Voted into being in 1956, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was assigned to "protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi from encroachment by the Federal Government." To do the job, it has plenty of political muscle —Governor Ross Barnett, his lieutenant governor and the attorney general are among the members—and ample funds, from a two-year budget of $350,000. It works hand in glove with the state's White Citizens Councils, whose educational foundation it subsidized with $50,000 last year. It also has a private, secret network of paid spies, who report the attitudes of individual Mississippians toward racial...
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