Starkville Alderman Lee Beck said he still plans to submit another resolution to amend Starkville’s beer ordinance after his September attempt was felled by a mayoral veto. Beck was elected to the post of city alderman during his senior year at Mississippi State University before graduating in December. During his campaign, he put forth resolution to extend beer hours as one of his chief goals.
Beck is certainly not the first MSU student to wrestle with city officials over Starkville’s policy concerning beer.
Looking back through former editions of The Reflector, one can track the entire history of Mississippi State University students’ attempts to legalize the sale of beer in Starkville.
For years, the sale of beer was not legal in Oktibbeha County or the city of Starkville. Certain groups in the city had a campaign during 1973-74 to legalize the sale of beer. The Reflector ran five front-page articles from August 1973 to January 1974 monitoring the details of the campaign.
Although there was no mention of student participation, student interest was obviously high. As the legal drinking age was 18 until 1986, the issue affected nearly all MSU students who chose to drink.
An August 1973 Reflector article titled “Legal beer here?” mentioned a town petition to hold a city election for the legalization of beer sales.
In further articles, The Reflector reported that the petition had enough signatures to bring about the election, but a January 1974 article reported Starkville residents voted 1,410 to 1,320 against legalizing beer sales. The article also mentioned that three aldermen openly spoke out against the proposal.
The issue died down for almost three years. Mississippi law at the time required that five years pass between submission of beer referendums. Yet in a November 1976 article, The Reflector reported that a new petition was already in the works for the next attempt.
On Sept. 6, 1977, a Reflector article by Trent Roberts titled “Legalized Beer” began with a comment by Student Association President Sam Cox, who said that “active student support” for a county beer referendum could easily bring about legalized beer sales during the next year.
Ten days later, The Reflector printed an article by Roger Culbertson titled “Student Association plans drive for legal sale in county.” The article began, “In an unprecedented move into local politics, the MSU Student Association has announced plans to sponsor a drive to legalize beer in Oktibbeha County.”
Further articles document the SA’s attempts to get the referendum passed. An October 1977 article reported that the SA was paying for buses to take students to the Courthouse to register to vote on the issue.
Students wrote opinion articles supporting the referendum, like one by Barbara Pardue, printed on Dec. 6, 1977, titled, “Bring in the money, bring in the beer.”
As the deadline for the new vote neared, supporters began to fear that the referendum would fail yet again. Marsh Nichols, former Reflector editor, wrote a Reflector editorial printed on Dec. 5, 1978, titled, “Beer: Now or 1984.”
Many of the articles focused on the dangers of students driving to the county line to get beer and driving back intoxicated. One of the key points that students in favor of the referendum tried to make was that it would be safer to simply allow beer in the city.
One article in January 1979 stated that if the referendum passed, Laurie Rosenbaum, the SA president, would “pay for the first keg of beer at the first legal beer bust in Starkville.”
However, this was not to be.
A February 1979 Reflector article reported a major setback for the proponents of the referendum. Starkville was redistricted early in 1979 due to the annexation of county territory. Because of this, the special election for the referendum was postponed until 1981.
During 1980, more opinion articles were written in favor of bringing beer to Starkville, and a story in July 1980 reported that, according to a student survey, 68 percent of MSU students favored beer being legalized.
Yet again, the SA, this time under the leadership of President Mark Garriga, sprung into action. Incidentally, Garriga went on to serve in the Mississippi House of Representatives and was Chief of Staff under Gov. Kirk Fordice.
Further articles detailed Garriga’s attempts to gain student support. The SA passed out petitions and encouraged voter registration. Articles in September 1980 reported that the petition to call the vote would be short of signatures, and the vote would never take place at all.
A November 1980 article said about 1,200 signatures were required for the referendum to be put to a full vote. The petition had over 1,900 signatures, but out of the 1,140 signatures checked, only about 600 had been valid.
Despite doubts that the petition would be ratified, on Dec. 11, 1980, the front page of The Reflector read, “1,505 signatures turned in on beer petitions.” It was decided that the referendum would be put to a vote on Feb. 24, 1981.
On March 6 of that year, The Reflector reported that the ordinance had been approved, and, on April 10, 1981, The Reflector ran the headline so many had fought to see since 1973: “Beer arrives in Starkville.”
If not for the hard work of student proponents of the referendum, it is uncertain when, if ever, the sale of beer would have become legal in Starkville.
Today, Beck continues that tradition. Beck still serves as an executive advisor to the MSU Student Association, and is working to gain student support to help pass his resolution to extend drinking hours.
Like the claim of years before that allowing alcohol would make Starkville safer, one of Beck’s key claims in support of extending drinking hours is that it would cut down on accidents. Beck said that by adjusting the law so drinkers would not all leave restaurants at midnight and traffic accidents could be reduced.
“Students aren’t going home and going to bed at midnight like people think they are,” Beck said. “They go to someone’s house and party until 1 or 2 a.m. That being the case, why not keep them in an establishment with well-trained people who can supervise them?”
Beck pointed out several studies showing that policies leading to ‘underground’ drinking create more problems than open policies. He cited a study by Ruth C. Engs of Indiana University who makes the case that lowering the drinking age would actually cut down on “irresponsible drinking,” which she claims is the real danger.
Beck said he feels that extending the drinking hours on the nights of special MSU events might have a similar effect. Time will tell if Beck, as those before him, will succeed in his goal to change the Starkville beer policy.
Whether he succeeds or fails, MSU students today, just like the students of 30 years ago, can “read all about it” in The Reflector.