Event Title
Screening of “Mississippi: Is This America? 1962‐ 1964” (from the Eyes On The Prize series)
Location
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
Start Date
29-9-2014 11:00 AM
End Date
29-9-2014 11:20 AM
Description
Dr. Susan Brand, Professor, Education; and Michelle Gonzalez, Consultant, Multicultural Center. From the Eyes on the Prize series, this documentary describes white Mississippi’s efforts to maintain post‐ Reconstruction control over blacks through the formation of the business‐oriented White Citizens’ Council. The Citizens’ Council sought to create a totalitarian aura by foreclosing black‐owned mortgages, firing black workers, refusing loans to blacks, enacting pro‐white laws, discriminating against black voters, and by allying the criminal justice system with the Ku Klux Klan. Though blacks matched or outnumbered whites in several counties, the state only allowed 6.7% of eligible African‐Americans to vote in 1964 – the lowest rate in the U. S. The myth of Mississippi as the citadel of racial segregation, impervious to change, was eroded by the initiatives of indigenous black leaders, such as Medgar Evers, who based an economic boycott of white businesses on the willingness of black high school and college students to participate in freedom marches. The assassination of Evers in 1963 by the Ku Klux Klan helps to create the climate for Freedom Summer and the critical role of Allard Lowenstein in recruiting students from the predominantly white colleges. With Freedom Summer comes the rise of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the leadership roles played by the legendary Ella Baker, and black women of Mississippi, among them Fannie Lou Hamer, Unita Blackwell, and Victoria Gray. (High school delegations preferred).
Screening of “Mississippi: Is This America? 1962‐ 1964” (from the Eyes On The Prize series)
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
Dr. Susan Brand, Professor, Education; and Michelle Gonzalez, Consultant, Multicultural Center. From the Eyes on the Prize series, this documentary describes white Mississippi’s efforts to maintain post‐ Reconstruction control over blacks through the formation of the business‐oriented White Citizens’ Council. The Citizens’ Council sought to create a totalitarian aura by foreclosing black‐owned mortgages, firing black workers, refusing loans to blacks, enacting pro‐white laws, discriminating against black voters, and by allying the criminal justice system with the Ku Klux Klan. Though blacks matched or outnumbered whites in several counties, the state only allowed 6.7% of eligible African‐Americans to vote in 1964 – the lowest rate in the U. S. The myth of Mississippi as the citadel of racial segregation, impervious to change, was eroded by the initiatives of indigenous black leaders, such as Medgar Evers, who based an economic boycott of white businesses on the willingness of black high school and college students to participate in freedom marches. The assassination of Evers in 1963 by the Ku Klux Klan helps to create the climate for Freedom Summer and the critical role of Allard Lowenstein in recruiting students from the predominantly white colleges. With Freedom Summer comes the rise of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the leadership roles played by the legendary Ella Baker, and black women of Mississippi, among them Fannie Lou Hamer, Unita Blackwell, and Victoria Gray. (High school delegations preferred).