There is an “unwritten law” that forbids athletic teams of state colleges and universities from playing against racially mixed teams. However, most people agree that all teams should be allowed to play against each other, disregarding whether a team is integrated or not. Only state politicians actually support this law, yet, they are not able to give any reasons to support this law. This just comes to show that although politicians say that the people support them, they might not actually be. Even regular citizens in Mississippi agree that James Meredith should be able to attend the University of Mississippi. Even Dr. James Silver, a University of Mississippi history professor felt this way. He made the “closed society” speech to defend James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi. He openly supported Meredith but the board of trustees of the state institutions halted his teaching and postponed further action upon him, despite the fact that he is 56 years old and has been part of the university faculty for 28 years. Hence, even faculty members wanted to allow integration, yet politicians still tried to prohibit it.