The Civil Rights Movement is usually understood, taught, and remembered through the lens of its most famous leaders and their struggle to eliminate racial segregation in public spaces. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Sit-In Movement of 1960, and the Freedom Rides were all examples of direct-action desegregation efforts, often celebrated through iconic leaders such as Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Ralph Abernathy. These are, of course, important moments that offer powerful lessons. This volume adds another dimension to that already powerful movement history by showing how young, everyday black students in middle and high schools across Mississippi experienced the dramatic racial transformations taking place all around them. Their perspectives have been largely overshadowed by dozens of books that analyze the speeches and rhetoric of leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
This collection provides its readers with an important glimpse into the ways young people responded to both Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. It also helps push the understanding of the movement beyond desegregation and direct action demonstrations. The Freedom School students talk about desegregating busses, lunch counters, public schools, and a host of other spaces, but they also talk about the intellectual liberation provided by attending Freedom Schools and joining the movement. For these young black students, Freedom Schools meant so much more than basic learning processes. The schools were also incredible avenues for intellectual liberation. As one student wrote, Freedom Schools were like “having the lights turned on after you have lived all your life in a darkened room.” The newspapers in this collection offer a glimpse of those transformations. Through the articles, essays, stories, and poems printed here, one can see how those young people revolted against everything that Jim Crow society had tried to teach them. They resisted not just with their actions, but also with their words, writing letters and commentaries to their broader society, demanding freedom and resolving to never settle for second-class citizenship. For many young people especially, the movement’s greatest transformations occurred not in broader society but in their hearts and minds.78
Historians, educators, activists, students, and all those connected to American education should find this book useful as a teaching and/or research tool as they strive to advance their own interests and goals. For historians of the American South and the Civil Rights Movement, this collection offers an extensive set of previously uncollected primary source material that can serve as an invaluable research aid or a rich set of documents for students of American history. For elementary, middle, and high school social studies and English teachers, this material can be easily aligned with content standards that address twentieth century American history, multiple perspectives in American history, and alternative uses of media during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The voices of African American youth who confronted Jim Crow and legal segregation offer a genuinely alternative perspective to traditional textbooks that cover the history of the Civil Rights Movement. This primary source collection also provides teachers with a convenient opportunity to enact culturally relevant and multicultural education to meet the interests and needs of a diverse student population. Most importantly, this collection offers students a snapshot into the lives, hopes, and ambitions of a generation of students that can still inform the struggle of young people today, over fifty years after the historic summer of 1964.
The writings of Freedom School students are collected in the newspapers that follow. They are heartwarming and inspirational as much as they are informative. We cannot fully anticipate the broad and creative ways that readers will understand and use this powerful collection. But we encourage audiences to use these documents in creative ways that consider the Freedom School students and their legacy within the broader history of the struggle for black education. It is our hope that a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars, teachers, and activists will be informed and inspired by these writings. But perhaps the greatest potential audience for this collection is today’s young people. This book offers contemporary youths a unique opportunity to learn about the Civil Rights Movement from the perspectives of people their own age and connect it to their lives today. As much as the Civil Rights Movement accomplished, the struggle for access to quality education continues. It is hoped that this volume will increase young people’s appreciation of how the movement impacted people their own age and reinforce for them the importance of learning and the tremendous power of education as they pursue their own dreams.
Benton County Freedom Train
Benton County is a quiet and rural area of northern Mississippi. Although it was not known as a hotbed of civil rights activism, local African Americans participated in the NAACP and the Citizen’s League, a small clandestine group of men that attempted to register and organize black voters. The mass meetings that defined the Benton County movement often took place at St. James Church, a popular meeting space for locals during the Freedom Summer. Students in Benton County were influenced by civil rights activities in Holly Springs, located just twenty miles away. The Benton County Freedom School was established just a couple of weeks into Freedom Summer after locals heard about the Holly Springs and other Mississippi Freedom Schools. In this issue of the local Freedom School newspaper, black students in Benton County react to the freshly minted Civil Rights Act of 1964, which promised full equality to the young students. The students in this issue also discuss the role of black and white students working together in desegregated schools. After Freedom Summer, other local African Americans started writing for the Benton County Freedom Train, which published regular issues until 1968.
News Bulletin: Civil Rights Bill
by Henry Reaves
Now the civil rights bill has passed at last. You had better exercise your rights and exercise them fast, or the Negro will be in the same condition as he was in the past.
How We Live in Mississippi
by Mary Francie Harris
At the beginning of March our father begins to break land. He has to break the land sometimes with tractors and mules. The men work hard all day long from seven o’clock until twelve o’clock when they stop for dinner; then back to the field at one o’clock until six o’clock, and come home and eat and go to bed. That’s how it is until they get ready to plant cotton.
Masthead of the Benton County Freedom Train.
Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Then when the cotton is up and ready to chop, we chop most of the time until summer school begins. The school opens in July, and we go to school.
But now it is different from the past few years. It has been hard for all of us, but this year the people from all over the United States have come to help us. All we can say is we want freedom; everybody wants freedom. So, people, lift up your head and let your light shine. Let’s begin to act like human beings. To the workers who are here to help us, I can say that we all love you, but God loves you best.
How Negroes Earn Their Living in Mississippi
by Shirley J. Richard
Most Negroes earn their living by farming. Some have as many as 60 acres, others have five, ten, 30, etc. You don’t find any Negroes with as many acres of cotton as whites.
The average person gets paid by the hour. We work eight to nine hours each day and are paid daily after work is over. We get only $3.00 per day. In Michigan City, Mississippi, Negroes are paid only $2.50, and they chop cotton eight and one-half and nine hours each day.
The work that we do is rough. The men whom we work for is responsible for having fresh cold water handy in the field for the workers to drink. The white owners fail to bring enough water for each person to drink. The whites also fail to take us to the store in time to eat dinner.
We are treated very badly by the whites. We are called names; when they are handing things to us they throw it to us or drop it for fun. When a Negro is walking down the street or roadside, whites pass hollerin; “nigger” or “black”. When we are working in the fields, the whites say, “Go
to work, nigger.”
For the women or girls, white women hire them to house clean or babysit for a low price of $2.00 and $3.50 a day. We get very little for such a lot of work, such as: ironing, washing clothes, washing windows, cooking three meals each day, cutting grass, scrubbing floors, and other things. Many walk to and from work. They also work eight to nine hours a day.
When it’s harvest, Negroes pick cotton by hand at $2.00 for a hundred pounds and some places $3.00 per hundred. The white man pays the Negro what he thinks he needs without showing him the record of how much each is supposed to get. Many Negroes live on a white man’s place where they sharecrop, half and half, and rent. What we owe for cotton seeds are taken out of our half of the money. When we are finished paying our debts, we have only $500.00 and sometimes less.
This is the average way of a Negro’s life in Mississippi. Of course all Negroes don’t live on a white man’s place. Some Negroes have their own place to live on. Some Negroes work for other Negroes as for the Whites. Some Whites help Negroes by lending them small amounts of money, as $20 and $30 for a while. So this is the average Negro’s way of living.
Social Life
by Chyleen Matthews
To be social, you sit down and relax and enjoy yourself with other people and serve refreshments, watch T.V., or listen to the radio. Sometimes you sit down and talk or go swimming and have pictures made. I think that most of the girls would rather have a party or a picnic and go on a ride for the best social activities.
But the boys like to hunt and go on hikes. When you go on a picnic or a party you should not eat too much because it will make you sick; but some people don’t know when they get enough.
The Negroes and Whites
by Archie B. Richard
We as Negroes should be thankful for these nice people who have come over from Washington, New York, Chicago, and these different cities to help us, for we know as Negroes that we have had our share of hard times. While we are working for Whites—ironing, housecleaning, etc.—we can’t even go into cafes, or go swimming. And no matter how hard we work for them, we sometimes are told to go to backdoors of Whites. Think of how poor the times our forefathers had in slavery days. After so many years of hard work for the Negroes, the president, Abraham Lincoln, thought that the Negroes should have freedom like Whites in the year 1863. No more slavery, but still just because our skins are dark, I wonder why they got the idea we are lower than they.
“All men are created equal.” That statement means a lot. The Bible says, “Let us love one another and live together, for we are all children of God.” We should think of what these statements mean.
We have been treated badly so long by the Whites, it’s time someone made a change about this situation. But as we know, no job can be done without the help of the Lord. We need him at work or play—everything we do. And I really believe in my heart it’s the love and will of God that what these civil rights people are trying to do was his fixing.
So many times we have to go to windows of cafes while Whites go inside. We go to stores and are there first, but then Whites come in and are waited on first. Or we may be walking alone minding our own business and whites come along and meddle, or maybe throw something or yell at you. And nothing can be done, for as soon as Negroes would do that to Whites, the law is ready to put you in jail or something of that kind. We are getting tired. But God sees what we have to go through, and that’s why he has sent people around to change this law so we, too, can have a fair chance.
Now that the civil rights bill have been signed, we children going to school have a better chance of learning the different subjects we wish to, if we put our minds to it. We can finish school, go to college, and make a new start in life: find good jobs, make maybe more than $3.00 a day. We hope and pray that everything works out okay that we all can work and play together—Whites and Negroes—in the name of the Lord.
We pray to God to watch over the civil rights people in Mississippi, that nothing happens to them while they’re trying to help us.
The Negroes of Mississippi
by Dorothy Jean Richard
There are many Negroes in Mississippi and their jobs are mostly of farming. Some are maids and they make from $2.50 to $3.50 while working from 8:00 to 5:00. Usually their wages are no higher than $3.50.
Cotton Chopping Time: this time some people were paid from $2.50 to $3.00. Last year the people were paid $3.50 for 100 pounds, but this year at the place where I worked, the people were paid $3.00. Working hours in the cotton field are from 6:00am to 12:00 noon and then they go back at 1:00 o’clock and chop to 6:00pm. Usually, those who get $3.00 go to the field at 7 o’clock, stop at 11:30 for lunch and go back to the field at 1 o’clock and stop at 5 o’clock in the evening. We much prefer to stop at 5 o’clock. When picking cotton time comes the majority of the people start from $2.50 a hundred for chopping cotton and then finally they go up to $3.00 and $3.50. Later on in the fall they may make as much as $3.75 a hundred.
I am very glad that someone has to come help us. I hope it won’t be any more trouble. It’s a terrible thing to have your friends missing. The only thing I can think of is death. I am sorry about that.
The Mount Zion CME Church
by Willie Thomas Matthews
The Mount Zion CME Church in Ashland, Mississippi had a Fathers’ Day program which was a great success. The entrie [sic] afternoon was dedicated to the fathers under the leadership of Rev. Luther Miner. The program included, amongst other things, a welcome address given by Willie Thomas Matthews.
The Three Who Are Missing
by Walter Thomas Rooks
How do the Whites feel about the three who are missing? They do not feel anything. You Negroes feel sorry, but the White is not thinking about it, about the three who are missing. You know about it.
You have all heard about it and you all know about it. I think the laws are not working as well as they should. Do you think so? I think so and so the Whites are not doing the best they can, but they are doing what they please. Well, that’s how I feel about the three who are missing.
Why I Like to Go to School
by Gloria Joan Winston
I like to go to school because I am very interested in learning different things. Education is very important. For example, you have to have an education in order to get a decent job.
I like all subjects, but my favorite subject is Science. I like Science because it teaches me about the out-of-doors, about the earth that surrounds us, of the universe, and about the plants and animals. For example, Science teaches us the many uses of plants and animals. We got some of our food from plants as well as clothing, wool, and rubber. Some plants are good for animals and they use these plants for food while other plants are harmful. I also learned that we are dependent on animals just as we are dependent on plants. From animals we get clothing, food, and other products. Animals are also useful for farming, transportation, and other work. Animals have even more uses. Some animals are pets and friends.
School is very enjoyable for me mostly because of Science.
Feelings about the Freedom Workers
by Alice Ann Judge
Questions were asked about how we Negroes feel about the freedom workers coming into Mississippi. Some of the Negroes are not pleased. Most of the Whites are not pleased. They do not want the Negroes to vote for their freedom. They do not want the Negroes to have good-paying jobs. Almost all of the white people are against the freedom workers. For this I am very sorry and very hurt and I am sure others are too. I hope so.
When I heard about the three freedom workers being missing I thought to myself that I do not want to believe that they are dead—burned. I don’t want to think though I wish they would be found.
I hope we do get our freedom. Most Negroes earn their living by cotton while the white man gets all of the office jobs. The left over jobs are given to the Negroes. For example, Negroes make very little money, no more than $3.00 or $4.00 in the cotton fields
. All men should have the same chance. If we Negroes get the chance to vote then we will have the same chances as the white man.
The Things I Do
by Anna Lee Stinson
I live in Holly Springs Mississippi. I go to W. T. Sims High School. The first thing I do when I get home from school is my homework. Sometimes I don’t feel like it, but sometimes it is fun. When I get my homework done I begin to do the dishes. Sometimes my sister helps, but I like to do it myself because she can get in the way.
My father works at the Old Brick Kiln in Holly Springs. My mother stays at home and takes care of the baby. When school is out we pick cotton. We get $3.00 a hundred pounds for picking cotton. And those are the things we do.
Working Together
by James Rooks
I think that the freedom workers are doing a great job of teaching. I think that the Whites and Negroes out to pull together and work together with one another. Both Negroes and whites should work together and farm together. It certainly would make a real nice world.
My Morning Routine
To Write in the Light of Freedom Page 6
