Mississippi: The Closed Society

by James W. Silver

The Closed Society is a book about an insurrection in modern America, more particularly, about the social and historical background of that insurrection. It is written by a Mississippian who is a historian, and who, on September 30, 1962, witnessed the long night of riot that exploded on the campus of the University of Mississippi at Oxford, when students, and, later, adults with no connection with the University, attacked United States marshals sent to the campus to protect James H. Meredith, the first African American to attend Ole Miss.

In the first part of The Closed Society , Silver describes how the state's commitment to the doctrine of white supremacy led to a situation in which the Mississippian found that continued intransigence (and possibly violence) was the only course offered to him. In these chapters the author speaks in the more formal measures of the historian. In the second part of the book, “Some Letters from the Closed Society,” he reproduces (among other correspondence and memoranda) a series of his letters to friends and family―and critics―in the days and weeks after the insurrection. Here he reveals himself more personally and forcefully. In both parts of the book are disclosed the mind and heart of the Mississippian who is as haunted as William Faulkner was by the moral chaos of his native land.

Genres: Race, History, Nonfiction, American History, African American

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In spite of the closed society the Negro has made some gains since his emancipation a century ago. In the same period, the white man, determined to defend his way of life at all costs, has compromised his old virtues, his integrity, his once unassailable character. He has so corrupted the language itself that he says one thing while meaning another. He no longer has freedom of choice in the realm of ideas because his ideas must first be harmonized with the orthodoxy. He automatically distrusts new currents of thought, and if they clash with the prevailing wisdom, he ruthlessly eliminates them. He cannot allow himself the luxury of thinking about a problem on its merits. In spite of what he claims, the white Mississippian is not even conservative―he is merely negative. He grows up being against most things about which other men at least have the pleasure of arguing. He spends all his life on the defensive. The most he can hope for is to put up a good fight before losing. This is the Mississippi way, this is the Mississippi heritage. It will ever be thus as long as the closed society endures. ―James W. Silver

Mississippi: The Closed Society is a book that should be read by every decent human being who don’t believe human beings should be seen as Commerce.

While reading Mississippi: The Closed Society, I had to keep in mind that I wasn't reading about today's Tea Party even though the Tea Party's talking points mirrored the Mississippi's Citizens Council talking points.

Why Mississippi: The Closed Society should be on Everyone’s Reading List. The passages are taken directly from the Book

1) When the House had before it seven bills to restrict Negro voting, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee soberly announced, “I think everyone should be reading this bill and should avoid asking questions not absolutely necessary.” P. 48
2) “Why Integration is Anti-Christian,”… p. 55
3) God wanted the white people to live alone, And he wanted colored people to live alone. The white men built America for you. White men built the United States so they could make the rules. P. 67
4) The Southern white man has always helped the Negro whenever he could. Southerners were always their best friends. The South went to war to prevent the races from race-mixing. P. 68
5) Modern political leaders have taken to feeding our people on the aperitifs and aphrodisiacs of human greed. The wisdom that flows political auctioneering. Personal freedoms of enterprise and individualism are traded away for what is not disgustingly called security. p. 70
6) Business leaders should understand that a healthy modern industrial structure cannot be raised upon the sands of segregation, minimum wages, poor schools, anti-intellectualism, Negrophobia, meager social services, anti-unionism, and a general policy of “hate the federal government.” P. 77
7) A classic example of lynching as a means of social control… p. 85
8) Justice under the law is not guaranteed for the Negro in Mississippi in the way that it is for the white man…p. 102
9) The white man is educated to believe in his superiority and the Negro is educated to accept his position of subservience and inferiority…The non-conformist learns the advisability of keeping his mouth shut, or is silenced in one way or another, or he finds it expedient to depart the state. P 151

Mississippi: The Closed Society is an important chapter of U.S. History and should be first introduced at the seventh grade level, again at the high school level and then again at the college level.

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible first person account of the events surrounding the University of Mississippi’s integration. As a senior at UM, preparing for courses regarding the 60th anniversary of integration, this book opened my eyes to so many things that are typically left out of the story.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The contents of this book can, with almost no changes, be applied to Tr*mpist/GOP efforts now, in the South and elswhere. Som many things continue to resonate. Accusations of communism/socialism, DAR ridiculousness, "no race problem until NAACP/Warren court/Obama." Chapter 2 opens with a section titled "Few Mississippians Believe Anything They See or Hear," and on and on.

It ought to be found embarrassing, I think that is to some degree what Silver expected, but the far right have gone and doubled down again and again, to the point that they'll gladly have an open liar and fraud Tr*mp as president and party leader rather than change.

[Steve Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable if sometimes dry read

The book was very informative and I enjoyed very much the historical gaps that it helped fill in for me. As a history professor Mr. Silver did an excellent job but I didn't always appreciate his writing style. Overall the book was well worth reading. Even though I know the various events described here are true I still find it hard to believe that one human being could so thoroughly hate another simply because of his skin color.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

The grim and disturbing history of the integration of Ole Miss as told by a professor of history on faculty there at the time. How, over one hundred years, white supremacy became "orthodoxy" in Mississippi.

[Matthew Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most horririfix studies of a racist society I have ever read. Written during the early part of my own life, it tells the story of the labyrinthine ways in which the authorities in Mississipi kept the non-whites in that state in a perpetual state of exceptional fear, tolerated as long as they did not get "uppitty". Chilling....

[RYD · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's no high calling than to speak truth to power, and this book is a great example of that. James Silver, a historian at the University of Mississippi, wrote this account at the height of the state's fight to retain segregation, at a time when support for integration could get you killed. It is a devastating portrait of the intellectual and moral bankruptcy that the South's intransience towards blacks produced.

As Silver quotes one of Mississippi's most famous sons, William Faulkner: "Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash; your picture in the paper nor money in the bank either. Just refuse to bear them."

There is a lot of insight in this book, and I think Silver's critique of the unreality that pervaded Mississippi society has relevance today in our post-fact world.

"The insurrection against the armed forces of the United States at the University of Mississippi on September 30-Oct 1, 1962, was the inevitable response to the closed society of Mississippi to a law outside itself. It made no difference that the law involved was the superior law of the United States -- and that Mississippi was one of those United States. The violent response [to a black's enrollment at the school] was inevitable because the United States is slowly, painfully, and self-consciously changing from a white society to a multi-racial society. This is happening not because Christianity has suddenly been overwhelmed with success but because the imperatives of the American dream have been demanded of a growing and sizable number of American Negroes who refuse to accept their traditional place at the bottom of American society. In Mississippi this slowly accelerating historic change is seen not as a legitimate outcome of classic American values but as a criminal conspiracy against sanctified institutions."

[Dewey Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know what the front lines of the civil rights movement were like, read this, a classic. The people who ran Mississippi in the 1960's hated Silver because he told the truth. I should know, I knew these people and grew there in that era. A fascinating story. I couldn't put it down.

By the way the version presented in the movie, "Mississippi Burning" is a considerably cleaned up version of what was really happened, kind of like g rated movie on the holocaust.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

in light of the events of January 6, 2021 it is extremely interesting to read this account of not only the events but also the worldviews of the people who opposed James Meredith's entering Ole Miss and felt emboldened to attack US Marshalls and the MS National Guard as representatives of the Federal government.

good to be reading this today and thinking about Gettysburg and Vicksburg as well as the Freedom Summer that came right after Silver's book was published...

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling, not least because much of what he writes is familiar to one who has lived in rural Georgia for many years.