Racial attitudes were an issue in the 1972 Mississippi gubernatorial campaign between Charles Evers and William Waller. This conclusion is supported by test evidence consisting of content analysis of candidate speeches, news coverage of speeches in the form of direct quotations, printed issue position papers, and printed campaign advertising. A biracial group of college students was tested for connotations and denotations within sample prose works to form control data from which contrasts to Evers' and Waller's writings were drawn. Evers' rhetoric did not ignore this racial element found in the campaign; Waller's did. (CH)