Troy H. Middleton

Troy Houston Middleton, Sr.
President of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge
In office 1951–1962
Preceded by	Harold W. Stoke
Succeeded by	John A. Hunter
Born	October 12, 1889 Copiah County, Mississippi, USA​​
Died	October 9, 1976 (aged 86)​ Baton Rouge, Louisiana​
Resting place	Baton Rouge National Cemetery
Spouse(s)	Jerusha Emily Collins Middleton (married 1915-1976, his death)​
Children	​Troy Middleton, Jr. Bernice Middleton Stewart Parents: John Houston and Laura Catherine "Kate" Thompson Middleton
Alma mater	Mississippi State University Army War College (Washington, D.C.) Army Infantry School (Fort Benning, Georgia) Command and General Staff School (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas)
Occupation	United States Army officer Educator
Military Service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1910-1937; 1942-1951
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	39th and 47th Infantry; 8th Corps
Battles/wars	World War I with American Expeditionary Force; Sicily, Belgium (Battle of the Bulge, France, and Germanyy in World War II
Awards	Army Distinguished Service Medal

Troy Houston Middleton (October 12, 1889 – October 9, 1976) was a United States Army officer in both World War I and World War II and an educator who became the 13th president of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with service from 1951 to 1962.

Background

Middleton was born near Hazlehurst in Copiah County, Mississippi, to John Houston Middleton (1856-1935) and the former Katherine Louise Thompson (1860-1925), who are interred at Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery in Hazlehurst in Copiah County. Middleton was educated in Copiah County public schools and what subsequently became Mississippi State University in Starkville, which he attended from 1904 to 1909.

Career

In 1910, Middleton enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army and two years thereafter was commissioned a second lieutenant]in the infantry. In 1915, he wed the former Jerusha Emily Collins (1890-1980), originally from Galveston, Texas. The couple had two children: Troy, Jr. (1922-2006), who was a lieutenant colonel in the Army in World War II and the Korean War who is interred iat Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama, and Bernice Collins (1926-2012), who is interred at Roselawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, where she had lived nearly all of her life.

In 1916, Middleton he was elevated to first lieutenant and in 1917 as a captain during World War I and major-colonel in 1918. At age of twenty-nine, he was youngest colonel in General John J. Pershing's American Expeditionary Force in France. He commanded both the 39th and 47th Infantry regiments in combat. In the peacetime army, he reverted to the rank of captain in 1919 and studied and taught in the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, from 1919 to 1923. He was elevated to major in 1920 and then studied and taught at the Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from 1923 to 1928. Through his time at Leavenworth, nearly all of the men who were to command divisions in Europe in World War II studied at the Command School. At one point, each corps commander in Europe had been a student under Middleton at the Command School. Middleton instructed the later Allied Supreme Commander and subsequent U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, only a year younger than Middleton, ranked first in the Leavenworth class of 1925-1926. From 1928 to 1929, Middleton studied at the Army War College in Washington, D.C. The next year, 1929 to 1930, he was the battalion commander of the 29th Infantry at Fort Benning.

From 1930 to 1936, Middleton commanded the cadets at LSU. He was elevated to lieutenant colonel in 1935 and sent to the Philippines from 1936-1937. He retired from the Army the first time in 1937 and returned to LSU as dean of administration and vice-president from 1937 to 1942. With the advent of World War II, at the age of fifty-two, he re-entered the Army and served as commanding general of the 45th Infantry Division in Sicily, the 8th Corps in Belgium, France, and Germany during the war and from 1945 to 1951, when he retired for the second time as lieutenant general. LSU selected him as president in 1951, and he remained at the helm until 1962, during the early years of the civil rights movement. He was president emeritus from 1962 until his death in Baton Rouge three days before his 87th birthday.

Running afoul of political correctness

In June 2020, nearly forty-four years after General Middleton's passing, politically correct liberal activists and Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards called fcr the removal of Middleton's name and bust from the campus Middleton Library. A letter in 1961 was uncovered which revealed that Middleton had blocked African Americans from LSU athletics though blacks were admitted as students at the flagship school. Edwards, who often invokes in political campaigns his own military record at West Point and the honor code, called upon the LSU Board of Supervisors, whom he appoints, to remove any reference to Middleton from LSU, much like what George Orwell in his writings had predicted a dark future for Western Civilization. Edwards referred to Middleton as a segregationist.

Middleton's heirs, presumably grandchildren and great-grandchildren, have asked to address the LSU supervisors in order to defend the general from the attacks against him, which occurred in the wake of the George Floyd shooting death in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Then supervisors are expected to decide the matter on June 19, known as "Juneteenth"" in the civil rights community