Black Civil Rights Attorney Shot To Death In Mississippi

A civil rights attorney who was the second black to attend the University of Mississippi was found shot to death at his home, and a judge immediately slapped a gag order on investigators.

Cleve McDowell, 56, was found dead in an upstairs bathroom early Thursday after relatives called police to say the door to his apartment was open and his car missing. Police continued to look for McDowell’s Cadillac on Friday.

Investigators refused to discuss a motive or other details after Circuit Judge Gray Evans issued the gag order. Calls to his office to determine who requested the order and why went unanswered Friday.

McDowell had been a public defender in Sunflower County for three decades. He was part of a group of black leaders organizing to pressure district attorneys and revive interest in many never-prosecuted cases in which blacks were killed for doing civil rights work.

He entered the University of Mississippi Law School in 1963, a year after James Meredith became the first black to enroll at the university. McDowell was later expelled for carrying a gun on campus.

McDowell said he did not feel safe walking to class. When Meredith enrolled at the school, riots broke out and two people were killed.

McDowell received his law degree from Texas Southern University in Houston and returned to Mississippi to practice.

During the 1980s, McDowell was executive field director of the Mississippi chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.