JEFFERSON MILITARY COLLEGE

I am firmly convinced that in the world of today all nations will be forced to the conclusion that cooperation for law, justice and peace is the only alternative to a constant race in armaments---and to other disruptive practices that will bring the nations participating in them on either side to a common ruin, the equivalent of universal suicide" Cordell Hull1871-1955, US Senator from Tennessee, 3 term Secretary of State to Franklin Roosevelt, creator of the Allied coalition that defeated the Axis powers in World War II, chief architect of the United Nations, winner of the Nobel Prize for peace in 1945 and benefactor of Jefferson Military College.
 

It was in 1798 that a group of citizens wrote to president John Adams requesting that he provide them with a land-grant in order to establish a school there.

Thomas Jefferson as President of these United States established the original land-grant endowment of the school in 1802. In return the Territorial Legislature granted a charter stating that the school would treat all persons equally and that the school would remain forever tax-free. The school was intended by Jefferson to be the foundation and model for the state’s fledgling school system.

Jefferson’s views on race are well-known. Judging by his letter to Francis Gray of March 4, 1815, once a black person becomes emancipated from slavery "He becomes a free white man, and a citizen of the United States." In effect, the concept of race is a legal or a political concept, of value only in a totalitarian regime or to one based upon slavery. Jefferson’s view is that there is only one race and that is the human race.

Neil McMillen writes in his superb history Dark Journey (p. 362) that black people never attended school with whites in the State of Mississippi. Every other historian that I have ever read claims that James Meredith was the first black person to attend a white school. This is entirely incorrect. Jefferson Military College accepted black students at least as far back as 1890. The Colonel Adam Bingaman mentioned in Davis and Hogan’s The Barber of Natchez was a long-time trustee and administrator of JMC in the 1820s, 30s and 40s. Col. Bingaman, who graduated from Harvard in 1812, took as his common-law wife a black woman and raised a highly educated family with her. (Interracial marriage was already outlawed even by that early date in Mississippi.) Although the attendance records have been lost, there is reason to think that the Bingaman children were educated at JMC. As well, it is known that the famed artist and ornithologist, and Afro/Frenchman John James Audubon taught classes at JMC around 1838 and his children attended there also.

In 1961 of the 75 students at JMC, 35 were from the United States: Texas, Louisiana, Utah, Georgia, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee and four were from Mississippi itself. The other 40 were from outside the US: Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, France, Israel, Greece, El Salvador, Portugal, Cuba and Guatemala. They were Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. They were red, white, black, brown and everything in-between. They were white, Indian, Cajun, Creole, mestizo, Latino and African. The diversity of humans on this planet is almost unbelievable and from the first day to the last the experience was an exhilarating one.

Whilst I was there the school was operated by a pair of retired officers of the United States Navy: Vice Admiral Aaron Stanton Merrill and Rear Admiral Marcy Mathis Dupre. Classes and studies were required some 10 to 12 hours per day. It was the school’s policy to pair off a new white student (such as myself) with an Indian, an African or one of those unknown persons in what was the first step of breaking down racist sentimentalities. (And he was guaranteed not to speak a word of English.) With their relentless insistence on educational achievement, there simply was no time to worry about your room mate's color or where his ancestors came from. Actually this specific policy after the school became associated with the Cordell Hull Foundation in 1948. As Mr. McMillen notes in Dark Journey (p.19) in writing about another era of Natchez history, trying to determine a racial history for the Jefferson cadets would be a "patent absurdity". The most accomplished racist could not put his finger on one of the Jefferson cadets and say with any degree of assurance, "This boy is 37% black, he is 41% Indian and he’s 22 % white". One need not consider the migrations of Moors to Spain, Egyptians to South America or any of the other countless and unknown circlings of the globe by the peoples of the world. There is only one race and that is the human race. Click to read one cadet's view of race

After 1840 Jefferson Military College was completely cut out of the state’s educational program but managed to survive by tuition and private contributions. When Federal troops reached JMC on their southward march in 1863, the Civil War ended as the trustees persuaded the people of Natchez not to war against the United States. Federal troops made it their command post for the next 2 years. No fighting took place. The one exception occurred when a band of drunk Confederates fired their muskets at a Union gunboat anchored in the river. The captain of the ship responded with one warning shot from his cannons. The cannon ball exploded and a piece of shrapnel struck a 7-year-old girl who died 3 days later from the injury. After the war was over the school was turned over to the Freeman’s Bureau for the assistance of newly freed slaves for a period of 5 year

After 1840 Jefferson Military College was completely cut out of the state’s educational program but managed to survive through tuition and private contributions although Federal support also continued. Its finest hour came in 1949, five years before the decision of Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1949 a wealthy south Mississippi judge offered the school an endowment of 26,000 acres of plantation land, 7,000 acres of timberland and 42,000 acres of the east Texas oil fields. At the rate of some $2.00 per barrel, the oil field endowment by itself was estimated to be worth $50,000,000. The Trustees of Jefferson were elated at the prospect of this vast fortune and soon mapped out a massive expansion and rejuvenation program. Then Judge Armstrong threw a stink-bomb into the middle of their deliberations: He required the school to modify its original charter of 1802 and to forever after exclude all "Asians, Africans, Jews and hybrids". When Admiral Merrill learned of the conditions to the endowment he abruptly refused the 50 million dollars stating, "I did not spend five years of my life fighting Adolph Hitler and his Axis buddies to let you come here and teach his Nazi philosophy to my cadets." Two of Admiral Merrill's great-grandfathers were on the original Board of Trustees in 1802 and another ancestor served as Secretary of War to Abraham Lincoln.

Gerard Brandon, President of the Trustees wrote in rejecting the 50 million dollar offer, "The superiority of one race over another has never been taught at Jefferson College. No such course of study is anticipated. No such course of study should ever be found to be necessary or desirable. The college is non-denominational and no person shall be denied admission because of not being a Christian. The policies announced by Judge George W. Armstrong are not now, never have been and never will be the policies of Jefferson Military College, so long as any member of the present Board of Trustees is in any way connected with the institution." Both quotations are from the JMC files in Jackson.

The Trustees then voted eleven to one to reject the offer of endowment. The one dissenting vote was cast by Alan Armstrong (the judge’s son) who had been made a trustee during the negotiations. It was his first and last vote as a member of the board

JMC was not a leader of the civil rights movement that was born 15 years later: it was too far ahead of the times to have had any impact on that movement. It did not teach religion, prudery, dominance/submission, corporal punishment or moralistic intolerance (all standard fare in state schools of that time.) It was not a school for "special" students. Corporal punishment was prohibited at least as far back as 1838. It was not wise, as several historical incidents clearly show, to teach boys to stand up for themselves, to teach bayonet and rifle practice and then let a teacher hit that boy. They hit back. Its actions in standing against the totalitarian white supremacist policies of the State of Mississippi are a forgotten chapter of this state’s sad history. Only within its own narrow perimeters was it able to achieve its policies of egalitarianism for all its students. Its real priority was education and in this respect it was light years ahead of the rest of the state.

The foreign students at JMC (all of whom became my closest friends) so impressed me that I decided to study languages and to become a teacher so that I too might be able to help bring peace and understanding to the peoples of the world. Later this interest in language turned to linguistic philosophy and I became a civil rights worker in 1964 when so many others came here to support the disfranchised and dispossessed people of Mississippi.

Thomas Jefferson never gave but one thing to the people of Mississippi (aside from the dirt on which they live) and that was his school down in Adams County. In returning thanks, the State of Mississippi broke its solemn promise to Thomas Jefferson and revoked his school’s tax-exempt status. When state senator "Booger Bottom" Burgin learned that JMC could not pay its tax liability of $49,000 he quickly ran through legislation to appropriate $60,000 to buy that school and shut it down. 15 years later Senator Burgin was later caught with his hand in in the cookie jar (he swindled $800,000 from the Department of Education) and was convicted in Federal District court and sentenced to 18 months in prison. The bill passed the Mississippi legislature unanimously with no dissent and no discussion. Needless to say the Trustees never saw a penny of that money: it was paid to the state’s own treasury. Senator Burgin is enormously pleased that no Jefferson Military College cadets sat on the jury that determined his fate as they might have stood him up against a wall without a blindfold. JMC closed in 1964, slowly strangled by the colossal taxes levied against itself.

State Sovereignty Commission director Erle Johnson revealed in his book The Defiant Years (p. 302 that the State considered similar action against the black school Tougaloo College but that he hesitated for fear that it might create a martyr. Let Mr. Johnson come forward and tell us what role he played in destroying Jefferson Military College.

RESPONSE OF JUDGE GEORGE W. ARMSTRONG
TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it"
The Gospel of St. John 8:44

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LETTERS

Dear Daddy,
     We are going to have our picnic this Sunday on the Natchez Trace.  It should turn out to be a big success because we have planned a good bit on it.
     I imagine you have already heard about refusing the endowment offered by Judge Armstrong, at first I was surprised to hear about the rejection but now after some careful thought I understand it entirely.
      During my two years at Jefferson I have always been taught that everyone is judged by his abilities to forge ahead and not his race or religion.  Here at Jefferson I have learned that a true democracy is the best government.  A government that bars no one and gives everyone an equal chance.
     If we did have some money we would be able to accommodate more boys and therefore many more would learn the principles of Jefferson.  Already a few gifts "with no strings attached" have been received, ranging from $1.00 to $5,000.  With a little money Jefferson could grow to be one of the largest & best schools in the south.
     I only hope that my humble opinions are somewhat parallel to yours.
                                            Love always,
                                           Bobby
by Sgt. Bradford

122 North Main St.
Memphis, Tennessee
October 28, 1949

The Trustees
Jefferson Military College
Washington Mississippi

Gentlemen:

Nearly ten years have elapsed since I last marched on the parade grounds of Jefferson College, ten years of fond memories of the 'best prep school in the country".  Many times I have proudly boasted that Jefferson's system of teaching is unexcelled; I have told my friends that a finer of teachers could not be found than those at Jefferson between 1938 and 1940.  These teachers, besides being excellent instructors, were "real" human beings.

May I recall to you those who were on the faculty a decade ago?  Major R.D. Walser was principal.  Altho he was gruff like an old Army sergeant, underneath his shell he was as mild-mannered as a kitten.  I spent the summer of 1940 taking a post-graduate course.  Major Walser also taught me ancient history that summer---we discussed everything but ancient history.  He impressed me as a wise and tolerant man.

Capt. R.R. Montgomery was commandant.  He was always fair; dealt with the students on an equal basis.

Mrs. R. E. Montgomery was as open minded a woman as you will find teaching English in any school.  If a discussion in her class led to people, we talked about people; if the discussion led to the subject sex, sex did we talk about.  In her class no subject was taboo...

Last but not least was Captain N. S. Dodson.  He was a thinker, a true scientist.  If he held any hatreds, prejudices, intolerances, I was entirely unaware of them. I hold a fond affection for this man.  From his teachings I began to realize that all men are equal.  In any one racial group or religious group you will find men of superior intelligence and men of inferior intelligence.  The only difference that exist among these groups, whether they be white, black, red or yellow, catholic, protestant, or jew, is education (culture being an educational entity.)

Across the country the newspapers are filled with news of Jefferson becoming the benefactor of $50,000,000.  I would shout joyously if there were no strings attached, but for an institution that has taught true democracy for 147 years to cast away its principle for dollars is more than I can stomach.

Thomas Jefferson was the first to advocate the emancipation of the slave. He preached equality of man.  He is responsible for the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, freedom of religion.  He was an ardent believer in States Rights.

Very truly yours,

Maurice E. Jacobs

Click to read Colonel Stanley Murphy's account of the Armstrong affair

By Charles F. Sudduth, Jefferson Military College Cadet