; it is a chapter in two big struggles that provide the context for the events of 1962: Mississippi's states rights claims, with roots extending back to the Civil War and Reconstruction, and African Americans' struggle for full civil rights, also grounded in Reconstruction." (4).
The state's rights addressed in the book are also state laws. Therefore the machinery of the federal government had to be involved in creating change in the area of civil rights. However, many of the state laws used to maintain the disparity regarding segregation were unashamedly contrary to the rights the United States Constitution guarantees all citizens. In 1890 the state drafted a constitution that called for stringent segregation of whites and blacks. This gave legal authority for every white person in the state to maintain, as well as propagate, white supremacy. Over and over, the State of Mississippi would make the case that the federal government had no say in the issue of civil rights for its black citizens. As Mr. Lambert points out, "armed with that [state] constitutional authority and imbued with the firm conviction of white supremacy, state officials used every means within their power, plus some that were outside the law, to enforce segregation. Sometimes this included the terrifying practice of lynching. In the years between 1904 and 1908 there was an average of one lynching every twenty-five days.
In Lambert's book, he shows the complexities of this long fought battle by taking us on the journeys of James Meredith, who fought for the equality the U S constitution granted and his challenger, Governor Ross Barnett, who fought for state's rights as set forth in the Mississippi state constitution. Meredith wanted the freedoms enjoyed by white students in Mississippi. "Meredith for Civil Rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution " (Battle, 6). In other words, Meredith just wants the civil rights that are guaranteed by in the U.