The Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice played a critical role in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. On September 10, 1965, they held their first meeting in this building, home to Leon Donnan's Barbershop, under the leadership of . . . — — Map (db m290905) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m226608) HM
Returning home from WWII, Cleveland businessman Amzie Moore (1911-1982) became a principal architect of early civil rights activism as a founding member of the Mississippi NAACP and the Regional Council of Negro Leadership. Convinced that . . . — — Map (db m90128) HM
Mound Bayou businessman and physician Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (1908-1976) founded and led Mississippi's pre-eminent civil rights organization in the 1950s, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership. A charismatic speaker and mentor to . . . — — Map (db m90148) HM
Aaron Henry (1922-1997), Clarksdale pharmacist, was a major early grassroots activist in the civil rights movement. As local NAACP president, he led the early 1960s Clarksdale boycott campaign, during which he was arrested and his home and . . . — — Map (db m170477) HM
Front
James Meredith began his Memphis-to-Jackson
"March Against Fear" on June 4, 1966, challenging
a'the all-pervasive and overriding fear" that kept
black Mississippians from registering to vote. On
the second day, south of Hernando, . . . — — Map (db m141545) HM
Forrest County native Clyde Kennard was a pioneer in the quest to desegregate higher education in Mississippi. His efforts to enroll at Mississippi Southern College (now USM) in 1955-1959 were obstructed by college president William D. McCain and . . . — — Map (db m118838) HM
Sisters Dorie and Joyce Ladner were community
leaders during the civil rights movement. As
teenagers, they joined the NAACP Youth Council
and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
and were mentored by civil rights leaders . . . — — Map (db m273662) HM
Victoria Jackson Gray Adams was the Mississippi
supervisor of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference's (SCLC) Citizenship Education Program,
a founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party (MFDP), and the first African . . . — — Map (db m312332) HM
On April 24, 1960, Gilbert R. Mason, Sr., M.D., led about 125 volunteers in a peaceful wade-in on segregated Biloxi Beach. Trained in non-violent passive resistance, they expected to be arrested. Instead they were attacked by a white mob armed . . . — — Map (db m249039) HM
Born and raised in Pass Christian, Lawrence
Guyot Jr. learned about voter discrimination
and began registering citizens to vote while
a student at Tougaloo College. He became a
leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee in . . . — — Map (db m243122) HM
On September 4, 1875, a political rally and
debate turned violent on the grounds of the
former Moss Hill plantation, near downtown
Clinton. An exchange of gunfire between White
Democrats and Black Republicans left seven
dead and dozens . . . — — Map (db m184616) HM
Front
Rabbi Perry Nussbaum came to Beth Israel in 1954 and was an important voice for racial justice. Working with diverse ministers, he helped found the Committee of Concern, raising money for black churches burned by the Klan. In 1967, . . . — — Map (db m133848) HM
In the 1950s and 1960s, three Black lawyers
courageously represented Mississippians whose
demands for civil rights and equal justice led to
jail sentences. R. Jess Brown, Carsie Hall Sr.,
and Jack Young Sr., practicing law from offices . . . — — Map (db m312333) HM
Front
On March 27, 1961, nine African American Tougaloo
students quietly sat in at the Jackson Municipal Library,
which served only white patrons. Police ordered
them to Carver Library, the "colored" library, and
when they refused, . . . — — Map (db m109294) HM
Medgar and Myrlie Evers moved into this
home with their children - Darrell and Reena -
in 1955 after Medgar became Mississippi's first
NAACP Field Secretary. Son Van was born in
1960. Evers was an outspoken activist for
voter . . . — — Map (db m115401) HM
In 1964 a group of Jackson citizens and the
United Church of Christ challenged Lamar Life
Insurance Company's application for renewal of
their WLBT license, charging racial discrimination.
In 1971 the Federal Communications Commission
granted a . . . — — Map (db m178458) HM
Woolworth's variety store was the scene of a pivotal event in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement on May 28, 1963. When three black Tougaloo College students sat down at the white lunch counter seeking service, the nonviolent protesters were . . . — — Map (db m105565) HM
Front
On June 26, 1966, James Meredith's "March Against Fear" — led by Stokely Carmichael. Martin Luther King, Jr., Floyd McKissick, and others after Meredith was shot and wounded — ended its three-week trek from Memphis . . . — — Map (db m89745) HM
(front)
On May 28, 1961, a Greyhound bus with nine Freedom Riders aboard arrived here, the third group of Riders into Jackson. The first two came on Trailways buses May 24. That summer 329 people were arrested in Jackson for integrating . . . — — Map (db m82000) HM
Front
From this building, COFO (Council of Federated
Organizations) coordinated efforts of SNCC,
NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and other activist groups
from early 1963 through early 1965. Clarksdale's
Aaron Henry was COFO president. Bob . . . — — Map (db m115397) HM
Tragedy struck Jackson State College on May 15, 1970, when Jackson police and Mississippi Highway Patrol officers suppressed student unrest with intense gunfire. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green were killed and many injured when bullets . . . — — Map (db m178451) HM
Tragedy struck Jackson State College on May 15,
1970, when Jackson police and Mississippi
Highway Patrol officers suppressed student unrest
with intense gunfire. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs
and James Earl Green were killed and many
injured when . . . — — Map (db m109209) HM
Front
The courage of Tougaloo College students, faculty, and staff fueled the Jackson Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by the bravery and resolve of Medgar Evers, students and faculty attempted to integrate Jackson's main public library, . . . — — Map (db m115722) HM
The Reverend George Lee (1903-1955), a pioneer in the early Mississippi civil rights movement, was a vice president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a co-founder of the Belzoni NAACP branch, and a powerful public speaker. In the . . . — — Map (db m77408) HM
Unita Blackwell, born in a sharecropper's
shack in Lula, Mississippi, on March 18, 1933,
became a SNCC activist in 1964 and
represented the MFDP at the 1964
Democratic National Convention. She was
instrumental in Head Start, MACE, and
the . . . — — Map (db m235171) HM
Following the 1963 assassination of his brother,
Medgar Evers, the state's first NAACP field
secretary, James Charles Evers returned to
Mississippi and took over as field secretary.
In 1969, he received the organization's "Man
of the Year" . . . — — Map (db m290969) HM
Benjamin Ellery Murph, a dentist and civil
rights leader, was the charter vice president of
the Laurel-Jones County NAACP in 1947 before
becoming president four years later. Throughout
the 1950s and 1960s, Murph expanded youth
councils . . . — — Map (db m312329) HM
Front
On October 1, 1962, James Meredith broke the rigid segregation in Mississippi's higher education when he became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. Though federal courts had ordered his admission, . . . — — Map (db m102580) HM
Charles Darden was president of the Mississippi
branch of the NAACP from 1955 to 1960 and one of
the founding fathers of the Meridian Freedom
Movement, which had its first headquarters in a
building on this site. Under Darden's leadership, . . . — — Map (db m312327) HM
Front
On June 16, 1966, SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, released from jail after defying City of Greenwood orders by putting up tents to house participants of the James Meredith “March Against Fear,” made his famous . . . — — Map (db m77423) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m235165) HM
Front
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till came to this site to buy candy in August 1955. White shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant accused the black youth of flirting with her, and shortly thereafter, Till was abducted by Bryant's husband and his half . . . — — Map (db m77418) HM
Flonzie Brown Wright became involved in the
civil rights movement after moving back to
Madison County in 1962. Focusing on voting rights.
she served as director for the local chapter of
the NAACP. In 1968, she ran for county . . . — — Map (db m312337) HM
CORE Activists David Dennis, Matheo Suarez, and George Raymond opened a Madison County office in 1963 to register black voters, the majority in white~controlled Canton. Co~directors Raymond and Suarez were joined by Annie Devine and C.O. Chinn . . . — — Map (db m105553) HM
In 1960 Rust College students, under the leadership of President E. A. Smith, boycotted the segregated HollyTheater, a protest that in 1962 evolved into a Rust chapter of the NAACP. The chapter offices were installed by Medgar Evers, NAACP . . . — — Map (db m116163) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m273189) HM
On August 30, 1961, Burglund High School students
Brenda Travis, Robert Talbert, and Ike Lewis held a
sit-in at McComb's segregated Greyhound bus station.
After their arrests, Travis and Lewis were later
expelled from school. On September 25, . . . — — Map (db m273194) HM
Side 1 Elected president of the Pike County branch of the NAACP in 1954, Curtis Conway Bryant (1917-2001) played a major role in early civil rights activism of southwest Mississippi. He campaigned to expand membership in the NAACP, led large . . . — — Map (db m108990) HM
During the summer of 1964, McComb was known
as "the bombing capital of America." The
White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan joined the
more militant United Klans of America in a
bombing campaign targeting Black homes and
businesses regardless of . . . — — Map (db m273191) HM
Side A Located above Burgland Supermarket, the
Masonic Temple became a center of civil
rights activities in McComb. In 1961, SNCC
leader Bob Moses and other activists led
voter education classes here, encouraging
Black citizens in Pike County . . . — — Map (db m272448) HM
In March 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. visited Marks
to get support for a Poor People's Campaign. He
envisioned masses converging on Washington in a plea
for new anti-poverty projects. King wanted the march
to begin in Mississippi, with mules and . . . — — Map (db m174171) HM
In 1962 at age 44, Hamer tried to register to
vote; the next day she was fired from her job on
the plantation east of here. She became a civil
rights activist, opening her Ruleville home to
Freedom Summer workers and other activists.
She earned . . . — — Map (db m174198) HM
The historic William Chapel Missionary Baptist
Church, established in 1922, was a longtime
meeting place for civil rights activists before
the organization of the modern civil rights
movement. In 1962 the Reverend J. D. Story was
the pastor . . . — — Map (db m174174) HM
(obverse)
In October 1964 the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was destroyed by fire after a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party rally there led by Fannie Lou Hamer. On December 22 church members and other volunteers, along with Oberlin . . . — — Map (db m171654) HM
Anne Moody was an important activist and
voice of the civil rights movement. In 1963,
as a student at Tougaloo College, Moody took
part in the sit-in protest at Woolworth's lunch
counter in Jackson. She worked for CORE in
Canton during Freedom . . . — — Map (db m290915) HM
