Aylene Quin

Aylene Quin. . Aylene "Mama" Quin was born in Walthall County and moved to McComb in 1953. Quin was a local businesswoman and community pillar who supported SNCC organizers and McComb's 1961 voter registration drive. Throughout the 1960s. Quin was instrumental in sustaining McComb's civil rights campaign. She and other entrepreneurs provided housing, food, and transportation for COFO and SNCC volunteers in Pike County. Because of her activism, her home was the site of a bombing on September 20, 1964., Side B , Aylene "Mama" Quin moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, for her first job in 1943. The U.S. Army had recently designated the Keesler Army Airfield as a World War II training support site, and Quin went to work in their laundry department. While in Biloxi, Quin joined the NAACP and got interested in voting. By the time she came to McComb in 1953, she was already a registered voter. Mama Quin, as she was affectionately called by SNCC workers in 1961, owned a small restau- rant on Summit Street called 'South of the Border' which became a center of civil rights activity in McComb. Arriving in the back of a delivery truck, civil rights activists used passwords at a side entrance to enter unnoticed. To assist the volunteers, she, along with COFO members, would organize food and housing committees that raised enough funds to build a community center for the county., During Aylene Quin's time in the 1950s and '60, Summit Street was one of the central streets for Black commerce and social life in McComb. Her strong leadership in the movement led to threats against her home and business. Police raided Quin's café on August 30, 1964, and her home was bombed on September 20, 1964. After the dynamite exploded outside her front window, the entire front of the house was destroyed. Her two children narrowly escaped death. In an outrageous turn, local authorities accused Quin of bombing her own home. The day after the bombing, Quin flew to Washington, DC and visited the White House to speak with President Lyndon Johnson. After the 14 bombed homes, she asked Johnson to send federal troops to McComb. There weren't any guarantees, but the assured her that he would act. Though nothing came about, state officials accused her of an extensive jail record. Quin denied the allegations, and responded by saying, "But the record I do want to be a mile long is the record of registering voters in Pike County." In October 1964, four White men were indicted on charges of violating a state law against illegal use of explosives in the bombing of Quin's home., Quin, along with her children, traveled to Jackson on June 17, 1965, to see Governor Paul Johnson. They wanted to protest against the election of five Congressmen from districts where African Americans were not allowed to vote. Refused admittance, Quin held a protest for voter rights on the side entrance of the Governor's mansion on Capital Street in Jackson. Her 5-year-old son, Anthony Quin, held an American flag and Mississippi Highway Patrolmen Huey Krohn attempted to take the flag away from him. A struggle ensued, and Quin yelled to her son, "Anthony, don't let that man take your flag.", After the movement, Quin became a delegate to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, and lived a relatively quiet life until her death in 2001. Quin was one of the two main characters of the book, Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement written by Suzanne Cope.