MS SC535

Stanley Dearman, age 84 and editor/publisher of The Neshoba Democrat newspaper, passed away on February 25, 2017.

Dearman published the weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Mississippi for 34 years (1966-2000) and received the University of Mississippi's Silver Em Award and Mississippi Press Association Hall of Fame induction (2005).

His editorials expressed outrage at the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, helping set the stage for the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

Dearman lived to see Philadelphia unite across racial lines to achieve justice for the 1964 murders.

The Mississippi Legislature mourns his loss and pays tribute to his public service and courage displayed over his four-decade journalism career.