I was in Ross Barnett Junior's Law office one afternoon....
...and there were pictures of his dad yucking it up with John F. Kennedy. Barnett wasn't very well-liked as Governor, and when he started getting those cheers from the crowd at Veteran's Memorial Stadium he realized he found a way to be loved by them. That's why he went back on his promise to the kennedy brothers to smoothly integrate the university of ole miss.
My father in law was in the National Guard at the time. His unit was activated by Barnett and sent to Natchez during this time. He did it so President Kennedy couldn't federalize them and use them to guard Meredith. Funny thing is, even though he and his fellow Guardsmen were your average Mississippi good ol boys, they still got cussed and had rocks thrown at them in Jackson by local whites because they were wearing the uniform when they stopped at a diner to get some food. In other words, my father in law suffered more for Civil Rights than Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Bennie Thompson combined.