Voting Station

Ross Barnett

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U.S. Governor

The Resume

    (January 22, 1898-November 6, 1987)
    Born in Standing Pine, Mississippi
    Governor of Mississippi (1960-64)
    Democrat

Why he might be annoying:

    He spent $300,000 to remodel the governor's mansion, including gold-plated faucet handles on the bathtubs.
    He twice personally blocked James Meredith from integrating the University of Mississippi.
    He arranged to have arrested Freedom Riders imprisoned at Parchman Farm under brutal conditions.
    He tried to prevent the Mississippi State basketball team from participating in the NCAA tournament, because it would have to play against integrated teams. The team snuck out of the state in the middle of the night to play in the tournament (1963).
    During the trial of Byron de la Beckwith for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, he interrupted the testimony of Evers' widow Myrlie to shake the defendant's hand (1964).
    He was prone to comments like, 'The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him' and 'The good Lord was the original segregationist. He put the black man in Africa.'
    Asked about his role in maintaining segregation, he replied, 'Generally speaking, I'd do the same things again.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Mary Pearl Crawford for 53 years.
    He served in the Army during World War I.
    He was president of the Mississippi Bar Association (1943-45).
    The music from his campaign song 'Roll with Ross' was recycled for the state song 'Go, Mississippi.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 18 Votes: 61.11% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 41 Votes: 51.22% Annoying