The Civil Rights Movement In The Mississippi Delta

The Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta

The Civil Rights Movement is usually seen as a social movement primarily throughout the Southern states during the 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s. However, the movement is taught by giving specific points, events, places, and people. The Civil Rights Movement in some regions such as the Mississippi Delta is not credited enough in history. The movement found crucial support inside of the Mississippi Delta due to its population being predominately African American. The Mississippi Delta played a key role not only in the movement, but in its development from encompassing Civil Rights activist, movements, tragic events, and more.

To understand the movement, it is important to know the history

behind the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans suffered racial inequality and injustice as far back to the 17th century. African Americans inhabited a life of disenfranchisement, segregation, and various forms of oppression even years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was passed. African Americans encountered lynching’s, racial discrimination, Jim Crow Laws, and more. The movement called for an end to racial discrimination and inequality. Historians do not place an exact time or event when the movement started, but do agree that the movement sparked in the 1950’s. More so to say is that it began due to decades of intense pressure on the need for equality and justice. However, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case was one of the factors that sparked engagement and drew attention in beginning the movement. The desegregation of schools was one factor the Americans could not ignore. Once the movement began, organizations and activists were on the rise.
Furthermore, African Americans endeavored an immense amount of pain in attempt of earning their basic rights.

One of the basic rights African Americans struggled to obtain was the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified. The amendment stated that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (U.S. Constitution). As this was thought as a victory, it was soon to be seen that it was anything but. White men in the nation saw this as a threat and improvised new ways to prevent African Americans to vote such as the installment of poll taxes, literacy test, and the “grandfather clause”. In Litwin’s book, Fighting for the Right to Vote, Litwin explains how Mississippi Delta activist, Fannie Lou Hamer assisted other African Americans in registering to vote and helping them gain a voice in the movement. Voting was not the only place where African Americans fell short of capabilities. Due to Jim Crow laws, African Americans could not do such basic things as ride first-class passenger on a primarily white train or a bus. A lady known as Rosa Parks in the neighboring state of Alabama found herself facing charges when she refused to give up her seat on the bus during the time of the movement. The Jim Crow laws were created to prevent African Americans from making any advancements that could potentially threaten white

supremacy.
Despite the fears of Jim Crow, African Americans remained content to gain equality and justice for their community. The activist led and organized voting registration efforts, boycotts, marches, and more. Medgar Evers from Decatur, Mississippi worked for the NAACP as a field secretary in Mississippi (NAACP). Evers organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination. He also worked to investigate crimes perpetrated against blacks, typically lynching’s (BIO). Evers became one of the most notable activist in the state of Mississippi throughout all his progress with the movement. However, Edgars had a target on his back due to his popularity within the movement which led him to being murdered in his home in 1963. Not only did Evers participate in voting efforts, but also did Ruleville, Mississippi local, Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as of 1963 (SNCC). “After the meeting at Williams Chapel Church in Ruleville, seventeen people went with Hamer to the Sunflower County seat of Indianola to try to register. . . No one was registered that August day. Hamer, who had a booming voice, sang to try to calm people’s fears on the bus taking them home” (Mills). Hamer was well known for her determination and for her love for others. She devoted a great portion of her life advocating Civil Rights for the black community throughout the Mississippi Delta. Adults were not the only activist in the movement, but also teens. One teen by the name of James Meredith from Kosciusko Mississippi, shaped the movement by becoming the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962. Meredith was accepted into the school but had his admission withdrawn when the school discovered his race. “Meredith filed a suit alleging discrimination. Although the state courts ruled against him, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor” (Lambert). After the case closed, Meredith went to register for classes where he witnessed the school had been blocked by protesters and a riot erupted that called for the National Guard and military police. Meredith was soon enrolled and attended the University and graduated with his degree. In an interview with author, James P. Marshall on his book Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960-1965, Marshall comments that college students shaped the movement to an extent in which “students quickly left their academic studies and moved in with local leaders and conducted their organizing work among the local population” (Mitchell). Even young people in the movement had a passion for it. The activist shared a love and determination for the movement and risked their lives daily for it.
The activist and their followers made great accomplishments in Mississippi.

The Civil Rights Movement had a remarkable success during the summer of 1964. During 1964, committees such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recruited members to work in the efforts of the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi to what became known as Freedom Summer. The project was meant to be a nonviolent effort to integrate Mississippi’s political system but was faced with violence. college students traveled to Mississippi to help register black. The predominantly white students established "freedom schools" to educate black school children, and organized voter registration drives throughout the state. The student volunteers, most importantly, helped to establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). However, it was a Mississippi native, Amzie Moore that brought the SNCC into Mississippi. Moore met New York native, Robert Moses during the Freedom Summer of 1964. When Moses arrived in Mississippi, he saw that there was a lack of student organizations in the state and discussed the possibilities of it with Moore. Moore’s dedication to the movement inspired Moses to put the idea of voter registration into the SNCC’s agenda (Carson). Although the movement had great support, it also had even greater opposition. For instance, the Citizens Councils which was founded in Indianola, Mississippi during the 1950’s. The council was a

white supremacist group created in efforts oppress African American advancements. The council was nonviolent but still used economic, social and political pressures in effort to provoke intimidation and discouragement to the black community. African Americans may have had an immense number of supporters but also faced groups who were enforcing and supporting Jim Crow such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The Civil Rights Movement ended roughly around the year of 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The movement achieved victories concerning discrimination in public environments and in voting precincts through the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, the movement did not resolve the racism and poverty issues that African Americans face even today. It can be said the movement did not achieve “complete equality, but greater equality” for African Americans. The movement did leave hope for other minority groups, however. Other minority groups in the nation reflect on the Civil Rights Movement as a model of hope for advancements and respect in their own groups. Even though society has progressed from the Civil Rights Movement, there is still much work to be done (Beavers).