William David McCain

The Sons of Confederate Veterans gives an annual literary award named for him, noting that "Dr. McCain was instrumental in reviving Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that thrived in post-war [Civil War] years but lost popularity during the early part of the [twentieth] century. Dr. McCain is remembered not only for his presidency at Mississippi Southern but also for his leadership in Sons of Confederate Veterans."[6]

The library at the national headquarters in Columbia, TN, is named is his honor,[7] and the grounds are referred to as "MAJ GEN WILLIAM D MCCAIN HQ CAMP."[8]

Between 1951-1953 McCain served as the eight president of the Society of American Archivists.[9]

A split in the Sons of Confederate Veterans in recent years has led to some Sons of Confederate Veterans local groups defining themselves as being "Dr. William D. McCain Old School" camps to indicate rejection of more racist and neo-Confederate nationalist elements.[8][10] As late as 1991 they featured McCain in a recruiting video along with then Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi.[3][4]

Because of his rank in the state National Guard, McCain was often addressed as "General" or, when he was absent, "the Generalissimo." He was often accused of being a tyrant who ran Mississippi Southern like a military base. Once, when testifying in a criminal proceeding in which one of his deans was charged with embezzlement, he was fined $500 and given a thirty-day suspended sentence for threatening to "beat the prosecutor's damned brains out."[4][5]

When his behind the scenes influence proved insufficient, he was capable of the vociferous attack. In a well publicized speech to a Hattiesburg civic club on March 15, 1969, he lashed out at the state legislature for being so paralyzed by the integration issue that they were causing higher education in Mississippi to "come to a grinding halt."[11]

In the early 1960s he obtained the support of his friend and fellow segregationist Governor Ross Barnett to elevate MSC to university status. This action paved the way for Mississippi Southern College to become a university, and on February 27, 1962, the school was officially renamed The University of Southern Mississippi (USM).

President McCain with Gov. Ross Barnett and Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson at signing of bill granting university status.

He was a prominent and active supporter of the state political establishment's racial policies. McCain was a founder and led it as an authoritarian general leading his troops for decades.[4]

He was accused of still fighting the Civil War. Specifically, he maintained that the Thirteenth Amendment was not legally part of the U.S. Constitution. As a leader of the pro-segregationist White Citizens' Council and a member of its speakers bureau, he made numerous trips north to present the pro-segregation case.[5]

In a period when pressure was growing nationally to integrate the state's institutions of higher learning, he was well known to vehemently oppose the prospect of having any black students at Mississippi Southern. In recognition of this, in 1964 James Meredith made his attempt to enter Ole Miss rather than Southern, thinking success more likely there.[12]

Indeed, when Clyde Kennard, a black Korean War veteran attempted to enroll at Mississippi Southern in the late 1950s, McCain made major efforts with local black leaders, the state political establishment and the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission to prevent it. The Commission sent Zack J. Van Landingham, a "subversive investigator," to assist him.[13] He handled Kennard's file personally and had John Reiter, the school security chief, look for any criminal record from Kennard's time in Chicago.[14] On September 15, 1959, Kennard was falsely arrested by constables Charlie Ward and Lee Daniel for reckless driving upon returning to his car from a meeting with President McCain. After he was jailed, Lee and Daniels perjured themselves before racist JP T. C. Hobby, claiming to have found five half pints of whiskey, along with other liquor.[15]

Kennard was twice arrested on trumped-up criminal charges and eventually sentenced to seven years in the state prison.

McCain's direct involvement in this incident is unclear. He was certainly as aware as other intimate members of the state political establishment were that the charges were fraudulent but made no public objection.[3][4][5][12]

On September 9, 1960, at the very time McCain was so forcefully seeking to keep Clyde Kennard out of Mississippi Southern, he made a trip to Chicago sponsored by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, where he explained to the Pro America Forum[16] the reality of Mississippi life saying that those blacks who sought to desegregate Southern schools were "imports" from the North. (Kennard was, in fact, a native and resident of Hattiesburg.)

"We insist that educationally and socially, we maintain a segregated society... In all fairness, I admit that we are not encouraging Negro voting," he said. "The Negroes prefer that control of the government remain in the white man's hands."[4][5][12]

He was equally vocal in Mississippi, having become well practiced in the Cold War anti-communist rhetoric of the period. He closely echoed conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who heavily carried the Mississippi white vote in 1964. On March 19, 1964, McCain gave the keynote speech at the annual convention of the Mississippi Education Association. He exposed Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Communist China, and Fidel Castro for fomenting the civil rights movement in general and particularly the move to integrate public education in Mississippi. He labeled the movement un-Christian, quoting Jesus Christ: "For the poor always ye have with ye..."[17]

McCain engaged in verified homophobic acts of purges and witch hunts of faculty and students.[18]

By the fall of 1965 both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University had been integrated—the former violently, the latter peacefully. University of Southern Mississippi leaders, such as President McCain, had come to realize that the battle to maintain segregation was lost. Therefore, they made extensive confidential plans for the admission and attendance of their first black students. A faculty guardian and tutor was secretly appointed for each. The same campus police department which six years before had attempted to railroad Kennard to prison when he attempted to enroll, now had very strict orders to prevent or quickly stop any incident involving the two black students. Student athletic, fraternity, and political leaders were recruited to keep the calm and protect the university from such bad publicity as Ole Miss had suffered from its reaction to James Meredith.

As a result, black students Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong and Raylawni Branch were enrolled without incident in September 1965.[1]

McCain had always run the university very much as the authoritarian commander of a military camp. This management style was challenged by the rebellious spirit of the 1960s on American university campuses. For example in 1966 and 1967 he attempted with economic pressure and slanted performance evaluations to silence several outspoken liberal faculty members. This led to a confrontation with various liberal groups, including the Young Democrats led by future Governor Bill Waller. This resulted in turmoil throughout April 1967, and finally to a riot on May 12, which required the intervention of the state police.[19][20]

As the years passed after 1965, McCain gradually lost the iron disciplined control he had held over the university. After the Jackson State killings of student protesters on Thursday and Friday, May 14–15, 1970, some 75 of his black students staged a sit-down at his home and then his office. Their demands included the integration of the campus police, the establishment of black social sororities and fraternities, and the inclusion of blacks on the faculty. Preparing for a protracted process of negotiations, McCain asked the black students to elect a leadership group with which he would deal.[21]

At this time he was also in a struggle to keep the ACLU off his campus. This culminated in January 1972, with a Federal District Court order to grant the ACLU a charter to operate on campus.[22]

In the twenty years that McCain served as president, enrollment grew from 3000 in 1955 to more than 11,000 in 1975.

When he retired in 1975, a Chair of History and the university archival library were named in his honor. He then kept an office in the library as President Emeritus. He died on September 5, 1993, and is interred at Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson, Mississippi.[1]