Ex-Miss. governor aimed to boost education
JACKSON, Miss. — Former Mississippi Gov. William Winter, a Democrat who pushed to strengthen public education in one of the poorest states in the U.S. and to improve race relations across the nation, has died. He was 97.
Winter, who was governor from1980 to 1984, died Friday night at home in Jackson, family spokesman Dick Molpus said Saturday. Molpus is a former Mississippi secretary of state who had worked on Winter’s gubernatorial staff.
As governor, Winter was best known for pushing Mississippi lawmakers to enact the Education Reform Act of 1982, which set rules for compulsory school attendance, established free public kindergartens and set quality standards for schools and teachers in a state that had long struggled with the intertwined problems of poverty, racial strife and poor academic performance.
Winter served in the 1990s as co-chairman of a national commission on racial reconciliation created by President Bill Clinton, whose time as governor of Arkansas overlapped with Winter’s time as governor of Mississippi.
“I think the combination of personal strength and political openness that he has shown all his life is the key toward making this crazy century we’re living in, with all these moving parts, hold together and make some sense,” Clinton said in a 2015 film, “The Toughest Job: William Winter’s Mississippi.”
The commission held several public forums across the U.S., including one that drew a large audience in 1998 at the University of Mississippi. The next year, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation was founded at the university, continuing the work of trying to help communities divided by conflict.
In 2000 and 2001, Winter led a state commission that recommended removing the Confederate battle emblem from the flag that Mississippi had used since 1894. Voters chose to keep the flag in a 2001 statewide election, rejecting the commission’s assertion that the Confederate symbol was a racist reminder of slavery and segregation.
Momentum changed in 2020 amid nationwide protests over racial injustice. Under pressure from business and religious groups — including, notably, the Southeastern Conference and the Mississippi Baptist Convention — legislators retired the Confederate-themed flag. They ordered a commission to design a new state flag without Confederate imagery and with the phrase, “In God We Trust.”
Winter issued a statement saying he was delighted to see the flag retired. He congratulated legislators but urged them to do more to tackle the state’s economic and social issues.
“The battle for a better Mississippi does not end with the removal of the flag,” he said.
Winter was born into a political family. His father, William “Aylmer” Winter, served three terms in the state Senate and three terms in the state House. His son played in the Mississippi Capitol hallways as a boy.
William Winter served in the Army during World War II andwas still a law student when was elected to the state House in 1947.
Winter was appointed state tax collector in 1956, becoming one of the highest-paid public officials in the U.S. Rather than hold onto the lucrative job that included collecting Mississippi’s tax on blackmarket whiskey, Winter recommended that the office be abolished — and it was. Winter was elected state treasurer in 1963 and lieutenant governor in 1971. He lost the governor’s race in 1975 and won it in 1979.
In 1982, members of Winter’s gubernatorial staff, known as the “Boys of Spring,” traveled around Mississippi to make the case for education reform. The group included Molpus and future Gov. Ray Mabus, who became secretary of the Navy during President Barack Obama’s administration. People were particularly reluctant to require kindergarten, which they saw as government interference. The Education Reform Act passed over the resistance of many legislative leaders during a special session in late 1982.
“I was one person in a huge commitment literally by thousands of people in this state that made up their minds that they were ready to do something about improving education,” Winter said in 2001.
Molpus, who was elected to three terms as secretary of state starting in 1983, praised his former boss in a recent statement. “Winter confronted racial, economic and educational inequities throughout his life and fought those inequities with courage, hope and tenacity,” Molpus said.
Mississippi governors were banned from seeking consecutive terms when Winter served. His single term ended in January 1984, and he ran later that year for the U.S. Senate, losing to Republican incumbent Thad Cochran.
Winter is survived by his wife of 70 years, Elise Varner Winter; their daughters Anne Winter, Lele Gillespie and Eleanor Winter; and five grandchildren. The family said in a statement that a memorial service will be held after the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic have passed.