Natchez Civil Rights — Heroines, Heroes, and Martyr

Natchez Civil Rights — Heroines, Heroes, and Martyr. Natchez Trails. , Civil Rights Heroines , Jessie Bernard Williams , 1943-2018 , 1965 NAACP secretary and leader in the movement; a member of Democratic National Committee of Women; and educator in Natchez public schools. , Mary Lee Davis Toles , 1940-2017 , NAACP leader in the movement; NAACP president at her death; delegate to Democratic national conventions; and a judge in Justice Court for 26 years. , Mamie Lee Green Mazique , 1930-2017 , Matriarch Natchez NAACP; assistant secretary 1965; one of Green family who owned White House Cafe, site of NAACP meetings; and Head Start director for 40 years. , Marjorie Rushing Baroni , 1924-1986 , White activist influenced by her Catholic faith and desire to improve lives of African Americans; writer; and grant writer who brought the Head Start program to Natchez. , , , , , . Natchez African Americans began to arm themselves after the attempted murder of George Metcalfe, whose car was bombed by members of the Ku Klux Klan on August 27, 1965. Metcalfe was president of the Natchez Chapter of the NAACP. , In response to the bombing, which nearly killed Metcalfe and left him disabled, some Natchez men decided to create a branch of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, which originated in 1964 in nearby Jonesville, Louisiana. The purpose of the Deacons was to provide armed protection for Civil Rights activists who were being attacked by violent members of the Ku Klux Klan. , I believe in non-violence... On the other hand, I believe that our people should stop getting killed... It's time for us to do something. , , James Jackson (above right), President of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, Black Natchez, 1965 , The Deacons organized in James Jackson's Natchez barbershop on St. Catherine Street, and Ed Pincus, who shot a cinema verite documentary Black Natchez, on the Natchez movement, filmed the meeting. The combination of demonstrations, economic boycotts, and paramilitary organization originated in Natchez in 1965. Rev. James Stokes was a frequent spokesman for the Deacons. , Wharlest Jackson (1930-1967) was a Korean War veteran and Civil Rights activist who was murdered in a truck bombing on Minor Street on February 27, 1967, as he drove home from work at Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company. , Although Jackson was a known activist and served as treasurer of the Natchez NAACP, his promotion to a job at Armstrong Tire and Rubber, previously held only by white men, most likely made him a target of the Silver Dollar Group, a militant faction of the Ku Klux Klan. , The murder of Wharlest Jackson, a veteran and a family man with a wife and children, not only enraged African Americans, but it also incensed members of the white community, who could no longer deny that vicious, racist terrorists lived among them. , ....Natchez moderates ventured forth after the bombing to support the hitherto-lonely peacekeeping efforts of Mayor John Nosser, 67, a Lebanese-born immigrant who has the distinction of having had his house bombed by white racists and his small chain of dry-goods stores boycotted by Negroes. At week's end, Nosser, Police Chief J. T. Robinson, and Sheriff Odell Anders appeared at a Negro protest rally and took part in a tableau the likes of which Mississippi had not seen before. Linking arms with Negro demonstrators they sang “We Shall Overcome.” , , Time Magazine, Friday, March 10, 1967