Clyde Kennard (June 12, 1927July 4, 1963) was an American Korean War veteran and civil rights pioneer from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at the all-white Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) to complete his undergraduate degree started at the University of Chicago. Although the United States Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, USM rejected him. Kennard was among the thousands of local activists in the 1940s and 1950s who pressed for their rights.