On March 29, 1956, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Mississippi legislature created a new state agency, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, to "do and perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi and her sister states." From 1956 to 1973, the commission promoted segregation in Mississippi and investigated its perceived enemies, mainly those associated with the Civil Rights Movement. Seventeen years of files were made public by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) in 1998.
Pictured: A black and white photograph of MDAH director Elbert Hilliard labeling stacks of Sovereignty Commission files. Hilliard is standing on a step stool in order to reach the top of the stack. The filing cabinets have metal bands wrapped around them preventing them from being opened.
Credit: MDAH Public Information Files
