Ross Robert Barnett was the 53rd governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964.
21 Facts About Ross Barnett
2.
Ross Barnett was a Southern Democrat who supported racial segregation.
3.
Ross Barnett served in the United States Army during World War I, then worked in jobs while earning an undergraduate degree from Mississippi College in Clinton in 1922.
4.
Ross Barnett often donated his skills to causes and served as president of the Mississippi Bar Association for two years beginning in 1943.
5.
Ross Barnett's lips are different, and his color is sure different.
6.
Ross Barnett traveled to Civil War sites to pay homage to fallen "Sons of Mississippi".
7.
In 1960, Ross Barnett attempted to establish a third-party movement akin to the Dixiecrat movement of 1948.
8.
Ross Barnett aimed to counter the civil rights plank adopted by the Democratic National Convention in 1960, which he found repulsive.
9.
Ross Barnett arranged for the arrest of Freedom Riders in 1961 and then imprisoned them at Parchman Farm.
10.
Ross Barnett reportedly said to the guards "Break their spirits, not their bones".
11.
Ross Barnett was a member of the white supremacist Citizens' Councils movement.
12.
Ross Barnett was fined $10,000 and sentenced to jail for contempt but never paid the fine or served a day in jail.
13.
Ross Barnett went to the field, grabbed the microphone at the 50-yard line and said to an enthusiastic crowd:.
14.
Ross Barnett made us white because he wanted us white, and Ross Barnett intended that we should stay that way.
15.
In 1963, Ross Barnett tried to prevent the men's basketball team of Mississippi State University from playing an NCAA Tournament game against the racially integrated team from Loyola of Chicago.
16.
Ross Barnett was known for his strong opposition to the development of the two-party system in the former Democratic stronghold of Mississippi.
17.
Ross Barnett urged his state's Democratic voters to "push out this Republican threat" and added that he was "fed up with these fence-riding, pussy-footing, snow-digging Yankee Republicans", a reference to northern transplants coming into Mississippi.
18.
Shortly after he left office, Ross Barnett's looming presence was evident at the first jury trial of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in February 1964.
19.
The next day Ross Barnett bitterly attacked Kennedy's version of events:.
20.
Ross Barnett attempted a political comeback by running for governor again in 1967 but lost, finishing a distant fourth in the state primary.
21.
Ross Barnett Reservoir, located northeast of Jackson, is named in his honor.