'Let There Be One': P.D. East, The Petal Paper and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi

P.D. East is a misunderstood figure. He was the sole white Mississippi native to offer unqualified support to racial equality in the pages of a newspaper he owned during the earliest days of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet the few depictions of his life and work in The Petal Paper that exist, scholarly or otherwise, are brief and cursory, with the only extended study devoted solely to him containing many inaccuracies, particularly regarding his early life. In addition to establishing the facts of East’s early life, this thesis contributes to the movement’s historiography in three specific ways. First, a close examination of the weekly column East published in The Petal Paper, from 1953 to 1962, shows his gradual evolution from a segregationist to a movement supporter. This kind of insight for a poor white Southerner, which East was, is rare. Second, that same examination of East’s weekly columns reveals that the actions of segregationists were what initially motivated him to break with Mississippi’s white power structure. This motivation complicates the established historiography, which is full of stories of whites who supported the movement out of altruism, religious conviction, and/or legal resignation. Third, East made his stand for equality in Mississippi’s Piney Woods, a place of intense racial violence. Exploring the responses he received from various segregationist groups further illuminates how movement supporters were viewed—and dealt with.