Miss. gov. juggles White House hopes, state’s past
Even after apologizing and backtracking on certain remarks, Barbour has trouble striking the right note: Just days ago, the governor told The Associated Press he remembers little about the racial violence pulsating through the state and the South during his youth. What does Barbour recall about the Freedom Summer of 1964, when he was 16, and the slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi shocked the nation?
“Not much,” Barbour said casually, the kind of answer his critics find at once unbelievable and predictable.
“The governor has a pattern, in my opinion, of doing things that are outrageous and insensitive,” said state Rep. Rufus Straughter, who is black and a decade older than Barbour and grew up a county away from him.
Emily Pettus
WAPO
1/30/11
Magnolia Tribune
