard was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served in Parchman Penitentiary, the state's high-security facility.
15.
Clyde Kennard twice underwent surgery at Billings Hospital on the University of Chicago campus over the next five months, but he died of cancer ten days after the second procedure.
16.
Clyde Kennard had titled the poem "Ode to the Death Angel".
17.
Clyde Kennard was buried three days later in his family's plot at Mary Magdelene Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
18.
Clyde Kennard asserted that his testimony in 1960 was false, and that Kennard had no connection to the crime.
19.
Clyde Kennard's spokesman said that Barbour had never pardoned anyone and would not do so for Kennard.
20.
Clyde Kennard said the state appeared to be trying to avoid any potential litigation damages over wrongful imprisonment.
21.
The Clyde Kennard family had already said publicly that they had no interest in seeking damages.