The most significant evidence of a countercultural movement in Mississippi comes from the underground student newspaper, The Kudzu, presented by the Mississippi Student News Project. The Mississippi Student News Project was “a loosely connected group of students, recent graduates, and dropouts from Ole Miss, state, Southern, and Millsaps” who initiated The Kudzu “in order to bring students in Mississippi out of isolation from the mainstream of national and international youth culture.”[1]  The Kudzu highlighted the growing change in public opinion among college students in Mississippi by “providing the only unbiased local reporting of the civil rights movement, peace movement, and the counter-culture” from 1968 to 1972.[2]  During its run, The Kudzu ran articles that ranged from advertising nudist colonies and musical festivals to criticism of America’s involvement in Vietnam and society’s discrimination of blacks and women. Covering “subterranean news from the heart of old Dixie,” writers for The Kudzu often called on students to promote social change. However, their political views and nonchalant attitudes toward drug use drew attention from law enforment.

 

In October of 1970, The Kudzu announced that “two members of [its] staff have been beaten by cops in the past five months.”[3]  By November of 1970, The Kudzu published an article which claimed that police targeted and terrorized a home known to house members of The Kudzu staff. They argued that “police planted dope, destroyed private property, stole files and records, and arrested eight in fell swoop.”[4]

 

 

 

 

[1]David Doggett, “Generational Revolt,” The Kudzu, September 18, 1968. From Mitchell Memorial Library Special Collections, Mississippi State University.

[2]ibid. The Kudzu, September 18, 1968.

[3]David Doggett, “The Vine", The Kudzu, October, 1970. 

[4]“Kudzu Framed,” The Kudzu, November, 1970.