What Used to Happen in Our Country

My mom, Cindy Crohn, wrote a fictional account of a disturbing encounter her college friend, Anne Nunally, had in the late 1950s with the Dean of Student Welfare at Mississippi Southern College.

The dean had summoned Anne to his office to "warn" her about a close gay friend of hers in the music department, and to attempt to extract information from her about other gay men on campus. During the interview she noticed he had a tape recorder running on the floor under his desk, and afterwards her friend--along with many others, apparently--was denied his degree. (It was ultimately granted to him without explanation about a decade later). Information from the university's Oral History Project discovered by OutHistory's publisher, Jonathan Ned Katz, suggests that denying gay students degrees they had worked for was done routinely every year.

My mom's story, along with correspondence from Anne Nunally, has now been published on OutHistory.org, which filed an OPRA request in Mississippi to verify its particulars. Katz is now pursuing additional public records requests to uncover more about the scope of purges of gay students in southern colleges during the McCarthy era.

I'm really proud of my mom for her role in bringing these police-state tactics to light. Her
story, and more, are at http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/crohn/story

Thanks JC> Can't wait to read all the stories. You are rightfully proud!

Great story.

Thanks!

Great stuff. Had no idea.

Just the tip of the iceberg.

JCSO said:
Just the tip of the iceberg.

.........and I'm sure not limited to only southern colleges.