Praxis International

"Integrating Theory and Practice "

II

"GOT TO

WORDS, IMAGES, AND INTERVIEWSby Sue [Lorenzi] Sojourner

a Northern white civil rights organizer who livedand worked with the Holmes County Movement

people for five years in the 19605

On permanent display at the

~Rural Technical Assistance onViolence Against Women

~

Exhibition and brochure produced by Praxis International, Inc.; documentproduction support provided by the Puffin Foundation Ltd., Teaneck, N.J. Thisproject was supported by Grant No. 98-WR-VX-KOOl awarded by the ViolenceAgainst Women Office, Office of Justice Programs, u.s. Department ofJustice. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do notnecessarily represent the official position of the u.s. Department of Justice

Domestic Abuse Intervention Center

202 East Superior Street \

Duluth, Minnesota '~r

"Fear of freedom. It is fear of or lack of faith in thepeople. But if the people cannot be trusted, there is noreason for liberation. ..the revolution is not even carriedout for the people, but "by" the people for the leaders -a complete self-negation. "

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This exhibit is a part of the Community Organizing TeachingCenter created by Praxis, International*. The goal of thecenter is to document projects nationally and internationallythat have met the challenges of violence, poverty and otherforms of oppression through community organizing efforts.

The documented projects have developed a local response toa local problem, by involving community members affected bythe problem, and by creating environments in which self-determination and decision-making power remain with thepeople as they work to improve their own lives. Thesemethods help to raise the political consciousness ofparticipants as they learn to see that many problems arecaused by social and political forces rather than by personalcircumstances.

Such organizing methods and principles distinguish serviceproviders from social change activists. Service provision,generally, repairs damage, while social change efforts work toaddress the root cause of a social problem and prevent thedamage from occurring.

Praxis hopes to inspire social change activism in both veteransof the battered women's movement and in newcomers byoffering these exhibits on the organizing achievements ofcommunities working to stop violence against women and othersocial problems caused by oppression.

*Created by Praxis in partnership with the Violence Against Women Officefor recipients of grants under the Rural Domestic Violence and ChildVictimization Enforcement Grant program

THE SYSTEM OF RACIAL SEGREGATION

In 1963, in Holmes County, an oppressive, white-over-blacksystem sustained the separation of races that slavery hadcreated in Mississippi and the Deep South. A cruel, rigidsegregation permeated all life and activities. In the 19605,the 19 thousand Holmes blacks were still the underc/ass forthe 8 thousand Holmes whites. The rule of Southern whites,so often outnumbered by the blacks, depended on denyingdemocratic voting rights to blacks.

The following is excerpted from a story written for theHolmes Co. Freedom Democratic Party (FDP) electionsorganizing and read aloud at the FDP Campaign Kickoffmeeting in January 1967.

Then, at that time,...meeting for anything other thanthe usual church meeting...just wasn't...done

The certain few who ran affairs knew...the only way theythemselves stayed up was by standing on the backs ofthose below and that it was necessary to keep thosebelow quiet and still and unmoving-otherwise theythemselves would topple... .

So the rulers above had always tried to force the ones

below to be quiet, unmoving, bent down, and denied. They

made it dangerous for any of those below to try to move

or stand up. They used force and fear and violence so

that all knew that it was dangerous to even think about

trying to get up.

In addition... the rulers tried to make those below believethey didn't really want to get up, they shouldn't want toget up, it was wrong for them to get up, it was God'splan for them to be down. And, they made some of thepeople believe they weren't fit to stand, they weren'tgood enough to be up, it was only natural and right forthem to be down, bent, and stood upon.

...They gave rewards and let some of those below have it

just good enough to think they were as good as the onesabove and certainly better than those below. This served

to split up those below

268 794MISSISSIPPI OCT HOLMES- 67

Civil rights working in early '60s Holmes County wasdriving-driving dirt roads, mud roads, no roads, oroccasionally gravel. Pavement roads were only found inthe white folks' parts of town, which you stayed out ofwhenever possible.

Driving meant flat tires every day, wishing for a two-wayradio in your car, getting stopped by Andrew P. Smith(the sheriff) or his deputies or Moody (the statehighway patrol), who were always out to get you.

Your car tag (license plate) was familiar I a symbolencapsulating that experience.

Number 26 designated Holmes County in Mississippi'stotal of 82 counties.

Every year I everybody's tag in the county (whetherowned bya white or black) began with 26.

26B 794MISSISSIPPI OCT HOLMES -

HOW THE HOLMES MOVEMENT ST ARTED

Holmes County civil rights activities started in Mileston in early1963. No other Mississippi county had as many independentblack farmers as Holmes did-800 black farmers owned 50percent of the county's land. None had as many owning richDelta land as the 110 black Mileston farmers did. The Move-ment's first catalysts arose from these Mileston landowners.

In the '405 and '505, someMileston farmers had goneto the semi-secret NAACP(National Association forthe Advancement ofColored People) meetings inother parts of the state-women like Alma MitchellCarnegie and men likeRalthus Hayes, asharecropper who becamea very successful farmer .

Alma Mitchell Carnegie

In 1960, Southern black students started sit-ins and freedomrides-direct action demands for service at white-only lunchcounters and bus facilities-that spread throughout theSouth and inspired blacks allover the nation. They formedthe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC,"Snick") in that year to sustain the momentum and to publiclyand dangerously confront white supremacy.

In 1962, SNCC organized FreedomMeetings in Greenwood in the countynext to Holmes. Driving the 30 miles tosee what was going on in Greenwoodwas a bold act for Mrs. Carnegie'syounger brother Ozell Mitchell. He andother Mileston farmers had to journeyon remote roads where being seen andidentified with organizing could bringphysical and economic harm.

Ozell Mitchell The danger increased when they invited

the SNCC organizers to set up a meeting at Mileston. InMarch 1963, Mitchell and others got the Sanctified Church inMileston to allow meetings in their building-a great risk in

the face of increasing church burnings throughout the South.

They housed John Ball and four or five other SNCCorganizers. Mrs. Carnegie opened her home to the outsideworkers, just as she had, in the late '305, to the SouthernTenant Farmers Union organizers working in Black Beltcounties. For most of the other Mileston families, housingoutside organizers was a new and brave act.

HARTMAN TURNBOW SPEAKS

A Mileston farmer and fiery orator, Hartman Turnbowinspired people during the Movement's first stage. He gaverousing talks in Mileston and at the early Countywide meetingsEncouraging those already active, he also moved to action manywho were deeply afraid of white segregationists' violence.

In a 1967 interview, Turnbow described how he saw changehappen in Holmes and Mississippi:

That lynching I was telling you about-that one with theburning with the 'cetylene torch-that'n was a turningpoint. It just...made a Negro mad, got to thinking he'drather die any way but to be all burnt up with a torchwhile he's still living

The Negro ain't gonna stand for all that beating andlynching and bombing and stuff ...They found out' whenthey tried to stop us from redishing that every time theybombed or shot or beat or cut credit..., it...just made himangry and more determined to keep on...and get redished .

The reason that Negroes have stood up...is... they's notscared. The lynchings and killings frightened the Negroesand kept them scared for a long time. But the lynchingswere different from now. A lynching was just one Negrodead. Each one that got lynched was just one Negro gone .

But this now, this is something that we is in together. Wewas all together trying to do something. So every timethey come shooting or bombing it just made us all madand more determined to 90 on.

July 1967

At their meetings, the Mileston farmers learned aboutregistering (pronounced "redishing") and voting. At that time,blacks in Mississippi and throughout much of the South couldnot exercise these basic constitutional rights. After severalmeetings, they decided to take their first public step to claimthose rights.

One April morning after several weeks of meetings, 14 menand women gathered at Ozell and Annie Bell Mitchell's farmon the highway between Mileston and Tchula to drive the 20miles to the county Courthouse in Lexington. Courageously,they would each ask for an application to register .

They knew registration was critical to gaining their rights andthat, for whites, the registration application was more aformality than a "test" to pass, as it was for blacks. Butinterpreting a section of the state constitution was part ofthe form and definitely a test graded by the circuit clerk.They knew that, even after filling out the 21-question form,it would take 30 days for Clerk McClellan to let them know ifthey passed. As it happened, none got registered that day (orthat month or even that year). The circuit clerk rarely"passed" African-Americans.

But those first 14 knew they had to take the steps to theCourthouse, whether or not they "passed." The organizershad prepared them well and notified the Justice Departmentof their plans.

They arrived in Lexington that morning, parked away from theCourthouse, and walked quietly by twos and threes-but not anorganized march, so as not to be inflammatory to the whites.The Justice Department or someone had notified the sheriff ,for he and nearly 30 "auxiliaries" confronted the 14 at theCourthouse door, demanding to know what they were doing.

Hartman Turnbow, with no prior plan, stepped up and said,"We's come to redish."

Because Turnbow spoke up first I he was the first to be letinto the Courthouse-into the circuit clerk's office. Theothers waited their turn under the big tree on theCourthouse lawn near the Confederate monument .

Turnbow didn't get the forms tofill out before the office closedfor noontime dinner. When itre-opened that day, and for thenext two days, they were calledin one at a time to speak withand be tested, and berated, bythe circuit clerk. Taking suchsteps-and living through themwithout getting killed-was a

heady victory.

Soon after the first Courthouseattempt, nightriders drove ontoTurnbow's farm and firebombedhis home where he, his wife, andteenaged daughter were Hartman Turnbowsleeping. In unprecedentedactions, Turnbow leapt up, grabbed his rifle, shot back. Thewhites scattered. The Turnbows were uninjured, but thesheriff arrested him for arson of his own home. SNCC gotMovement lawyers in Jackson to help them get him out of jail

THE WHITE NEWSPAPER COVERS"THE FIRST 14 I'.

The White Citizens' Council'sweekly newspaper, the HOLMESCOUNTY HERALD, gave the firstday's events front-page coveragein its Thursday, April 11, 1963edition. With big headlines andphotos, the paper ran interviewsof most of the First 14 blackswho attempted to register tovote.

Such coverage was not positivepublicity or "good press." It wasdangerous business for thesebeginners in Movement action.Everyone's name was printed inthe news story. From then on,

Holmes County Herald gavethe first day's events frontpage coverage.

every week, a circuit clerk's list was printed of all who triedto register, thus announcing to the local whites just who thenew troublemakers were-who should be targeted for reprisals

Despite the danger, fear, and harassment, the Mileston "firstmovers" felt victory in taking those steps together. They hadplanned and carried out an action-meeting in Mileston anddriving to Lexington together to try to register. Thereplication of such actions throughout Holmes and the South,piece by piece, brought state-sanctioned segregation to an end.

MEETINGS AND SONG ARE ESSENTIAL

In 1963-64, establishing the right to meet was the crucialfirst step in getting organized. Meetings are the glue thatholds a community together, and throughout the South whitesegregationists did their utmost to sabotage meetings amongblacks organizing. For more than a year after the September1964 opening of the Holmes County Community Center atMileston, the highway patrol and sheriff staked out it andwhatever other places the Movement was using for "openingup" new communities.

The police harassed with tickets and fear but were onlyinitially and partly successful. By the end of the second yearof organizing, 20 communities were meeting weekly and thereweren't enough patrolmen to cover the widespread Movement

activity.

Song and music

protected,cradled, andinspired all thosein the Struggle.

Every meetingbegan and endedwith song, andoften the musicwas able to bringthe participantsand the communitythrough difficulttimes.

Singing at the April 1969 Freedom DemocraticParty (FDP) countywide meetinq .

The photograph of singing at the 1969 Freedom DemocraticParty (FDP) countywide meeting was taken inside the HolmesCounty Community Center at Mileston. The most recentCountywide was held 3rd Sunday in April 2000 in the HowardBottom community.

EARLY MILESTON

The community meeting at Mileston in March 1963 was thefirst Movement meeting in Holmes. It became a regularWednesday night meeting and was one of the first activitiesto move into the Community Center in fa111964.

Caladonia Davis, Alma Mitchell Carnegie and Mileston womengathered there in early 1965. Possibly, they are waiting forthe regular meeting to commence. Or, perhaps they arehaving their own meeting.

They are the older women of the community. All of them arefarmers. At that time, they are in their fifties and sixties,with Mrs. Davis in her seventies.

THE OLDER WOMEN OF MILESTON

the Community Center at Mileston for the Holmes CountyMovement had been a political radical in the 19305, aware ofhow critical meeting places are to community organizing. Thefirst Mileston young adults who worked with the CommunityCenter director and managers included Rosie Head and EleaseGallion of the two women on right, standing in the frontdoorway of the Center. The two on the left are sisters whowere not Center staff .). The occasion was an FDP CountywideMeeting on the Third Sunday in Apri11969.

Rosie and Elease were in theirtwenties when the Movementand outside workers sparkedtheir hearts and minds. Rosiewas living with her children andparents and Elease was living onher father's farm when theGreenwood meetings started.Eleaseattended those, workedwith the COFO volunteers in1964, and then trained to runthe Center .

THE BLACK CANDIDA TESIN THE 1967 ELECTIONS

In the 1967 county elections, black candidates ran for thefirst time since Reconstruction 100 years before. Twenty-twocounty offices were open-from constable to sheriff toMississippi state representative. Twelve black candidatessought to win 12 of those offices.

Ten of the 12 had been Movement leaders since before 1966The other two were Robert Clark and Robert Smith, bothschoolteachers who became active in the Movement in 1966.

five handled day-to-day Center programs for the children-akindergarten, library, and social events-as well ascoordinating health, clothing, welfare programs, andresponding to harassment, legal, emergency issues, and voterregistration education for adults.

interest, regularly going to FDP meetings, then listening withrespect to what the grass roots could teach him.

His intense energy and drive, personable character, sharpmind, and vast personal/family/FDP connections launched himinto the highest elected position for a black in the state in1967. Today, in 2000, eight four-year terms later, Clarkcontinues in the Mississippi House, second in power only tothe Speaker and in a special position with the dozens ofblacks now seated there.

EDGAR LOVE

Edgar Love, who had lived and worked on a Delta plantationwith his family for most of his 21 years, agreed in late 1965to be part of the voter registration campaign that theFreedom Democratic Party (FDP) was broadcasting over thelocal radio station.

The Voting Rights Act had just become law, and Edgar readthe FDP script aimed at plantation folks, preachers,schoolteachers, and others who still hadn't tried to register

"Hello," he read. "I'm Edgar Love, and I live on aplantation...and I'm going to register to vote..." When he gothome after the broadcast, he found his white owner hadkicked him off the plantation.

In some ways, itwas a relief to betold to leave, as itwas impossible toget out from undereach year's

constant,overwhelming debtto the owner. Only

death, runningaway, or beingkicked off broughtdebt relief .

Edgar immediatelyEdgar Love

started as a full-time FDP organizer I initially focussing onplantation workers and then becoming a key countywide staff

person.

In the summer of 1967, the campaign for electing the blackFDP candidates (who were running as Independents) involvedEdgar for a good portion of his time, as did the long-runningboycott to force the firing of a bad Lexington cop.

On a hot July day in 1967, Edgar spoke to a crowd gatheredin front of a truck. Then, concerned about boycott progress,he and Mrs. Davis (with umbrella), a local Lexington leader ,led a march around the Courthouse to City Hall where theyconfronted Sheriff Andrew P. Smith, Deputy Billie JoeGilmore, and a white town policeman. It was just one of manyattempts to remove the brutal policeman from the force.

BERNICE p A TTON MONTGOMERY

By 1967, theMovement hadcreated a significantnumber of

antipovertyprograms and hadobtained federalfunds to supportthem. Bernice Pat tonMontgomery of thehill community of

Poplar Springs-Su.nnymount was a Bernice Pat ton Montgomery, standing. Fromprime Movement right: Mrs. Tate, Howard Taft Bailey,leader who took on Walter Bruce, Matilda Julia Burns, LugerthaHolmes's first large Wright and Elease Gallion.federally fundeddevelopment, the Milton Olive Program for. Children.

Mother of nine, on land she and her farmer husband owned,she was the only Holmes County schoolteacher involved in theMovement in the early '60s sixties. She went to theCourthouse to try register in late 1963 and persistentlycontinued trying until she "passed the test" in late 1964.

farms newly opened up to black ownership.

In 1964, the store's stock shrank when its white supplierswithheld goods from Mr. and Mrs. Beddingfield because theywere selling to the COFO workers. In 1964, Beddingfieldchildren were attending Freedom Schools.

Frank and Nathaniel are shown here, in 1969, in the livingroom of the small house owned by the co-op on the highwaynext to the store. They are surrounded by images fairlytypical of decorations in Movement homes at the time-theLast Supper and framed photos of Martin Luther King andfamily and the Kennedys.

THE CHILDREN

Young people played a significant role in the HolmesMovement. During the Freedom Summer of 1964 {when thethree civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County),more than 500 outside white and black college students camefrom allover the country to work in Mississippi.

The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was theumbrella group created by SNCC (the Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee), the NAACP (National Associationfor the Advancement of Colored People), CORE (the Congressof Racial Equality), and the SCLC (the Southern ChristianLeadership Conference) to run the Summer Project. Thirty-five COFO students came into Holmes, with a high priority towork with young people.

They created Freedom Schools for hundreds of Holmesyoungsters. Learning history, politics, singing, and poetry, thechildren also sometimes canvassed with the volunteers,knocking on rural doors before most Holmes towns were"safe" to the Movement, or "opened up." They spreadinformation about meetings and urged adults to go to theCourthouse to try to register to vote.

In 1965, nearly 200 Holmes black children in the first throughfourth grades took the clearly dangerous path to enroll in andintegrate the white-only schools. And in the following years,more enrolled as the higher grades were gradually added.

PECAN GROVE

The photos of the "Hoop"family (for lack of their actualname) and the Pecan Grove kidsrunning at the camera give afeel of the Pecan Groveneighborhood, a blacksettlement on the southernedge of Lexington.

Otha Lee, the child in thecenter squatting and mimickingthe photographer in the "PecanGrove Kids Running..." photo istypical of the spirit of thechildren who hung out amidstthe action at the HolmesCounty Freedom Democratic

The "Hoop" family.

Party (FDP) office.

In the winter of 1964-65, the last few COFOorganizers dared to openthe office in Lexington,in "the Grove," in athree-room shotgunshack. To operate intown, near whites, was Pecan Grove kids running at the camera.

much more risky than inthe security of blackrural areas where theFDP had taken hold andspread. The LexingtonFDP office became thehub of the countyMovement, the resourcefor political, legal, andeconomic development inthe geographical centerof the county. From theporch of the tiny, usuallyOrganizers open office in "the Grove.'

busy, office a white outside organizer is talking with a localleader .

Otha Lee and his friends were neighbors of the office andalways underfoot-giving spirit, headaches, and laughter tothe workers and local people at the office.

None of these children nor the family pictured on their porchwith a hoop was a Movement actor. Like most black childrenand families, they lived, played, worked, and struggled to eatand survive without ever going to civil rights meetings oractions.

Still, the Movement was theirs. It was for and of them. Thechildren and the Movement were the hope of the future.