Françoise N. Hamlin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617039331
- eISBN:
- 9781626740037
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617039331.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how people organized themselves in Mississippi by focusing on the Delta city of Clarksdale from the 1950s through the 1990s. More specifically, it considers how activists in ...
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This chapter examines how people organized themselves in Mississippi by focusing on the Delta city of Clarksdale from the 1950s through the 1990s. More specifically, it considers how activists in different groups made pragmatic use of the differences among those groups and how the unique challenges they faced brought about a great deal of creativity. It highlights specific moments when local activism by African Americans worked best, or at least when the impact proved more enduring. It also looks at the daily occurrence of negotiations and collisions in pursuit of larger shared goals of black freedom, citizenship, and justice. The chapter cites examples of what it calls “flexible alliances” among local people and leaders and their relationship to the NAACP. Finally, it assesses the role of two leading figures in the Mississippi civil rights movement: Amzie Moore and Aaron Henry.Less
This chapter examines how people organized themselves in Mississippi by focusing on the Delta city of Clarksdale from the 1950s through the 1990s. More specifically, it considers how activists in different groups made pragmatic use of the differences among those groups and how the unique challenges they faced brought about a great deal of creativity. It highlights specific moments when local activism by African Americans worked best, or at least when the impact proved more enduring. It also looks at the daily occurrence of negotiations and collisions in pursuit of larger shared goals of black freedom, citizenship, and justice. The chapter cites examples of what it calls “flexible alliances” among local people and leaders and their relationship to the NAACP. Finally, it assesses the role of two leading figures in the Mississippi civil rights movement: Amzie Moore and Aaron Henry.
Françoise N. Hamlin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835494
- eISBN:
- 9781469601694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807869857_hamlin.5
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter focuses on two local leaders who are emblematic of postwar grassroots black freedom movements: Aaron Henry and Vera Pigee. Virtually unknown on the national stage, both organized and ...
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This chapter focuses on two local leaders who are emblematic of postwar grassroots black freedom movements: Aaron Henry and Vera Pigee. Virtually unknown on the national stage, both organized and sustained the local movement in Clarksdale and spent the greater part of their adult lives devoted to the struggle for racial justice in Mississippi.Less
This chapter focuses on two local leaders who are emblematic of postwar grassroots black freedom movements: Aaron Henry and Vera Pigee. Virtually unknown on the national stage, both organized and sustained the local movement in Clarksdale and spent the greater part of their adult lives devoted to the struggle for racial justice in Mississippi.
Francoise N. Hamlin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835494
- eISBN:
- 9781469601694
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807869857_hamlin
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Weaving national narratives from stories of the daily lives and familiar places of local residents, this book chronicles the slow struggle for black freedom through the history of Clarksdale, ...
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Weaving national narratives from stories of the daily lives and familiar places of local residents, this book chronicles the slow struggle for black freedom through the history of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It paints a full picture of the town over fifty years, recognizing the accomplishments of its diverse African American community and strong National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch, and examining the extreme brutality of entrenched power there. The Clarksdale story defies triumphant narratives of dramatic change, and presents instead a layered, contentious, untidy, and often disappointingly unresolved civil rights movement. Following the black freedom struggle in Clarksdale from World War II through the first decade of the twenty-first century allows the author to tell multiple, interwoven stories about the town's people, their choices, and the extent of political change. She shows how members of civil rights organizations—especially local leaders Vera Pigee and Aaron Henry—worked to challenge Jim Crow through fights against inequality, police brutality, segregation, and, later, economic injustice. With Clarksdale still at a crossroads today, the author explores how to evaluate success when poverty and inequality persist.Less
Weaving national narratives from stories of the daily lives and familiar places of local residents, this book chronicles the slow struggle for black freedom through the history of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It paints a full picture of the town over fifty years, recognizing the accomplishments of its diverse African American community and strong National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch, and examining the extreme brutality of entrenched power there. The Clarksdale story defies triumphant narratives of dramatic change, and presents instead a layered, contentious, untidy, and often disappointingly unresolved civil rights movement. Following the black freedom struggle in Clarksdale from World War II through the first decade of the twenty-first century allows the author to tell multiple, interwoven stories about the town's people, their choices, and the extent of political change. She shows how members of civil rights organizations—especially local leaders Vera Pigee and Aaron Henry—worked to challenge Jim Crow through fights against inequality, police brutality, segregation, and, later, economic injustice. With Clarksdale still at a crossroads today, the author explores how to evaluate success when poverty and inequality persist.
Crystal R. Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469627809
- eISBN:
- 9781469627823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469627809.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter recounts how segregationists’ political pressure led Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Director Sargent Shriver to back away from the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) and ...
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This chapter recounts how segregationists’ political pressure led Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Director Sargent Shriver to back away from the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) and support a rival Head Start program, Mississippi Action for Progress (MAP). In funding MAP, Shriver preserved Head Start in Mississippi and appeased powerful political leaders. Shriver won the support of key black and white leaders in Mississippi including National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President Aaron Henry and Greenville newspaper publisher Hodding Carter III. CDGM parents and staff, however, refused to accept MAP. Their resistance demonstrated CDGM’s empowering nature.Less
This chapter recounts how segregationists’ political pressure led Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Director Sargent Shriver to back away from the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) and support a rival Head Start program, Mississippi Action for Progress (MAP). In funding MAP, Shriver preserved Head Start in Mississippi and appeased powerful political leaders. Shriver won the support of key black and white leaders in Mississippi including National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President Aaron Henry and Greenville newspaper publisher Hodding Carter III. CDGM parents and staff, however, refused to accept MAP. Their resistance demonstrated CDGM’s empowering nature.
Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604738223
- eISBN:
- 9781604738230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604738223.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In the fall of 1963, Allard Lowenstein and Bob Moses organized a “mock election” called the Freedom Vote to show that disenfranchised black Mississippians would cast a ballot if given the ...
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In the fall of 1963, Allard Lowenstein and Bob Moses organized a “mock election” called the Freedom Vote to show that disenfranchised black Mississippians would cast a ballot if given the opportunity. They fielded an integrated ticket composed of black Clarksdale pharmacist Aaron Henry and white Tougaloo College chaplain Reverend Edwin King to run for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. The people behind Freedom Vote also formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. By late October, the campaign had gathered momentum and publicity and Freedom Vote rallies were held across the state. One such rally took place in the town of Greenwood in the Mississippi, with Fannie Lou Hamer as a speaker. This chapter reproduces Hamer’s speech, in which she quoted extensively from the Bible to warn Mississippi blacks that they would go “straight to hell” with their oppressors if they did not take action and vote.Less
In the fall of 1963, Allard Lowenstein and Bob Moses organized a “mock election” called the Freedom Vote to show that disenfranchised black Mississippians would cast a ballot if given the opportunity. They fielded an integrated ticket composed of black Clarksdale pharmacist Aaron Henry and white Tougaloo College chaplain Reverend Edwin King to run for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively. The people behind Freedom Vote also formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. By late October, the campaign had gathered momentum and publicity and Freedom Vote rallies were held across the state. One such rally took place in the town of Greenwood in the Mississippi, with Fannie Lou Hamer as a speaker. This chapter reproduces Hamer’s speech, in which she quoted extensively from the Bible to warn Mississippi blacks that they would go “straight to hell” with their oppressors if they did not take action and vote.
