Growing up in Mississippi was very difficult. There were a multitude of rules and regulations. African Americans, in particular, had many restrictions placed upon them while living in the Mississippi community. Growing up in this society posed problems. In The Battle of Ole Miss, Frank Lambert shares the problems within a closed society. Throughout the book, “blacks were considered inferior, denied access to a decent education, segregated into shabby houses in run-down neighborhoods, and kept in their places by state sponsored and vigilante terrorism” (Lambert 15). They were treated as nobody’s – someone whose rights and freedoms were ignored without a second thought. This essay will discuss what a closed society is, how it was created and maintained, and why many Whites fought in its defense.
A closed society is where there is very little freedom and an individual depending on race is unable to lead a peaceful life without interference from anyone else. During the Civil Rights Era, the White community believed in being better and more important than Blacks, and as a result, white culture ruled the society. For example, Blacks had to enter through the back door (Lambert 14). There were double standards in the community. Blacks were not allowed to enter through the front door because it was only for Whites to enter from. According to James Silver, a professor at Ole Miss, “A closed society, is where citizens not only showed little awareness of a larger world, but exhibited open hostility to “outside” opinion, especially those that were at odds with Racial segregation, white supremacy, and States Rights” (Lambert 139). There is segregation within the society, open hostility to outside opinions.
Prior to any beginnings of a Civil Rights movement, white supremacy and the closed society were established through Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were created and separated