Abstract
Abstract This “archive story” documents how the infamous Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission harnessed homophobia to crush gay civil rights activists at historically black Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, during “Freedom Summer” in 1964. New information uncovered by the author, a self-described “archive activist” from the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., reveals how the Sovereignty Commission, working directly with the governor of Mississippi, accused and exposed students and faculty at Rust as “homos” and “queers” in pursuit of a single objective: convincing the Rust Methodist Board of Trustees to fire its activist president, Dr. Earnest Smith. The piece further explores how the reason for Dr. Smith’s departure from Rust remained enshrouded in silence for so many years. It ends by connecting the political use of homophobia in 1964 to the words of Judge Carlton Reeves on the challenges facing LGBTQ Mississippians today.
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