‘Hail, Dear Old’ State!’ meant something quite special to the late Dr. Richard E. Holmes

'Hail, Dear Old' State!' meant.

Key points

• At Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi), Clyde Kennard was falsely convicted and imprisoned in 1960 on trumped-up charges of stealing chicken feed.
• Senator Roger Wicker notes America is winning the artificial intelligence race, "But without a stronger power grid, we cannot hold our edge." Opinion Delbert Hosemann October 8, 2026.
• In 1962, James Meredith's integration of Ole Miss led to riots that left two individuals dead and more than 180 injured.
• A Starkville native, Holmes earned two MSU degrees: a liberal arts degree in 1969 and a master's degree in microbiology in 1973.
• When Richard Holmes was admitted, was a surprisingly peaceful affair that occurred without violence, compared to Kennard's fate and Meredith's experiences, MSU's integration in 1965.

'Hail, Dear Old' State!' meant something quite special to the late Dr. Richard E. Holmes. By: Sid Salter – October 28, 2026.

Holmes, MSU's first African American student, died Oct. 16 at age 82.

Richard Holmes did not choose to integrate Mississippi State University on July 19, 1965, lightly; he seriously reflected on the fates of those who had gone before him at previously all-white Mississippi universities. But he came anyway.

Holmes, MSU's first African American student, died Oct. 16 at age 82. A Starkville native, Holmes earned two MSU degrees: a liberal arts degree in 1969 and a master's degree in microbiology in 1973. In 1977, he earned his medical degree from Michigan State University and afterwards served as an emergency room physician in Birmingham, Alabama.

Dr. Holmes returned to Mississippi and joined MSU's Longest Student Health Center in 2003 as a staff physician, afterwards receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree from his alma mater. In 2006, MSU named him National Alumnus of the Year.

But considering the political climate Holmes chose to occupy in 1965 and the history of other racial trailblazers.

In 1962, James Meredith's integration of Ole Miss led to riots that left two individuals dead and more than 180 injured. The riots and the killings of Paul Guihard – a journalist for a French news agency – and local jukebox repairman Walter Ray Gunter occurred as President John F. Kennedy intervened and federalized the Mississippi National Guard.

Four years afterwards, Meredith was wounded in a shooting on Highway 51 just south of Hernando during a voter registration walk, but he survived the attack.

At Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi), Clyde Kennard was falsely convicted and imprisoned in 1960 on trumped-up charges of stealing chicken feed. That atrocity followed Kennard's unsuccessful attempts to integrate Southern in 1956, 1957, and 1959. When the school admitted black students Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong and Raylawni Branch, USM was integrated without incident in 1965. After being issued from jail, kennard died three years afterwards.

When Richard Holmes was admitted, was a surprisingly peaceful affair that occurred without violence, compared to Kennard's fate and Meredith's experiences, MSU's integration in 1965. Holmes, then 21, enrolled as MSU's first black student without incident.

Holmes afterwards recounted to a reporter the details of his first day on the Starkville campus: "There were no catcalls, no racial slurs. It was quiet and serene. Nothing happened. There was only curiosity and disbelief."

Holmes graduated from Starkville's segregated Henderson High in 1963, where he starred as both a student and a linebacker-guard on the football team. He completed his first two years of undergraduate study at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, before transferring to MSU in 1965.

It would be disingenuous to suggest that Holmes enrolled at State and lived happily ever after. He struggled with isolation and uncertainty as he lived alone in a two-bedroom dorm room in State's Evans Hall.

"They (white students) would yell at me sometimes, but it would never be personal, " Holmes remarked in a 2005 published interview. "I recognized where they were coming from. This institution had been segregated for 87 years."

"But no one ever spit on me, hit me, pushed me, or pulled a prank on me. Some befriended me and treated me with dignity and respect. Plenty of just ignored me, " Holmes remembered.

In August, MSU President Mark Keenum led MSU's dedication and ribbon-cutting for the Dr. Richard E. Holmes Plaza, which Keenum described as "a place where everyone can find opportunity and belonging" and as a space for "community, conversation, connection and friendship." The Holmes Plaza sits between the Colvard Student Union and the historic YMCA Building, ensuring that his story as a trailblazer will always be remembered.

In a speech decades afterwards, Holmes stated he watched a parade in Starkville at age 13 that lit a fire in him when he first heard the Famous Maroon Band play the MSU fight song: "At that moment, destiny was set in motion. I did not know when. I did not know how, but I knew at that particularly moment that I someday would be a Mississippi State Bulldog." Concerning the Author(s).

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. He is Vice President for Strategic Communications at Mississippi State University. Sid is a member of the Mississippi Press Association's Hall of Fame. His syndicated columns have been published in Mississippi and a number of national newspapers since 1978. Opinion Sid Salter October 14, 2026. Capital punishment logistical failures a self-fulfilling strategy of death penalty opponents?

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Taken together, the developments around 'Hail, Dear Old' State!' meant something quite special to the late Dr. Point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.