The Freedom News (Holly Springs, MS)
Published during the first full week of Freedom School classes, The Freedom News from Holly Springs was one of the first Freedom School newspapers produced during Freedom Summer. The vibrant Holly Springs Freedom School met in two small houses located just across the campus of Rust College, one of the nation’s oldest historically black institutions of higher learning and the alma mater of black journalism pioneer Ida B. Wells. Some of the teachers were housed in the Rust dorms. When Holly Springs Freedom School classes ended at 4 p.m. on weekday afternoons, local organizers hosted adult literacy classes, allowing people of all ages to attend the Holly Springs Freedom School.
Reports out of Holly Springs indicated a powerful Freedom School experience for both students and teachers. One of the Holly Springs teachers wrote that “[t]he atmosphere in class is unbelievable. It is what every teacher dreams about—real, honest enthusiasm and the desire to learn anything and everything.”80 One of the regular students was a twenty-five-year-old wife and mother who often stayed after classes to practice writing extra essays, passionately striving to improve her literacy and grammar while making an immense impression on her teachers. Many of the younger Freedom School students were just as impressive and particularly inspired their teachers by writing and performing a play based on the life of Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
July 8, 1964
The Three Who Are Missing
How do we as Negroes feel about the freedom workers coming into Mississippi is a question many are asking. After asking many of my friends and neighbors I have heard them say “It’s a miracle” or “at least our prayers are being answered.” To us this is one of the most wonderful things that has happened since we were actually freed from slavery. We know these people didn’t have to give up their precious time and come here to help us and we know that they are here because of love. Love not only for us, but also because they love the United States. They know that before the United Stares can have the respect of other countries it must also have the respect of its own people, both Negro and white.
Masthead of the Holly Springs The Freedom News.
Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
When we heard about the three freedom workers missing, we were hurt, but not shocked because many of our people have come up missing and nothing was said or done about it. Ever since I can remember I have been told of such cases from my people, but never have I heard it said on the news or over the T.V. or radio. This was known only to a few of us, not nation-wide. X Even though most of us have given up hope about the three freedom workers, we are praying they will be found alive.
The freedom workers have the blessings and prayers of the Negroes in Mississippi. We will be forever grateful.
By Dolois Polk
How We Feel about the Three Missing Boys
The news just suddenly broke out as a shock. The people were scared and angry, saying “Why would any person want to take the lives of the three boys.”
The people in the country were scared and some were even scared to come to town. I feel sorry for those boys and I think they should be found. The missing boys were a shock to some. The white wasn’t so sad.
They found their station wagon. It was burned. Some people think they are dead. Some say the police are not looking as hard as they should be and most people think they cut them up in little pieces and threw them in the river.
By Frances Lee Jeffries
Marshall County, Mississippi
Holly Springs is located in Marshall County. It is inhabited by 28,000 people of which 2/3 are Negro. The town of Holly Springs has a population of 5,321 people. Most of the Negroes in Marshall County live outside the town, and their main occupation is farming. The main crop is cotton.
Most of the farmlands and plantations are owned by the white men. On the farm there are two things to choose from: sharecropping or renting. On each farm the white man gives the Negro a share to occupy. While the Negro is working on the plantation, the white man gives the Negro a tractor, and in some places a mule, to plow with. Most of the houses on the farm are contaminated, but the county will not condemn them. Because they don’t care about them.
The working conditions are bad. The wages are very low. The amount paid for plowing a tractor all day is three dollars.
The white man buys most of the supplies used for the annual crops, but the Negro contributes all the labor. Each fall of the year when the crop is harvested and the cotton is sold to the market, the white man gives the Negro what he thinks he needs, without showing the Negro a record of the income the white man has collected for the year. This process of farming has become a custom. This way of livelihood is not much different from slavery.
The town life of Holly Springs is also very bad. The wages of the Negroes range from 1.00 to 1.15 an hour with one exception, the school teachers, and they aren’t paid very much. Anywhere a new Negro neighborhood is constructed it takes years before proper sewage lines are built. During this time they use private cesspools or outdoor toilets which contaminate the air in which we breathe. Some of the residents have neither private cesspools, outdoor toilets, nor proper sewage lines. This is also a menace to society. The Negro neighborhood has dirt roads in city limits.
Negro women can earn their livelihood as maids. She is paid a low wage for a large amount of work. For example, sometimes she walks to and from work. House cleaning, baby-sitting, washing, ironing, waxing floors, cooking three meals a day are part of her work. All for the low, low sum of two dollars a day.
The Negroes of Holly Springs have no recreation center. We have one park but it has been condemned because of hookworms. The city has done nothing to build the Negroes a new one. And the white man wonders why there are so many Negro children wandering around the corners and poolroom. Why? Because they have no other place to go.
The white school is far better equipped than the Negro school. We have overcrowded classrooms and lack many subjects which should be taught in high school. The W. T. Sims High School is uncredited by the State of Mississippi.
And this is what the white man calls democracy for the Negroes.
By Roy DeBerry, Jr.
And Herman Ivy, Jr.
July 10, 1964
Nov. 22, 1963
By Arelya J. Mitchell
The day was still and sad.
And in my little town it was
Windy, dark, and wet.
The day went on and on so slow.
Oh, how I wished it would end!
Then it came on the radio,
That the President had been shot.
“Shot!,” said I.
“Shot!,” said I, “Oh no, that can’t be true!”
But in the emergency room they tried their
Might to save him, but the hope was slowly
Dying away as the afternoon began to fade
Promptly away.
Everyone just stopped and prayed. Their
Hearts skipped thump after thump as their
Throats began to lump (with tears).
Then the radio began to speak,
“He’s dead. The President of the United
States is dead.”
All was still.
All was sad. A thunderbolt had hit our path.
Eyes fell down.
Tears fell down.
No one made a joyful sound.
A knot curled in my throat—
A knot that seems to have not been broken.
That phrase had hit us as if in answer to our prayers.
Why an answer so deep and sad?
Why an answer that has not a care?
All these questions and not any answers to me
Or no one else but Thee.
The next day was different—
As different can be for the flag
Was lowered at half staff, you see.
All that happened the other day seemed to have been but a dream.
; Some believing.
Some unbelieving.
Some just staring and looking.
This was the date the world cried.
This was the date the world stood still.
This is the date we’ll never forget!
Freedom Training School
Freedom Training School is designed for the young as well as old. Here we learn. Here we study history, we sing and do many more interesting things.
Here we are trained to become better citizens of our town, state, and country. We talk about the condition of Holly Springs: the jobs for the Negroes and the living conditions.
Freedom Training School is a great help to the Negro Society of Mississippi. If we join together we can make this School a success. So let’s learn to be better citizens of our town. And help all better Americans.
By Gussie Brettle
Hopes and Fears
The Negroes of Mississippi think their prayers are finally being answered. We have waited and prayed so long for the day when we could get a job in any factory that is in need of employees, go to any restaurant we would like to eat at, or sit on any seat on the bus that we chose.
Some of us are afraid to speak and do the things we think would help Mississippi. We are afraid because of our jobs, our children’s lives, etc. We have heard over radios and T.V. about some of the Negroes that tried to help Mississippi. For example, Medger Evers who was the Field Secretary of the NAACP and also a great leader. And the three freedom workers that are missing. The Negroes of Mississippi are praying that God has spared their lives and that they will soon be found alive.
By Ira Moore
IMPORTANT: The Freedom News will be published as often as possible throughout the summer. Everyone is welcome to write for the paper on any subject whatsoever. If you want to write an article or if you have written something that you would like to have printed, speak to one of the COFO workers about it.
July 14, 1964
Why the Negro of Mississippi Should Vote
The Negro of Mississippi should vote so that he may get the thing he wants in life as a citizen of Mississippi and the United States of America.
Some of us sit around and say “I wish I could have things that the white man had: for instance, houses, proper sewage, better schools, roads, and most of all better jobs.”
Some say, “Mr. Charlie has a good asphalt street leading to his house. My street is nothing but sand. If a rain comes you can’t even get to my house, but a flood can come and you can still get to Mr. Charlie’s house.” His children get a very good education here in Mississippi. Why can’t your children do the same thing or get better jobs.
You may say, “If I vote I may leave my job.” What will you lose? Not anything. Do you want to do all the hard work and get the lowest wages all your life? Of course not.
Some of us work for 1.15 to 1.25 an hour. This is about the highest we can get in Mississippi. The white man, gets 3 or 4 times as much.
So don’t sit around and say “I wish” all the time. If the Negro as a whole would go to the polls and vote he would have the things he wants and wouldn’t have to wish for it.
God helps those who help themselves. So help yourself and go up and vote today. Tomorrow may be too late.
By Gary Phillip Faulkner
What Would You Do?
I’m pretending I’m a white businessman in Mississippi. The business I own is the only means I have to make a decent living for my family. My business is getting along just fine so far, and so is my family life. In my particular business I need men to do some of the work. I’m not prejudiced against Negroes, therefore I’ll hire Negroes also and pay them the same as I pay my white workers.
Everything is O.K. until a phone call saying, “If you don’t get rid of the niggers we will run you out of business.” Now I’m upset. What should I do? The Negroes are my friends and their work is excellent. I hate to turn against them. Will they understand? What can I say? If I keep them, my own family that I love so much will suffer nor is it right for the Negro to suffer. I’m not rich so I can’t establish a business someplace else. All of my money is invested in this one. I love my family more than anything else in the world, therefore they come first.
I called my Negro workers together and explained the situation. Bless them, they understood. I payed each one of them and told him that if he needed anything to let me know. I would do all I could without endangering my loved ones. I know I could have helped the Negroes if only I knew more businessmen who feel as I do. Together we would have won this battle, but who are they? Where are they? How would I go about finding them?
By Dolois Polk
Let’s Take a Look
I hear that Mayor Sam Coopwood of Holly Springs, Mississippi, has asked Methodist Bishop Marvin Franklin of Jackson, Miss., to investigate Rust College and Dr. Ernest Smith, its president. My! Things are getting touchy, aren’t they?!
He also wrote a letter dated June 29 to Bishop Franklin. The letter: “The good people of Holly Springs, both white and colored, are very much disturbed about the activity at Rust College.”
“As you probably know there are about 100 white and colored students from Oxford, Ohio, and other parts of the country living on the Rust Campus.” (Now get this) “White boys and girls are living together with the colored.”
Then he goes on to say, “As Mayor of Holly Springs and as a member of the official board of the Methodist Church, I respectfully request that you and your group investigate Dr. Smith and Rust College.
Well! Let’s go back. He says he’s a member of the Methodist Church. I wonder if he believes all men are created equal. If he does I wonder what could be so bad about colored and white living together? I wonder if he can answer that question. As Booker T. Washington said and I quote, “You can’t keep a man in the hole without being down yourself.” Don’t you think that kind of fits Mayor Coopwood? While he’s trying to keep the Negro down he’s really lowering himself and Mississippi!! (That fits a lot more Southern States too.)
Most people in Holly Springs (and other places too) aren’t quite citizens—not excepting the whites. The colored people aren’t quite citizens because they don’t vote and some don’t try to vote! The white people aren’t quite citizens because if they were they’d accept the Bill of Rights. So see, we’re even. Why deep fighting things back? You’ve got to take the medicine sometime or other, so why not take it now?
By Arelya J. Mitchell
July 17, 1964
I was out canvassing one day trying to get my freedom registration forms filled. I had been working hard all day trying to get them filled, but I hadn’t had any luck. I finally decided to go to the housing project and I came to the man’s house named John. At first I started talking to his wife, but I wasn’t getting anywhere with her. She just came right out and said she wouldn’t sign for me or anyone else, because she didn’t have time. Then her husband walked into the room and I started talking to him but he said right away he didn’t have time to think about what I was saying because he had more important things on his mind. I asked him what was more important that what we were trying to do.
I said, “That’s why Negroes aren’t getting anywhere in the world today, because they don’t have time for something that will help them, but they can always find time for what Mr. Joe or Mrs. Sue say. Why can’t we seem to find time for something that will help our race?”
After I said that, he just stared at me for a while, and then he said, “I just haven’t the time.”
I just stood there wondering why he kept saying, “I don’t have the time,” because all he was doing was just sitting there doing nothing and yet he couldn’t find time for something he needed. I wrote his name and address down as I walked away and kept wondering, “why . . . why?
By Dorothy Louise Lucas
Don’t Care
While out canvassing one day, I stopped in on Mrs. Jones. I asked her to fill in a registration form so that she would be able to vote.
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sp; “Well honey,” she said, “I don’t think I would care to vote.”
I asked, “Why wouldn’t you care to vote?”
She said, “Why should I? My vote wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever. Just my one vote: How could it help?”
I said, “Why of course it would help. It can make a lot of difference. Your one vote could make the person you vote for win by one vote, maybe even break a tie. If you did vote you could even say you have some voice in the government.”
Then she said, “Well, I will think about it and you come back tomorrow and I’ll give you my answer.”
By Bonnie Tidwell
Satisfied
I took my registration form applications for registration to vote and went out. I met this lady coming down the street. I said, “Good evening.”
She said, “Hello.”
I said, “How are you?”
She said, “Fine, and you?”
I said, “I’ll do. I’m just tired.”
Then I said, “I’m from Holly Springs Freedom School, and I would like to ask you a few questions.”
Then she just looked at me and said, “They have already been to me and I will tell you like I told them. I have a home, a family, and everything I could possibly want.” And she just walked off.
I wouldn’t let things go at that so I caught up with her, and explained everything to her and asked some more questions.
But all she said was, “Things stand as before. I’m sorry, try someone else.”
It really made me mad. But then I thought a while and tried to understand her. Probably she was accustomed to letting other people think or talk for her. And if she did register to vote she could lose what she had. That is possible down South, you know.
To Write in the Light of Freedom Page 11
