— The University of Southern Mississippi will award a posthumous honorary degree to a black U.S. Army veteran who was rejected when he tried to integrate the school decades ago. Clyde Kennard applied several times between 1955 and 1959 to what was then called Mississippi Southern College. In 1960, Kennard was falsely charged with taking part in the theft of chicken feed, and was convicted and sentenced to seven years at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. USM ultimately renamed its student services building in honour of Kennard and Walter Washington, the first African-American to earn a doctoral degree from the university. A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker telling Kennard’s story was dedicated in February on USM’s main campus in Hattiesburg.

Source: National Post May 05, 2018 16:41 UTC