Midnight Without a Moon

Mississippi in the summer of 1955 was a state with an entire history defined and governed by racism, segregation, Jim Crow, and the exploitation, devaluation, disenfranchisement, terror, and violence that a percentage of the white population regularly engaged in to ensure that the established parameters securing their position of supremacy and privilege remained unchallenged. The previous year, the United States Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation of public schools unconstitutional. On May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court instructed all schools nationwide to begin complying with the mandate. In Mississippi, anger and fear began to mount over prejudicial presumptions that interactions between white children and children of color posed a threat to white children. That summer of 1955 also saw an increase in voter registrations among Black residents of Mississippi, a prospect that enraged racist white Mississippians who understood that with voting came changes in laws and the potential for Black citizens to sit on juries where they might find themselves in a position to adjudicate matters related to white defendants. The population of Mississippi was 63% Black, and there was fear among white supremacists who recognized that they did not have the voting majority.