Fielden William "Billy" Mitts (1919–1973) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician from Mississippi. He served in the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

from 1960 to 1964.

Biography

Mitts was born to F. W. "Buddy" Mitts and his wife, and grew up in Clarke County, Mississippi. He attended

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

, where he was a cheerleader and the student body president. He graduated from Mississippi State in 1942. In 1959, he was elected as the state senator for

Clarke Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name. Irish surname origin Clarke is a popular surname i ...

and

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

counties. He ran for re-election in 1963, when the 40th district had been redrawn to include Wayne County in place of Jasper County. He lost in the first round of primary elections to W. Vol "Bill" Jones. Mitts was opposed to

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity ...

of schools in Mississippi. He is known for his role in trying to prevent the

1962–63 Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball team The 1962–63 Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball team represented Mississippi State University in the 1962–63 NCAA University Division men's basketball season. Led by head coach Babe McCarthy, the Bulldogs finished with a 22–6 recor ...

from playing in the NCAA tournament against the

Loyola Ramblers The Loyola Ramblers (also called the Loyola Chicago Ramblers) are the varsity sports teams of Loyola University Chicago. Most teams compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference, which the school joined in 2022 after leaving the Missouri Valley Confere ...

, a team from Chicago which featured four black starting players. Mitts and another state senator, B. W. Lawson, obtained a temporary injunction to restrain the team within the state ahead of gameday. However, this injunction was never served before the team's plane departed for the game, and it was later dissolved for lacking legal basis. The game between the Bulldogs and the Ramblers thus went on as planned, and is now known as the

Game of Change The Game of Change was a college basketball game played between the Loyola Ramblers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 15, 1963, during the second round of the 1963 NCAA University Division basketball tournament, at Jenison Fieldh ...

. Mitts died on April 1, 1973, in Meridian Hospital. His funeral was held on April 3, and he was buried in Enterprise Cemetery in Enterprise, Mississippi.

Personal life

He married Lugennia White from

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

. He had one son and three daughters, including Chandler Mitts, who ran for the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected fo ...

twice in the 1990s.

Biography

Personal life

References

See also