48 posts tagged “mississippi”
i was on the hunt for any local civil rights activity as well as any national/regional civil events that passed through the jackson area. i had a sense of a couple obvious landmarks (though many of them i'd never really researched): the formation of the white citizen's council, the tougaloo nine, the woolworth's sit-in, the freedom riders arriving in jackson, the jackson state shootings, the march against fear, medgar evers' assassination, etc. what i didn't have a sense of was that there was a bona fida jackson movement, albeit short-lived, intense, and rather tragic--in the sense of organizational territory and politics draining local momentum (and in some way foreshadowing bigger meltdowns in the late 60s), and in the sense of the loss of someone as talented as medgar evers in the midst of an internecine maelstrom.
we've got some lingering SNCC and CORE presence in MS.1961, march: the jackson NAACP youth council protests segregated libraries in jackson. given that they're "the only such group still active in the jackson area and composed mainly of black high school students," and given that direct action isn't usually the NAACP's cup of tea (litigation/legislation and voter registration is) here we've got a local initiative.
1961, may: the SNCC freedom riders come into jackson, refuse to post bail upon arrest, and make the call for more buses to head to mississippi. 328 riders are arrested that summer, and many spend their time in parchman. once they get out of jail,
1962, december: the jackson NAACP youth council form a picket line outside of woolworth's in jackson, and try to initiate a city boycott of downtown merchants. they receive little support from SNCC (now drawn to greenwood), CORE (who feel like the boycott is started without sufficient community organization), and NAACP (again: they don't really do direct action). so, still a local initiative but now
we've got some attempted coordination with regional/national organizations.1963, may: NAACP switches course and makes jackson boycotts a priotity. reasoning: mlk's recent success in birmingham; roy wilkins is worried that jackson will be SCLC's next target. an ultimatum is made to jackson mayor allen thompson, negotiate or else face mass demonstration. after waffling for a bit, the mayor rejects all demands. the next day is the woolworth's sit-in by jackson NAACP youth council and moderator: a three hour, very violent affair. picketing increases dramatically; high school students begin walk outs and marches, with violent police response. we've got momentum, but we've got ulterior motives.
1963, june: increased activism has drawn in staff from national NAACP, but this results in a shift in the movement coordinating committee from an activist, youth-oriented aproach to a more conservative, NAACP/black minister & businessmen-led effort to broker a deal. right when direct action begins to escalate into a snowballing youth movement, mass marches and protests are halted, community momentum is lost, and attendance at nightly meetings declines. june 6: the city of jackson obtains an injunction forbidding further demonstrations. june 8: first day without demonstration or picket line. afterward: a "coalition of national NAACP officials and the traditional middle-class leadership of jackson [agree]... that although the boycott should continue, there [will] be no further mass demonstrations and that the movement should initiate another voter registration drive in the jackson area." june 11, medgar evers assassinated (more below). after his funeral procession, several hundred young people begin singing freedom songs and walking towards capitol street area. they are met with police, and, for the first time, fight back. a riot is only narrowly avoided. june 18, the movement's strategy committee announces a deal struck with mayor thompson, which amounts to a set of concessions previously rejected by black leaders: an agreement to hire six black policemen, a handful of promotions in the sanitation department, and a promise to "continue to hear black grievances." in essence, jackson remains a jim crow city. we've got ideological shifts that cut the legs out from under the movement, which crumbles: taking medgar evers and leaving nominal progress and entrenched segregation.
aftermath: jackson continues as a central headquarters for civil rights organizations in the state, but never again sustains a movement of it's own.we've got a locally initiated movement that gets coopted by national interests, leaving a community in the dust.
Nice, short piece on Taylor Grocery, a favorite eating spot of many MTCers. The doc was directed by Joe York, who has made several docs for the Southern Foodways Alliance based at the University of Mississippi.
Visited one of our second-year teachers, Danielle Hall, yesterday. Here is a pic of one of her students, Precious. More pics here:
Here is the edited clip (about 15 minutes) of Claiborne Barksdale's hour long talk with the Mississippi Teacher Corps first-year teachers:
"I can take care of your children in Mississippi in a licensed childcare center if I'm 16 years old... The average childcare worker in Mississippi makes about $16,000 a year."
Claiborne Barksdale, Director of the Barksdale Reading Institute, talks about the value of Schools of Education...
"Our mantra for early childhood education is 'Talk, talk, talk. Read, read, read.'" Claiborne Barksdale, Director of the Barksdale Reading Institute, talks about cognitive stimulation
Following up on the previous post, here is a great map application from the Measure of America website which published the HDI report, titled "A Portrait of Mississippi." The map application allows you to easily show a lot of data. Simple to use. With a color printer and some transparencies you can create some fantastic overlays. Here are two examples:
Article (hat-tip to Big Country) in the CL about the average life expectancy, and other quality if life indicators, of Mississippians, by county. The Mississippi State Conference NAACP commissioned the American Human Development Project to assess Mississippi, county-by-county, using the UN's Human Development Index (HDI). HDI is usually applied to countries and this may be the first time the HDI has been applied to an individual state. The results, especially for the Mississippi Delta and for African-Americans, are brutal. Read the report here (which starts, appropriately enough, with a quote from Faulkner: "To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi,").
A resident of top-ranked Rankin County lives an average of six years longer, is almost twice as likely to complete high school and three times more likely to complete college, and earns over $12,000 more than those who live in Panola or Coahoma counties, a new study shows.
Mississippians living in those poorer counties have a human development level similar to that of the average American in 1975, more than 30 years ago.
Those are among the findings in "A Portrait of Mississippi: the Mississippi Human Development Report 2009," a statewide, county-by-county assessment set to be released Monday, broken down by race, of such indicators as lifespan, earnings, incidence of diabetes, high school completion, crime and birth weight.
...
Overall, the earnings for white Mississippians spans from $22,000 to $38,000, compared to $13,000 to $25,000 for black Mississippians.
In other words, white Mississippians worst off in income are still better off than the majority of African Americans, said Sarah Burd-Sharps of the American Human Development Project, one of the authors of the report....
Overall, black Mississippians are worse off than other black Americans, ranking second to last on the health and income index (ahead of Louisiana) but dead last in education. On average, an African American living in Maryland lives four years longer, earns twice as much and is twice as likely to have a college degree.
...
The report shows how many people are still struggling in Mississippi with shorter lives, lower incomes and limited access to education, he said.
My Groups
-
Mississippi Teacher Corps (host) Updated: Dec 16, 2009
-
Mississippi Teacher Corps Updated: Oct 9, 2009
-
Peace Corps Updated: Sep 16, 2009
