Haley Barbour can’t get his memories straight on Dr. King…
Barbour insisted he went to see Dr. King speak in Yazoo City in 1962, which is demonstrably false. The event was actually in 1966 as part of the March Against Fear, started by James Meredith. Haley Barbour should remember that name, since James Meredith was the first African American to attend Barbour’s alma mater of Ol’ Miss. Meredith was shot and badly wounded on his march to rally black voters, and the completion of his march became a priority for the civil rights movement.
The marchers reached the Yazoo City fairgrounds to set up camp and rally on June 21, 1966 after a long and violent day confronting racists armed with fists, bottles and rocks. Dr. King had attended two other rallies that day including one in Philadelphia, Mississippi where he confronted the killers of three CORE workers (embedded in a violent white mob) from three years previously. Anger was simmering and Dr. King did not get to the rally until well after it started as calls for “black power” and “white blood” were cast among the attendees. Dr King was appalled and said he would leave the march if calls for violence continued.
Somehow, Haley Barbour does not remember any detail of a tense meeting where calls for retaliatory racial warfare were the main agenda. In fact, no body else remembers any white people being present at all, much less a bunch of white college kids checking each other out.
The white college age boys had been quite visible along the march routes waving rebel flags and trying to hit marchers with clubs while driving by in pick up trucks, though…
No wonder his memory has gotten so bad. I’m sure he had fun looking at girls, as he said, though.