Rosser Alexander Collins was born in Collinsville, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, on April 25, 1880. He was the son of Nathaniel Monroe and Rebecca Jane Ethridge Collins. Ross A. Collins was educated in Meridian, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, and at Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Mississippi State University). He received a bachelor of arts degree from Kentucky University (now Transylvania University) and law degrees from Transylvania University and the University of Mississippi.

Collins practiced law in Meridian from 1901 until his election as Mississippi attorney general in 1911. He served as attorney general from 1912 to 1920. After an unsuccessful campaign for Mississippi governor in 1919, Collins was elected as a Mississippi Democratic representative to the United States House of Representatives in 1920, an office he held until 1935. Collins ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the United States Senate in 1934. He was reelected to the United States House of Representatives in 1936, serving from 1937 until 1943. After a second unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate in 1943, Collins returned to his law practice in Meridian.

During his congressional career, Collins supported the acquisition of a Gutenberg Bible and several thousand fifteenth-century printed works now held by the Library of Congress. Collins served as chairman of the military appropriations subcommittee. He was considered a leading military-aviation expert who was credited with reappropriating between eight and ten million dollars from a United States Army fund for mule fodder and hay to the development of the B-17 bomber of World War II. Collins was also one of the few politicians who warned of the Japanese military build-up in the Pacific before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Collins married Alfreda Grant of Meridian on November 2, 1904. The couple had two children: Jane and Melville Collins. After the death of his first wife in the 1950s, Collins married Lura Harrison, a former secretary, in 1963. Collins died in Meridian in July of 1968.

Ross Robert Barnett was born in the Standing Pine community of Leake County, Mississippi, on January 22, 1898. He was the son of John William and Virginia Ann Chadwick Barnett. After attending public schools in Leake County and serving in World War I, Barnett graduated from Mississippi College, Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1922. He then worked as a teacher and principal at Pontotoc High School, Pontotoc, Mississippi, for two years. Barnett graduated from the law school of the University of Mississippi in 1926, and he began practicing law in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi. He served as president of the Hinds County Bar Association and as president of the Mississippi State Bar Association.

Barnett married Pearl Crawford of Panola County, Mississippi, on August 22, 1928. The couple had three children: Ouida, Ross Robert, Jr., and Virginia Ann Barnett.

After two unsuccessful campaigns in 1951 and 1955, Barnett was elected as Mississippi governor in 1959, serving from January of 1960 to January of 1964. While governor, he opposed the registration of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi, which required the protection of federal marshals and the intervention of the military at Oxford in 1962. Barnett was also ex-officio chairman of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission that was established by the Mississippi legislature in 1956.

In the 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial race against John Bell Williams and William Winter, Barnett secured fourth place in the Democratic primary. After the race, Barnett returned to his law practice in Jackson. Pearl C. Barnett died on March 20, 1982. Ross R. Barnett retired from practicing law in 1984, and he died in Jackson on November 6, 1987.

This collection contains four items of Mississippi political campaign literature concerning the national senatorial campaign of Ross A. Collins in 1943 and the Mississippi gubernatorial campaign of Ross R. Barnett in 1967. The four items of campaign literature were published in a newspaper format. They focused on the respective campaigns and included printed reproductions of photographs, testimonials, statistics, and news articles promoting the merits of each candidate.

The two items of campaign literature concerning Ross A. Collins are undated. One is entitled "Ross Collins Ridicules Puny Efforts of Opponents to Smear His Record," while the other item is entitled "Ross Collins is the People’s Candidate for U.S. Senator."

The two items of campaign literature concerning Ross R. Barnett are entitled "The Barnett Record." The first item is a June and July, 1967, edition, and the second item is a July and August, 1967, edition, which was also a supplement to the July 30, 1967, issues of the Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Daily News.

1. Political Campaign Literature. 1967; n.d. 1 folder.