by Larry Price
The first thing I do in the morning is get up and say my prayers. Then I go to the bathroom, take a bath, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and dress. The next thing I do is eat my breakfast. I then feed the chickens and make by [sic] bed. After that I wait for the school bus to arrive.
We Shall Overcome!
Masthead of the Drew Freedom Fighter.
Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Drew Freedom Fighter
Located in Sunflower County and just across the border from Bolivar County, Drew Freedom School had students who came of age in one of the busiest movement centers in the state. Legendary African American activists such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Amzie Moore lived within a dozen miles of their hometowns and helped generate a lot of local activity. Drew Freedom School students published the Drew Freedom Fighter shortly after their school first opened on July 6, 1964. Like thousands of others across Mississippi, young black students in Drew were interested in going to Freedom School and enrolled enthusiastically. The students were also galvanized by the dedication and courage of veteran civil rights activists and Freedom Summer volunteers who were regularly arrested throughout the summer. One such activist, Charles McLaurin, a SNCC organizer in the Delta country, gave stirring speeches from inside the Drew jailhouse. Students were captivated and emboldened by the examples set by older activists. As one young journalist reported in the Freedom Fighter, “The police were not scaring the people of Drew any more.” With dedicated teachers and determined Freedom School students, Drew remained an important part of the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign. In 1971, the small Delta town gained national notoriety when a twenty-five-year-old white man named Wesley Parks shot and killed eighteen-year-old African American student Jo Etha Collier on the night that she graduated with honors from the recently desegregated Drew High School.
In spite of 7 arrests during the mass meeting on Tuesday, June 14, the mass meeting on Wednesday night was even larger. The people seemed even more determined to work for their freedom. The police were not scaring the people of Drew any more. This was proved by what happened Wednesday night:
The Wednesday meeting started on the outside of the Holly Grove Church. The question to start with is, why couldn’t it be held inside? The next question is, what made the deacons of the church decide that we couldn’t even meet outside their church? When the deacon said that we could not meet on church property, the mass meeting moved next door, to an empty lot. The people were singing about Freedom. Charles MacLaurin was talking about how to achieve Freedom Now.
Then the police came with the owner of the empty lot, and the owner said we could not meet on her empty lot. The people voted to continue the meeting by going into the street. So about 60 people took the step for freedom, and followed Charles MacLaurin into the street. Twenty-five people were arrested. The charge was blocking the sidewalk. But the people were not afraid of jail. The police had to turn some of them away and tell them that they could not be arrested. The people who went to jail went singing, and the people outside the walls of the Drew City Jail could hear Charles MacLaurin still talking about Freedom inside the jail.
Jail was not pleasant. Lice and roaches and a snake and little air and the smell of urine. But they were not ashamed to be in jail. They had gone to jail for their freedom. The citizens of Drew went with the 6 citizens of Ruleville and 9 COFO workers. There will be more mass meetings, and even more people will come. They may be more arrests, as the police and the mayor of Drew see their society crumbling. But we will never never turn back.
The Fight for Freedom
By Bossie Mae Harring
I think the Negro freedom workers and the white workers have made a very good start, and by the help of God we shall overcome one day. The Negro people have been a stepping stone for the white people all their lives because they didn’t know better. But someone has opened our eyes to freedom and we will walk in the light of freedom until we achieve the victory.
From the Ruleville Student Action Group
By Ora Boss
The teachers at Ruleville Central High School do not take any part in the registration program when we try to talk to them. Some of them show interest but others do not. We will put forth every effort to change them because how can they teach us how to be first class citizens when they are not citizens themselves. Something that the Student Action Group might do in order to inform the teachers of the necessity to become first class citizens is picket the school or have a school walk-out.
Vote Freedom Democrat
The big, old, political party of Mississippi is the segregated Democratic Party. This party is owned and operated by white people like James Eastland and T. A. Fleming. These white people don’t know what the Negro people want. They don’t even care about Negro people.
We want a party in Mississippi that is integrated not segregated. We want a party that will make the boss man on the plantation pay more than $3 a day. We want a party here in Mississippi that will give us responsible policemen and good mayors—not policemen that beat people and throw them into jail for nothing and not mayors who sit in their offices and get fat and care only about white people.
We will call this new party the Freedom Democratic Party. It will be the best party in Mississippi, because it will be owned and operated by Negro and white people together. People all over the United States and all over the world will hear about this party, because it will stand for freedom and justice for all people in Mississippi.
In August all the Democratic parties of all 50 states of the United States will have a meeting. Will the Freedom Democratic Party of Mississippi be at the meeting or will the same old segregated Democratic party be there? All the Negro people should sign the Freedom Registration form. The Freedom Democratic party will win. And the old segregated Democratic party will have to step aside.
The Freedom Democratic Party will hold the meetings all over the Sunflower County. It will hold meetings all over Mississippi. It will elect people to go to a County Meeting. It will elect some people to go to a state meeting. This party fights for freedom of the Negro people. Everyone should attend local meetings of this party. We must work for freedom. No change comes unless people work for a change.
The Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois Argument: A Dialogue
Scene: Du Bois and Washington meet at a convention. Du Bois is a short man, with a keen-looking face and sharp eyes. Washington is tall, well dressed, and well-to-do-looking.
Du Bois (clearing his throat): Good evening, Sir.
Booker T. Washington (looking hard at him): Good evening.
Du Bois: I heard the speech you made about segregation. You really do believe in that segregation.
Washington: Yes, I do believe in segregation.
Du Bois: Why?
Washington: Well, you know how white and colored can’t get along together.
Du Bois: They can get along together if we lazy Negroes wake up, and start doing something for ourselves!
Washington: Why, you integrationist you!
Du Bois: I want to see our race with better educations and finer homes. I don’t want to see them treated like slaves, living in homes that are nothing but nasty lumber thrown together! I want to see Negroes voting like citizens.
Washington: Let’s stop talking about the vote and higher education. I’m sick of that!
Du Bois: You’re just an old fool so mixed up in segregation, you don’t know what the word integration means.
Washington (getting madder): How in the world do you think you’re going to get the two races together.
Du Bois: By getting all the Negroes together fighting for integration.
Washington: Fighting! And getting the living daylight beat out of you.
Du Bois: Good bye, Mr. Washington!!!
Washington: Good bye Dr. Du Bois!!!
Violence in Harlem—New York City (the New York Times)
Harlem, and places like Harlem all over the Nor
th, are the ghettos where Negroes live in big Northern Cities. The people there are tired of overcrowding, overcharging, and police brutality. The riots of the past few days started out not to be riots; the people from CORE only wanted to demonstrate against a recent terrible case of police brutality. But, unfortunately, terribly, there was a great deal of violence. You can understand some of the feelings of the police, and of the people of Harlem:
“Go home, go home,” a sweating red-faced Captain shouted through a bullhorn.
A sermon came back from a man in the mob: “We are home, baby.”
The Freedom Carrier (Greenwood, MS)
The Greenwood movement began in earnest during the summer of 1962 when Cleveland, Mississippi, native Sam Block began organizing the local black community, knocking on doors and trying to recruit African American residents to attend mass meetings. Slowly but surely, Block and other SNCC workers connected with local African Americans including Cleveland Jordan, Aaron Johnson, Robert Burns, and Jerry Chestnut, who helped develop a network of local people who were willing to try and register to vote. They worked with newly recruited local African American residents to establish Citizenship Schools and a local library to help teach black Greenwood residents how to complete registration forms. These voter registration efforts in Greenwood helped lead to the Freedom Vote in the fall of 1963, a statewide mock-voter registration campaign that laid the foundation for the independent Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
Civil rights activists working in Greenwood always encountered severe resistance. Through the local Citizens’ Council, white segregationists used economic intimidation to punish and threaten local black residents who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans could potentially lose their jobs or even homes for joining the movement, leading to many difficult decisions including one that resulted in the eviction of SNCC activist Sam Block from a black-owned boardinghouse. Local white supremacists also used violence to quell movement activities. During the Freedom Vote drive in 1963, Greenwood police used dogs to control and pacify peaceful demonstrators. Yet despite the severe economic and physical threats, Greenwood-based activists persevered and the local movement continued to grow. Some of the most exciting moments in Mississippi Civil Rights Movement history happened in Greenwood, especially when the black community held their electric mass meetings, gatherings that activist Bob Moses once called “an energy machine.”79 Amidst this level of organization and activity, the Greenwood Freedom Schools opened their doors on July 6, 1964, just ten days prior to this issue of The Freedom Carrier.
Freedom Day in Greenwood!
Today all people who believe in freedom should join us for Freedom Day. Time and Time again we have tried to register for voting and Martha Lamb, the registrar for Leflore County, has turned Negroes away or has failed them. But we shall not let Martha discourage us. The more people she turns away, the more people must go to the courthouse.
Today marks the fourth Freedom Day in Greenwood. During the first Freedom Day, the courthouse was picketed, but no arrests were made. However, the second Freedom Day a large number of people were arrested. The last Freedom Day was without incident. We do not know what the outcome of today’s Freedom Day will be, but whatever the outcome we will not let it stop us.
Many Negroes have been to the courthouse over and over only to be turned away by the white power that stands behind the counter. It is time to show the white people in Mississippi and people all over the United States that WE WANT TO VOTE AND THAT WE WILL NOT STOP TRYING UNTIL WE GET THE VOTE!! Today there will also be freedom registrars down at the courthouse so that anyone who wants to join the Freedom Democratic Party in Mississippi may do so.
Summer Violence
During a state’s rights rally in Atlanta, Georgia three Freedom Singers were beaten unmercifully by a crowd. Chuck Neblett, Wilson Brown, and Matthew Jones arrived at the rally at 12:30 and by 1:00 they were being beaten with metal tables and chairs. Karen Haberman, a SNCC volunteer accompanied the three to the fair grounds but escaped without injury. The Freedom Singers were sent to the hospital with holes in their heads. The Negro keeper of the fair grounds was also injured.
In Greenwood, SNCC worker Phil Moore was beaten while canvassing in Baptist Town. Also, within the last week, two cars have turned up with slashed tires. One incident occurred while volunteers were inside the police station talking with the FBI about Phil Moore’s assailant.
Church Ablaze—Firemen Gaze . . .
A Negro church in Browning, about three miles east of Greenwood, was burned to the ground early Saturday morning. As the Greenwood Fire Dept. arrived on the scene, the Pleasant Plain Missionary Baptist Church was spokesmen here believed that the burning had racial overtones. FBI agents went to the scene later on a COFO complaint. COFO said that the fire department did not attempt to extinguish the blaze. An assistant police chief, said that there was no source of water close to the church and that the water available on the truck was kept to protect buildings in the area.
Freedom School Opens
It is felt that the state of Mississippi has the worst educational system in the entire United States. As degraded as the white education is, the Negro has the worst half of the worst. A need to try to fill that gap was felt. Therefore COFO initiated the idea of Freedom Schools as an attempt to supplement the present system of education.
The first Freedom School to be established was open on July 6. The school will operate on a six weeks basis with a break after the first three weeks. Emphasis is being placed on Negro History and citizenship. English, Sciences, foreign languages, and creative writing are also being offered, as special subjects. Students are able to take two special subjects, in the afternoon, typing, art, drama, and journalism are offered to those interested. The Freedom Carrier is put out by the students in the journalism class. The students are responsible for the makeup of the entire paper.
Students are also being taught how to lay out leaflets and how to run the office machinery. Students also participate in folk singing workshops and work with voter registration in the distribution of leaflets throughout the community. For more information on the Freedom Schools you may call the office.
Register today!
Greenwood Grumbles Speaking of Freedom—
By Editor C. T.
We feel free when we can do as we please. We do not like it if anyone tries to stop us. Even a tiny baby will fly into rage if his hands are held so that he cannot move them. This is not exactly the love of freedom, for the baby has nothing in particular that he wants to do with his hands. It is more nearly hatred of restraint. But psychologists tell us that it is one of the few qualities found in all children from birth, and it is likely the basis for man’s love of freedom.
Animals too often seem to want more freedom than they have. The dog strains at the leash to run free. The pet bird flies out of its cage when given the opportunity. Wild animals in zoos pace their cages hour by hour, ready to escape at the first chance. These animals are probably better cared for and fed than they would be if they were free. But animals, like men, crave the freedom to do as they choose.
The Negroes in Mississippi are fed up with the life here. We feel that it is time something was done to stop the killings or murders, the prejudice, the mistreatment of Negroes here. Freedom is a very precious thing to any race of people, but in a nation that is supposed to be free and where oppression still exists, something really has to be done. As our forefathers fought for this nation to be free, we also say to our oppressors “Give us freedom, or give us death.”
Midway
By Naomi Long Nadgett
I’ve come this far to
Freedom
And I won’t turn back.
I’m changing to the
Highway
From my ole dirt track.
And I’m stretching and
I’m growing
And I’ll reap what I’ve
Been sowing
Or my skin
’s not black,
I’ve prayed and slaved
And waited
And I’ve sung my song.
You’ve slashed me and
You’ve treed me
And you’ve everything
But freed me,
But in time you’ll
You need me.
And it won’t be long.
I’ve seen daylight
Breaking high above the
Bough.
I’ve found my destination
And I’ve made my vow:
So whether you abhor me
Or deride me or ignore
Me,
Mighty mountains loom
Before me,
And I won’t stop now.
The Wind
By C. S.
The wind is a very
Strange thing.
The winter it will
Always bring.
Sometimes it brings
A full breeze.
That sends away the
Dried leaves.
It twirls and it
Whirls and
Leaves around,
Then all at once
It settles them down.
Note: C. S. is a student in the Freedom School. She will enter the eighth grade in the fall.
Our Thoughts
Q. Has the Civil Rights Movement been effective in Greenwood?
A. Yes, I think so, because more whites than I ever noticed before are becoming friendlier. There are some who are hostile, but only a few.—M. A.
A. No. Many whites still have their bitterness toward the Negro.—K. N.
To Write in the Light of Freedom Page 7