Natchez NAACP Headquarters

Natchez NAACP Headquarters. . , This house played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement, serving as headquarters for the local NAACP and the home of its president. George Metcalfe. During Freedom Summer of 1964, when civil rights workers converged on the state. members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee also resided here. In January 1965, "night riders" fired shots through a window of the home in an effort to terrorize the local movement. On August 27, 1965, Metcalfe suffered serious injuries when his car was bombed at the Armstrong Tire and Rubber plant by the Ku Klux Klan., Natchez NAACP Headquarters During the 1960s, this house served as the headquarters for the local NAACP. Natchez Branch President George Metcalfe, who occupied a downstairs bedroom in the house, established the office on the second floor. He also operated a boarding house at the site where civil rights activists resided. Dorie Ladner, Janet Jemmott, George Green, and Annie Pearl Avery, all members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), spent time at the house after the bombing of Freedom House #1. Avery, who carried a .22 pistol, helped to guard the house. Local women, including Jessie B. Williams, secretary of the Natchez Branch of the NAACP, worked here, as did Mamie Lee Green Mazique., Metcalfe's work with the NAACP resulted in threats from the Ku Klux Klan. In late January 1965, the threats against him intensified when night riders fired shots through a window of this house. On August 27, 1965, Metcalfe suffered serious injuries when his car was bombed by the Klan. A chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice was established that year after the attack on Metcalfe to provide armed self-defense of the movement and the Natchez Black community. Soon after the bombing, Mississippi NAACP Field Director Charles Evers came to Natchez, where he used the house as a hub for the local movement. Evers, whose brother Medgar had been murdered in 1963, held meetings in the house and addressed large crowds of protestors while standing on the front steps., In December 1965, after a three-month boycott, the city's mayor and leaders of the movement announced an agreement on a list of demands by the protesters. It resulted in sweeping concessions that included better law enforcement, desegregation of public facilities, denouncement of the Ku Klux Klan and all violence, appointments of African Americans to school boards and other government offices, hiring opportunities for African Americans, equality of courtesy among all races, and housing code for better living conditions. The agreement, however, did not immediately prevent Klan violence. On February 27, 1967, Metcalfe's friend Wharlest Jackson Sr., who served as NAACP treasurer, was killed when a bomb hidden in his truck by Klan members exploded., The civil rights movement in Natchez was based around marches, self-defense and economic boycotts, which exacted major concessions from the city's white leadership. The success of the movement came at a time of great unrest brought on by racial discrimination, police brutality, segregated workplaces, beatings, and bombings by the Klan. According to local civil rights activist Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley, the Natchez movement used a three-point model in their protests: armed defense; economic boycott of businesses owned by whites; and enforcement of adherence to the boycott in the Black community. This Natchez model was replicated throughout the state, particularly in Black communities of southwest Mississippi.