I doubt that there are as many racists on campus as you seem to think.
And I doubt that there are as few racists as you seem to think. Remember, I was once one of them - I know whereof I speak. I once lived that life - including at college, since I attended at Mississippi State University over in Starkville. It is true that the college towns will be by nature more liberal than other areas...but only in comparison to the local cultural norms.
You keep describing the whole state of Mississippi as if Ole Miss culture mirrors it. Sorry, but that makes no sense at all. It's an institution of higher learning.
No, quite the opposite - Ole Miss, like other colleges, will normally be more liberal than the local cultural norms...but if you knew Mississippi half as well as you seem to think you do, you'd know that "more liberal than the local cultural norms" ain't saying much at all.
Well, that figures since Democratic Party membership was required for KKK membership.
You're making the mistake of conflating Democratic v. Republican with Liberal v. Conservative...so I've got another story for you:
One of our family acquaintances was a guy by the name of James O. Eastland. He was a U.S. senator for many years (my grandmother used to sell honest-to-goodness moonshine in his store) and he even offered to get me into the Naval Academy, which I declined - I somehow realized that I just wasn't ready for that, and I was right.
Anyway, if you'll dig deeply into Sen. Eastland's story, you'll find that this particular senator (who was twice president pro tempore) was as conservative as they come - and for a generation, he was quite literally the most powerful racist in America - Google "White Citizens Council", which later became "Conservative Citizens Council". He was the driving force behind making those happen. And then there was his "Academy System" of schools to preserve segregation after the Civil Rights Act - and most of those academies are all-white even today...including Indianola Academy where I attended in 1976 - even today, IA is 100% white...in a 71% black county. Think about that.
Yes, Eastland was a Democrat...and he was very, very conservative. You see, the South never really cared about being Democratic so much as they did about being Conservative...which is why the Democratic "Solid South" became the solid Republican base of today. Nixon understood this, which was why his "Southern Strategy" - wherein he would get the Souths "negrophobe vote" - would work to get him elected...and he was right.
In other words, guy, just as I wouldn't presume to school you on Texas politics and Hispanic issues in Texas, don't try to school me on MS politics and African-American issues...because you're only showing just how much you don't know.