“As the heat of black vs. white issues went from smoke to visible flame, a meeting of the rich and powerful was held in the corporate boardroom of a respected Jackson, Mississippi company.  A vow was made that integration would never be permitted in the state.  Each participant pledged his support and money to that end.  And so, the Ku Klux Klan was assured of the financial means needed, not just to deter, but to destroy any movement that threatened their southern way of life.”

Court-ordered total, and immediate, desegregation of both students and faculty in Jackson was a crushing blow that infuriated the white community and the state.  A riot at Jackson State College resulting in two deaths and several students being wounded told me to stay away from Jackson.  But an anonymous, threatening letter lured me there.

Within a month after arrival, I became the lone outsider among the large inbred staff that despised intruders.  The wolves immediately attacked with vigor, fully intending to embarrass me, make me ineffective, and force me to leave.

While trying to escape the Jackson school district after one year of hell, I was pressured into becoming Superintendent where I was forced to outwit both insiders and outsiders.

My wife and I faced down Ku Klux Klan members.  I confronted the most hated man in Mississippi who boasted that his only concern was, “mixing black and white bodies.”  And I took the Governor of Mississippi to court while dismantling the last bastion of segregated schools.

With the readability and style of a novel, Called To Jackson is a historical account of the excruciating birth of desegregation of the Jackson school and community, revealed in the depiction of people and events that changed America forever.