INTERVIEW WITH “MISSISSIPPI” JOHN CRIPPS

I thought with the election to decide the next Governor of Mississippi less than a month away it would be an ideal time to interview John Cripps. Cripps is the Constitution Party candidate for Governor of Mississippi. But more importantly he is a voice for Southern Heritage supporters in the state.

I left an email message for him with my phone number and found that he had tried to contact me while I was at work. So today I was able to reach him on his cell - phone. “This is John” is what the voice on the other end of the line said to me.

“John, Clint Lacy here sorry I missed your call yesterday can I call you this evening for the interview?”

“Yeah that’d be good I’m touring the state right now and I’m in the middle of no where, near the Choctaw Indian Reservation, my cell might lose its signal soon”, he said.

So at 9:00 I got a hold of John. He was spending the night in Tupelo and was gracious enough to grant me an interview.

John Cripps became very active 2 years ago when an effort was under way to change the Mississippi State flag. The Mississippi State flag is red, white and blue with the Confederate battle flag in the upper left corner. Some factions in and out of the state felt that it was offensive and needed to be changed.

John Cripps and his Free Mississippi organization led the effort to save their state flag. “ I made a lot of friends “, Cripps said, “ We registered over 4,200 people to vote. Cripps made even more friends when he recently went to Alabama to help protest the removal of the 10 commandments monument there.

But while “Mississippi” John, as he is known, made friends with the voters, he also made enemies with the media. John explained to me that when the issue to save the flag of Mississippi was underway, “ all but one of the state’s newspapers that I know of was for changing the flag” ( It is also important to note that several predominantly black counties in the Mississippi Delta voted to keep the current flag.)

Cripps soon organized protests of the state’s liberal media, picketing newspaper and television offices and they have not forgotten it either. He informed me that when the list of candidates was released and printed in the papers, his name did not appear on it.

He recently filed a lawsuit because he was not allowed to participate in the first debate of candidates. The basis of his lawsuit is that 3 of the 4 facilities that hosted the debates are taxpayer funded. The lawsuit is being filed against the heads of the facilities and the Republican candidate, Haley Barbour. Cripps emphasized that the only reason Mississippi’s current Democratic Governor was not included was, “The state Attorney General would be involved and we didn’t want to waste the taxpayer’s money”.

I have often stated that there is little difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. While the nation was watching the situation in California, another quiet battle has been raging in Mississippi. Last campaign third party candidates received a little under 2% of the vote. At the present time he has been told that he could receive up to 5% of the vote and that’s a problem for the state‘s two major parties..

Cripps explained to me that in Mississippi a clear majority of votes must be garnered to win the election. If the election is too close the state legislature decides the outcome. Right now the current Democratic Governor of Mississippi and the Republican Candidate, Haley Barbour are statistically tied at 45%. If John Cripps earns 5% as predicted, it will send the election to the legislature, which is predominantly Democrat.

This may explain why Haley Barbour has changed his tune over the past couple of years. According to Cripps

“ Two years ago the board of Mississippi Phosphates, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mississippi Chemical, donated a large sum of money to the NAACP to assist them in their fight to have the state flag changed”

Cripps then informed me that Haley Barbour was a member of that Board. He also told me that last year Mississippi Phosphate publicly came out in support of removing the Confederate flag from the “8 Flags” display on the Mississippi gulf coast.

“The 8 Flags display has been our second biggest flag fight in Mississippi”, said Cripps.

Now a day’s Barbour is singing a different tune. “ He used to sound like a New England Northerner, now he sounds like he’s straight out of the cotton patch”, Cripps said.

Barbour’s accent is not the only thing he has changed either. He now publicly states that he SUPPORTS the current flag.

“Most of his campaign signs have American flags on them, now he’s putting Mississippi State flag stickers on them and handing out bumper stickers and state flags”, Cripps said.

Cripps says that Barbour knows the election is at stake so he’s going after my supporters in an attempt to win a clear majority. In Lamar County, Cripps has noticed many of his campaign signs taken down and replaced by Barbour signs. He told me that he has people watching them and knows that members of the Lamar County Republicans are the culprits behind this.

Though Cripps has experienced media “black outs” and fell victim to campaign sign theft he still is very optimistic. Stating that, “ No matter what the outcome of the election we already have a victory here”.

When asked to elaborate on this statement Cripps explained that if he can get the election to go to the legislature the two major parties will be forced to listen to the views of the Southern movement. He also added that this could have a “ripple effect” and influence the views of politicians in other states such as Georgia.

“Mississippi” John Cripps will be holding a rally at the state capitol in Jackson, on Saturday November 1’st. He asks that Southern Heritage supporters from across the country attend this rally. Noting that the bigger the crowd is the bigger the media attention will be.

-Clint E. Lacy

Email address for Clint Lacy; clintandmichelle@clas.net

John Cripps Campaign site