Joseph Eason Wroten (February 28, 1925 – March 17, 2005) was an American lawyer and politician in the state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. He represented Greenville and Washington County in 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 ...

from 1952 to 1963. A progressive

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

for that time and place, he was "an almost lone dissenter in the state's 'massive resistance' policies" in its fight against

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 ...

. In the 1950s Wroten consistently spoke and voted against the Mississippi legislature's maneuvers to divert state monies to the

Citizens' Councils The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash a ...

. Out of 122 representatives, only he and Karl Wiesenburg of

Pascagoula The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River. The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Mobilian Jargon term meaning "bread people". Choctaw na ...

voted nay in Governor

Ross Barnett Ross Robert Barnett (January 22, 1898November 6, 1987) was the Governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964. He was a Southern Democrat who supported racial segregation. Early life Background and learning Born in Standing Pine in Leake County ...

's special session called to stop

James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississ ...

from enrolling at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

, which saw the

Ole Miss riot of 1962 The Ole Miss riot of 1962 (September 30 – October 1, 1962), also known as the Battle of Oxford, was a violent disturbance that occurred at the University of Mississippi—commonly called Ole Miss—in Oxford, Mississippi. Segregationist r ...

. He was defeated in his bid for re-election the next year. He went on to be elected chairman of the Washington County Democratic Executive Committee, a racially integrated political committee which announced its pro-integration platform at the 1968 Mississippi State Democratic convention. At this time Wroten's party affiliation was Loyalist Democrat. He and a delegation of the executive committee went to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago,

and in a credentials fight we succeeded in prevailing over the old guard conservative delegation composed of the governor and others from Mississippi, and we were the ones who were seated. It was a racially inclusive delegation from Mississippi that was seated at Chicago in 1968. I was a member of that group.

As a youth, Wroten earned the

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

award. In 1942 while a pre-med student at

Millsaps College Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. History The college was founded in 1889–90 by a Confederate veteran, Major Reuben Webster M ...

he joined the

U.S. Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

and served as a navigation, gunnery and communication officer and as lay chaplain, where he integrated the worship service, then was a Naval officer through 1946. While overseas in the Navy he decided to become an attorney, and graduated from law school at Ole Miss in 1948. In both colleges he was president of the

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...

fraternity. In the 1970s he worked as a judge in the Washington County courts. From 1984 until his death in 2005, he was Clerk of Court of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Mississippi in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. He taught Sunday School in the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

for 60 years. Wroten died at the age of 80 on March 17, 2005.

References

Biography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wroten, Joe 1925 births 2005 deaths Mississippi Democrats Millsaps College alumni People from New Albany, Mississippi