Association of Citizens’ Councils of Mississippi, 4th Annual Report July 1958

In response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended school segregation, white segregationists throughout the South created the White Citizens’ Councils (WCC). The first Citizens' Council meeting was convened two months after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in Indianola, Mississippi. Soon hundreds of chapters with thousands of members spread like wildfire across the South. Members would meet regularly in living rooms and send in donations. These local groups typically drew a more middle- and upper-class membership than the Ku Klux Klan. The group even had weekly TV and radio programs, and states would sponsor promotional films spotlighting the benefits of segregation. The Association of Citizens’ Councils of Mississippi is an example of this larger reactionary group of white Americans who were committed to reversing federally mandated integration policies. In addition to using violence and intimidation to counter civil rights goals, local white Citizens Councils sought to economically and socially oppress Black people. In the excerpt of Mississippi’s Citizens’ Council, white segregationists root their ideas in states’ rights and racial integrity.