Cleve McDowell

Cleve McDowell (August 6, 1941 – March 13, 1997) was an American civil rights activist and lawyer. He is most well known for being the first African American to enroll in the University of Mississippi School of Law.

McDowell was born in 1941 in Drew, Mississippi, to an African American tenant farmer. He attended Jackson State College for his undergraduate studies and graduated in 1963. In June of that year, he enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law. While his application had initially been rejected, a court order from federal judge Sidney Carr Mize forced the university to accept him as their first African American student. He was also the second African American student to enroll in the university overall after fellow Jackson State alumnus James Meredith, who had enrolled the previous year. However, several months after enrolling, he was expelled from the university for carrying a handgun on campus.

Following his expulsion from the University of Mississippi, McDowell studied at Texas Southern University, where he earned his Juris Doctor. After this, he practiced law in Mississippi, serving as a public defender for about 30 years. Additionally, he served in several state and local political offices and was a field secretary for the NAACP. He was killed in Drew in 1997 by a client in a robbery.

Early life and education Cleve McDowell was born on August 6, 1941, in Drew, Mississippi, United States. He was the sixth of ten children born to an African American tenant farmer and grew up in Drew, located in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta region of the state. He attended Drew Public Schools, where he was class president, leader of the debate team, and editor of the student newspaper. However, he instead chose to attend Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, for his undergraduate studies, claiming that it was a better school than the ones he had received the offers from. majoring in history and political science.

After his expulsion, the university became an all-white institution for the first time since Meredith's admission. It would remain this way until June 1964, when Cleveland Donald Jr. enrolled as the first African American student since McDowell's expulsion. Like McDowell, Donald required a court order to enroll. However, according to historian David Sansing, following Donald's enrollment, the university's resistance to African American applicants began to fade, leading to further black enrollment into the university. In 1967, Reuben V. Anderson became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Later education By October 1963, McDowell had been employed by the NAACP, He worked for the Mississippi NAACP for several years. He later enrolled at Texas Southern University in Houston, where he continued his involvement with the NAACP. While at Texas Southern, he served as president for the university's student bar association. McDowell eventually earned a Juris Doctor from Texas Southern and returned to Mississippi.

Career

Law In 1971, McDowell was admitted to The Mississippi Bar. Over the course of his career, he was also a member of the American Bar Association and the Magnolia Bar Association. He began his private practice in 1975, From 1977 to 1979, he served as the managing attorney for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services in Clarksdale, Mississippi. As part of this activism, McDowell and other African American community leaders pressured district attorneys to revive cases—many of which having never resulted in a prosecution—on killed African American civil rights activists.''' which eventually resulted in the 1990 Delta Pride strike.

Government

McDowell held several roles in government at both the local and state levels. Webb was charged with capital murder, as well as grand larceny for the theft of McDowell's car, and was imprisoned in the Sunflower County Jail. At the time of his death, McDowell was still working as a public defender in the county.

Several months after his death, a fire destroyed his law offices, in the process also destroying many documents pertaining to his career and investigations into civil rights cases.

Personal life McDowell was active in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and was a leader in a local masonic Grand Lodge. He was also a senior pastor of the Greater Holly Grove Missionary Baptist Church of Drew.