HATTIESBURB, MS — More than 50 years ago, the president of an all-white university in Mississippi went to such great lengths to keep a black man from enrolling as a student, that he had the man arrested on trumped up charges and sent to prison.
Treated harshly behind the walls of the historic Parchman penitentiary, that man — a Korean War veteran — was forced to work on their cotton plantation until he collapsed from the pangs of cancer and later died.
That man was Clyde Kennard.
Not many are familiar with Kennard‘s fight for admission into what is now the University of Southern Mississippi. But Dr. Rodney Bennett is, and he’s grateful for trailblazers like Kennard, and for the opportunity he now has been given.
On Feb. 7, Dr. Bennett became the first African-American to head the historically white university some 58 years after Kennard’s initial application to Mississippi Southern — as Southern Miss was then known — was rejected by the school’s president William D. McCain.
McCain likely knew that as a rule, no convicted felon could be admitted to any of Mississippi’s all-white colleges.
Like Kennard, Bennett never set out to make a historical statement. He does however, realize what his prodigious feat means to the black community.
“I certainly appreciate and recognize the reality that comes as a result of this,” Bennett said. “And I’m grateful for the IHL Board of Trustees and Commissioner for having the courage, if you will, to put in place the person they thought was best for the opportunity, and that person happened to be me. And I have become, whether I wanted to or not, a sort of role model for young people of every stripe to seek out…and to have the confidence that they too can accomplish the goals they have for their lives.”
Bennet is a Tennessee native, and prior to his position at Southern Miss, he was vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia in Athens. Early in his career, he worked at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. and Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Bennett holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Middle Tennessee State and an educational doctorate from Tennessee State University.
Ed Blakeslee, president of the College Board that oversaw Bennett’s selection at Southern Miss, said it was Bennett’s qualifications and experience in money management that made him attractive to the committee.
“It wasn’t his skin color,” said Blakeslee, who is white. “We selected Dr. Bennett for his leadership abilities. We understand the significance [of race], but it wasn’t a factor in the decision. He is a man of integrity.”
Dr. Bennett said his primary objective at Southern Miss is to improve their financial standing and recruit new students. But his focus shifted drastically when three days after becoming the school’s 10th commander-in-chief, an EF4 tornado devastated the college town of Hattiesburg and much of the university’s campus.
“It was a devastating experience,” Bennett said. “Prior to this, I had never seen up close and personal the aftermath of a tornado. And until you’ve seen it firsthand, you can not imagine what it’s like. Television and newspapers put it out there, but you can’t really embrace it and appreciate it like you can when you’re living it every day and you’re standing in the middle of it. It was horrible.
But the best part of it was we didn’t have any injuries or deaths and we’re thankful for that. The things we lost can be replaced. But our focus was there was no loss of life. That’s what kept us going every day.”
Damages at Southern Miss are estimated between $20 – $30 million, with at least six buildings on campus suffering extensive damage.
Dr. Bennett was in Georgia when the tornado hit that Sunday night. But he quickly returned to Hattiesburg, to assist with the clean up and join his Southern Miss family.
“Although I had not worked a day on campus prior to that, I felt like this is where I needed to be and this is the work I needed to be a part of,” he said. “I think I was well on my way to establishing some credibility with the students, staff and faculty through the process that I went through to get here [as president]. But I think what the tornado really demonstrated to them was that I was all in. And I am all in.”
It was that compassion and dedication that many saw in Bennett during the initial stages of his interview process.
“He’s about fixing Southern Miss. He’s about literally taking us to the top,” Student Government Association President and senior Jazmyne Butler was quoted as saying.
“We are indeed fortunate to have Dr. Bennett as our new president,” Dr. Aubrey Lucas, the university’s outgoing interim president said. “He obviously has a God-given talent for relating to people, and with that talent and his experience and the support we are going to provide, he can be very successful.”
Southern Miss currently has about 16,000 students. Thirty-one percent are black.
Civil rights activist James Meredith became the first black person to integrate Mississippi’s all white universities in 1963 when he took his case all the way to the supreme court.
Clyde Kennard died a few months later.
Two years after Kennard’s death, two black women, Raylawni Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong, became the first people of color to attend the newly designated and desegregated Southern Miss.
James Meredith, who lives in Jackson, Miss. and continues to advocate civil rights and education, praised Dr. Bennett’s position at Southern Miss and said there is still much work to be done.
“I think it is probably one of the most important things to happen to higher education in the state of Mississippi,” Meredith said. “My interest and my focus, however, is at the lower training of our children — from birth through high school — that’s the problem. That’s the biggest problem in Mississippi.”
Bennett said there were many other black students that faced situations similar to those of Clyde Kennard like Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Hamilton Holmes, Mary Frances Early and Horace Ward who attempted to eventually did integrate all white universities.
But Bennett said going forward, his objective is to open doors for every person regardless of color.
“I’m very proud that I’m the person who stayed the course and let things work out the way they needed to work out and that another door has been opened for a person that’s different from whatever the norm, if you will, might be. And that’s important because in my case it was being African American. But I’m also concerned with what women face. I’m concerned with what a person with disabilities faces. I’m concerned with what a person who is in the latter stages of their life but still wants to work faces from an age perspective.
I am very proud knowing that I’m playing a role in opening up the doors for other people who bring something different to the table whatever that difference may be. I believe it just sends a message that if you have some confidence in yourself. If you’re prayerful about it and you have a little luck on your side. Whatever it is that you rely on, that it can happen for you.”