Clyde Kennard

Clyde Kennard was a Civil Rights pioneer and martyr. He attempted to enroll at Mississippi Southern College to complete his undergraduate degree he had started at University of Chicago. After many failed attempts to get into Mississippi Southern College, Kennard published a letter about integrated segregation. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission planned to have him arrested on false charges. He was convicted and sent to seven years at Parchman Penitentiary. Even though he had terminal cancer, the governor refused to release him from prison. However, he was released in January of 1963. Ten days later he died. This story kind of reminds me of the story of Malcolm X because Malcolm X died for what he believed in. Though Clyde Kennard’s cause of death was not a consequence of his beliefs he still spent the last years of his life standing up for what he believed in through being imprisoned.