In 1957 , Congress began to enact the first civil rights laws since the Reconstruction Era . By the time of the 1959 state elections , white Democrats acted to put a stop to this and elected Ross Barnett as governor . Democrats in Mississippi were not challenged in general elections and Barnett too ran unopposed . As a Dixiecrat , or States Rights Democrat , a member of the White Citizens ' Council and by law on the board of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission , Barnett was a staunch supporter of segregation laws , as had been his two challengers in the primary . By the time of the 1960 presidential elections , he refused to support John F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon . Barnett opted for the traditional route , while many other Mississippi Democratic officials supported Kennedy 's campaign . The state party itself had declared , in its platform , to " reject and oppose the platforms of both national parties and their candidates " after the 1960 Democratic National Convention and its adoption of a civil rights platform . As a result of its insistence on maintaining segregation , Mississippi became a focal point for other major civil rights activity . Jackson 's bus terminal was a stop for the Freedom Riders , civil rights activists who in 1961 rode interstate buses from Washington D.C. to New Orleans on routes through the segregated South to bring attention to the fact that localities in those states were ignoring federal desegregation law . When the buses made it to the Mississippi state line , by an arrangement between Governor Barnett and the Kennedy administration , police and the National Guard escorted them into Jackson where they were arrested and jailed for trying to use the bus station 's whites-only facilities
1960 Democratic National Convention
1960 Democratic National Convention
Mississippi Democratic Party