I note the passing of former Mississippi Governor Bill Waller with sadness. His record wasn’t perfect, but he was an enlightened man who had real courage. He wasn’t successful, but he was a bulldog in his effort to prosecute Medgar Evers’ case. He defeated Evers’ brother to win the governor’s race in 1971.
Mr. Waller, a Democrat and self-described “redneck,” used his governorship from 1972 to 1976 to appoint blacks to administrative boards and commissions for the first time in post-Reconstruction Mississippi. He elevated three historically black colleges to university status, and he abolished the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which had fought integration…
…Though Mr. Waller had not run on race issues, one of his first acts as governor was to name a black as a top adviser, attracting national publicity. He recruited the first blacks for the state’s highway patrol and appointed the first blacks to a planning committee for the Mississippi State Fair.
With a record like that, he’s deserves a moment of reflection from all of us. Compare him to Trent Lott, who not too long ago publicly regretted that Strom Thurmond wasn’t elected president in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket. Of course, Thurmond did carry Mississippi that year. Why? Because Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) pushed through a civil rights plank on the Democrat’s platform. And then President Truman followed up a few weeks after the convention by issuing an executive order that led to the integration of the armed services. Obviously, that’s not the kind of behavior that people like Trent Lott can support.
Gov. Waller moved Mississippi in the right direction. He had some Atticus Finch qualities. He’ll be missed.
