Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church

Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church. . During the early to mid-1960s, Hopewell MB Church under the leadership of Rev. G.W. Hollins was the location for civil rights meetings organized by local SNCC voting rights activist William H. "Bud" McGee. On June 18, 1963, a meeting here was disrupted by a tear gas attack, and while peaceably walking away to seek assistance, the attendees were detained by the police; forty-five people were charged and imprisoned for nearly two months. Itta Bena is the hometown of notable civil rights activists including Marion Barry, Jr., James Bevel, and Euvester Simpson., Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was the center for civil rights activities in Itta Bena during the height of the voting rights movement in 1963 and 1964, resulting in a long legacy of movement activism on issues of economic and social justice. The activity here was part of a broader voter registration project in Leflore County initiated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the summer of 1962 under the leadership of Robert Moses and Greenwood-based SNCC field secretaries Samuel Block and Willie Peacock. Greenwood native William "Bud" McGee was assigned to work in Itta Bena in early 1963; support for his work was prompted by issues including Leflore County cutting off federal food aid to 22,000 residents during the winter of 1962-1963 and the non-fatal shooting of SNCC field worker Jimmie Travis just outside Itta Bena in February 1963. , By April of 1963, many local ministers had allied with SNCC's efforts, including Hopewell MB Church leader Rev. G.W. Hollins. The church began hosting "Citizen Workshops" for adults and youth, and on May 3, a class was interrupted by a smoke bomb. A police report included depositions from McGee and Lawrence Guyot, the main instructor and a principle advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-King later visited Itta Bena in June 1966 during the March Against Fear. The June 18 tear gas attack on the church took place less than a week after the assassination of Medgar Evers, and the forty-five people convicted on charges of "breach of peace" included multiple teenagers and several women in their 70s. They were jailed initially in Itta Bena and Greenwood, fined ($500 for men, $200 for women), and imprisoned at Leflore County Penal Farm. In the wake of work and hunger protests in early July, twenty-three inmates, including some protesters arrested in Greenwood, were transported to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman where they were subjected to harsh punishment. On August 16, the remaining activists at the County Farm were released after their bonds were posted by the New York-based National Council of Churches, which also arranged for the release of those held at Parchman. , All the while, voting registration work continued out of the Hopewell MB Church; 150 attempted registrants voted by affidavit in the gubernatorial primary here on August 6, 1963, all were rejected by state authorities. The church was also central to activism work during Freedom Summer of 1964, including recruitment to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. On June 25, Freedom Summer volunteers John Paul and Roy Torkington arrived in Itta Bena. While canvassing with Bud McGee, they were marched downtown by white men wielding guns and forced to leave Itta Bena. That evening, they attended a meeting at the Hopewell MB Church, where locals encouraged them to stay and continue their work. The following morning the FBI, who were actively searching for missing Freedom Summer workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Meridian-arrested three local white men on charges of interfering with voter registration work. Local activist Willie Esther Baxter-McGee recalled that the FBI arrests emboldened the protesters based at the Hopewell MB Church.