Between “Scruggs II” (soon to be U.S. v. DeLaughter?), U.S. v. Melton, U.S. v. Warr, and whatever Billey Joe Johnson’s case turns into — has the legal community of Mississippi ever seen a month to rival February 2009?
A question for you MS-history buffs
February 10th, 2009 @ 6:38 pm - by lotus · 19 Comments
Tags: Bobby DeLaughter, Dickie Scruggs
Filed Under: Herald & Examiner
Yes. The week of January 9, 1861.
September and October 1962 were real bitches.
Re Ben Cole @ 2
I’ve heard that a future member of the “Scruggs Katrina Group,” while a student at Ole Miss in September/October of 1962, was quoted in Life Magazine as saying some pretty despicable things.
Hmmm, Flubber, now let’s see . . . who in SKG was already at Ole Miss when Dickie was a (what? freshman?) in high school?
Flubber: EVERYBODY said despicable things … with but the very fewest exceptions. Mississippians felt no need to leash the darker sides of their hearts. The idiot governor openly vowed to “nullify” federal orders. Newspaper editorials were written with venom rather than ink. This was the damndest place on earth. A person of color had no legal protections whatsoever. None. Try to imagine being an American without legal recourse. So … pick a name. Any name.
Since I was only one year old in 1962, I am pretty certain that I did not say “despicable things” about anyone — at least not knowingly or in understandable english. And while growing up, my parents taught me not to say “despicable things”. There were and are a lot of good Mississipians. Lets not throw “EVERYBODY” under this bus.
Everybody under the bus. God will sort us out.
Ben:
In 1959, my mother said to my father’s aunts in Vicksburg:
“The world will not come to an end if my children go to school with negroes.”
This was not a welcome observation and caused some family consternation. I was 4. I was not later aware that my aunts thought my mother a problem (although I did become aware my grandparents thought her views of the world suspect).
So not everyone in Mississippi was on the “bad” side from the git-go.
And in 1966, my father represented civil rights workers (you can look it up– Reeves v. Foster, reported twice in the Miss. Supreme Court, which in turn resulted in him representing Alvin Bronstein, sued by Cecil Ray Price in Neshoba Cty– both long stories for another time. Price, btw, murdered Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman).
There were people who did the right thing. Other examples are told in the book Witness in Philadelphia by Florence Mars, and the stories of the journalists I mentioned recently (P.D. East, Ira Harkey, etc.). My point is that there is a way for someone to both stay a part of the community in which they have chosen to live and to do right. Saying “it’s Mississippi” etc is partly discouraging because it is an invitation to not from day to day make those choices. I don’t accept that.
1876 has everything beat.
Ben, this is from today’s Word of the Day email:
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That’s bad enough for me. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
1876 has everything beat.
What happened then — Reconstruction started or something? Remember that my question addressed the MS legal community’s, not the whole state culture’s, newsiest month.
the violent overthrow of the reconstruction governments among other things.
Whoa, really? Very bloody?
Yes. for a primer read Nick Lehman’s recent book about it.
LQC Lamar, future Supreme Court justice, past prof of law at Ole Miss, was in the thick of planning it with his former law partners and other Democratic stalwarts.
Awwww … I know I paint with a brush just slightly wider than necessary. But the topic was “legal” bad news, and we Mississippians had enough of that to cover the state collectively … both our profession and the public generally.
point taken, Ben.
And actually, I’m not sure November of 2007 doesn’t have this beat:
State Farm v. Jim Hood boils over at the first of the month… Scruggs indictment released at the end of the month…
What was going on in the Katrina cases in the middle?
Hold that thought, NMC — we’re just 11 days in on this one (well, more like 10 at this hour).
The fascinating thing about Scruggsiana is the inward eye it focuses on the legal profession itself. The Melton mess also pertains to people in positions of power (whoa, that was a good alliteration, non?) abusing their power. Please note that I didn’t use the word “alleged” with regard to Melton. I still haven’t gotten over him issuing his own subpoenas. Gall, thy name is Melton.
lotus, you might also read the original book on the 1876 recapture of the Mississippi government: “Revolt of the Rednecks: Mississippi Politics 1876-1925,” by Albert D. Kirwan; Harper & Row, 1965. 340 pgs.
Former Confederates dressed in their former military uniforms, cannons on the court house lawns were fired, every appearance was done to make certain people think that the South had risen again, and those people ran for the hills.
It would make a damn good movie.