4.I was a great Negro physician in my time.
5.A painting I painted now hangs in the Luxembourg.
6.I was considered the Robert Burns of Negro poetry.
7.I am the father of the blues.
a.Henry Turner
b.Harriet Tubman
c.Phyliss Wheatley
d.W. C. Handy
e.Paul Lawrence Dunbar
f.Ira Alridge
g.Daniel Hall Williams
Turn Page Upside Down for Answers
C, F, B, G, A, E, D
August 24, 1964
A Word from the Editors
This summer in McComb a new Summer Project began. It was for the advancement of the young people and the adults as well.
It was called Freedom School. In Freedom School students are allowed to study any subject they would like, whereas in public schools you have to wait until you are in a particular grade to take a certain subject.
During this time, we have learned about ourselves and our ancestors. For the first time some of us had the experience of getting along with people of another race. We have also learned how to overcome fear of another race.
Now the time has come for us to say goodbye to our teachers and many of the [indecipherable] people that we have met while attending Freedom School. We are very sorry that the summer project is almost over and would like to compliment our teachers for doing such a wonderful job. We feel it was nice meeting y’all and we hate to see you leave.
Weekly Quotation
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterward.”
Theodore Roosevelt
A Letter from Curtis
My Fellow Soldiers,
It is not common for one little member of a large army to sit down and write to the rest of the members, and by some token it is not common for one member to possess such love, warmth, affection, sympathy, devotion, and all of the beautiful words that come short of my feelings for you.
I am writing this letter because I want you to understand that though I love you, and McComb will always be my home, I must leave to get one more tool to work with. This tool is education.
Please don’t forget that for months and maybe years to come there will be many COFO workers here. They will stay as long as you need them. There have been many plans made for our community and I beg you not to let their work be in vain.
I was born and raised here. Many of your hands have helped spank me into what I am today; many of the Christians who now disagree with me helped teach me what I now believe; the white community made it necessary for me to work for 2–4 dollars a day; gave me a choice between a pitiful poor and a poor school; they took some of the color away when they raped my great-grandmothers. This, all of this, I am proud of, for it has made me strong and courageous enough to join the army for FREEDOM NOW!! Thus, in the words of one of our great writers (somewhat paraphrased), “McComb need not be ashamed of her product for what we produce will be here in its entirety. Escape it? She cannot, for I am Negro. I am the present, the past, and I’ll make my future.”
Finally I will say, and I want you to hear me and hear me good—I WILL RETURN! I am reminded of a few words I read in a book given to me by Bob Moses which I wish to share with you. “The plague, like most evils, has caught up everyone and everything, no longer are there individual destinies—only a collective destiny, and the emotions shared by all . . . We are hostile to the past, impatient with the present, and afraid of being cheated in the future . . . Heroism or sanctity doesn’t really appeal to me—what interests me most I guess is being a man . . . Love—exile—suffering.” WE SHALL OVERCOME
Curtis Elmer Hayes
I Have Been to School
I have been to school in another state
Coming back to Mississippi was a big mistake.
The schools down here have very old books
If you don’t believe me take a second look
This past term some of my books were as old as I
It’s really something that no one should deny
Now coming to Mississippi for other reasons may be good
But coming for an education I advise that no one should
Even if the Mississippi schools had integration
I know the other states (especially up North) would provide a better education
Some of you will try to interpret some of what I have said into a lie
I don’t think you can, but you are free to try.
Sue Sephus
Freedom School Convention
Friday, Aug. 7—Three delegates, Thelma Eubanks, Marionette Travis and Jessie Diven left McComb City to attend the Freedom School Convention in Meridian, Mississippi. On arrival at 6 P.M., they signed in. After getting their luggage packed away, they met with other delegates and marched to the memorial of James Chaney. After this they went to the school for assembly, and afterward they went to bed.
On the following day the delegates went back to the Meridian Freedom School at 9 A.M. for assembly. The devotion was led by different individuals. Then all sang freedom songs. Afterward the delegates were assigned to workshops where they made resolutions.
After they assembled and read all the resolutions that were passed. Almost all of the resolutions of McComb were passed.
On the next day the delegates went to church. Later, a service in the Freedom School was held. After this they talked about boycotts that were going on around the state. Then Bob Moses got up and asked the students their opinions about Freedom School. What did they like about it? What would they like to see continued? How would they like it to be continued? After Moses, other people spoke also.
The following day the delegates and leaders (among whom was Joyce Brown) had a meeting to choose delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Thelma Eubanks was one of the delegates elected. She was also elected National Committeewoman. After the meeting, the delegates packed to come home.
Marilyn Carter
Some Thoughts about Freedom School
I want Freedom School to keep on.
I like everything about Freedom School.
I like art.
I like Freedom School.
I don’t like to get up in the morning to come to Freedom School.
I like for Helen to read stories in Freedom School.
I like my teacher in Freedom School.
I like my teacher in Freedom School.
Denise Ledbetter
I am ten years old
A Prayer for Goldwater
Dear, O Heavenly Father
I do not wish anyone death
But please let Goldwater be thrown in with a cage of lions
If he don’t die then let the ambulance that carries him to the hospital have four flat tires
If he don’t die then let the food that he eats have ptomaine poisin in it
If he don’t die then let the doctors that operate on him have gorillas on their backs
If he don’t die then, please, let him be President.
From Time Magazine
A Story Continued from Our Aug. 3rd Edition
After the Ku Klux Klan found out that Cindilillia was colored, they brought her to trial. Everyone in the courthouse was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, including the judge. Cindilillia knew she was not getting a fair trial. She even tried to get a lawyer, but he said she was crazy. He asked her if she wanted him to get killed, so her hope for a lawyer was forgotten. But just as they were fixin to pass sentence, in walked Bobby Kennedy. He told them that Cindilillia was going to have a fair trial. Cindilillia had her fair trial. She was not convicted. After her trial she thanked Bobby Kennedy, sold her home and left the state of Mississippi never to return.
Janice Carstafhnur
How I Feel about the State of Miss.
The Constitution of Mississippi as a whole is very unfair. I mean that it is or rather it has very unfair laws. The lawmakers of Missi
ssippi pass some very unfair laws. We have some unfair people running our government business. The police are not doing anything about Mississippi or the banks.
Julius Benton
Pike and McComb
There are 35,063 persons in Pike County, according to the official U.S. Census in 1960. This is 1964, and the number of persons in Pike may have changed greatly.
Of the 35,063 persons, 41.9% are Negroes, which means that about four of every ten persons in Pike County are Negroes and about six out of ten are whites.
In Pike County there are 8,417 families of which 5,333 are white and 3,084 are Negro. Half of all the families, Negro and white, in Pike County, have incomes above $3,213, and half of the families make less. Half of the Negro families in Pike make more than $1,800 per year and half make less than $1,800.
The number of Negro families which make less than $2,000 per year is 1,704. The number of Negro families which make less than $3,000 per year is 2,339.
The total population of McComb is 12,020 with 8,605 persons being white and 3,415 being Negro. In white families there are usually about three persons and in Negro families there are usually about four persons.
Marvin Carter
Why?
Why are we the underclass?
Why do we always get served last?
Better jobs and higher pay
The white man gets any day
Better schools and nice hotels
If we try to use them we’ll be in jail
The white man has lunch counters galore
Yet we aren’t allowed to use the drug store
But we are going to win our rights
Or we shall have a real big fight.
Gwendolyn Flowers
For the Last Time
For the last time take your foot off my neck and give me rights as a citizen. Don’t single me out for special censure or special awards.
For the last time give me my rights as a citizen and a taxpayer in employment, education, housing, and public accommodations. Don’t condescend to give me in charity what is really mine, under the laws of the land. Just let me live my life as a free and full citizen. That is all I ask.
L. B. C.
Uncle Thomas Learns a Lesson: A Story
Joey was a Negro boy who lived in the Northern part of Illinois. His best friend was Dave, a little white boy. Joey loved Dave and Dave loved Joey as if they were brothers, for you see, Joey had not a brother or sister and Dave had no sister, brother, mother, or father. For these reasons Joey and Dave came to mean a great deal to each other.
Dave lived with his Uncle Thomas, who had just moved to Illinois from the South, one month after the death of his brother. Uncle Thomas did not like anyone the color of Joey, and for this reason he demanded that Dave stop seeing Joey. To make sure that Dave did not see Joey, Uncle Thomas sent him to summer camp in the summer and to a private school in the winter.
Whenever Joey’s parents came to ask Uncle Thomas to dinner or church, he would say very harshly, “go away, niggers.” Soon all the people in the neighborhood disliked Uncle Thomas. They stopped even trying to be nice to him. Soon he had not a friend in the whole neighborhood.
Now it happens that Uncle Thomas was rather up in age and suffered with his heart. One day as he was working in the kitchen his heart began to hurt and the next thing he knew he was lying on the floor. Just then a knock came at the door; it was Joey. Since no one bothered to open the door, Joey decided to go away and leave the old man alone, never to be bothered by him again. “But then if I did this I would be just like Uncle Thomas, all of the hatred with no love at all,” thought Joey. So he went to the door, opened it and went on in. A he stepped into the kitchen, there laying on the floor was Uncle Thomas with his hands over his heart. Joey immediately phoned the doctor, then his parents.
At the hospital, two weeks later, Dr. Jones told Joey’s parents that “Mr. Thomas barely escaped death,” and that it if was not for Joey, he would have probably died.
The next day Joey went to visit Uncle Thomas. As he stepped into the room, Uncle Thomas smiled at him for the first time.
“I hear you saved my life, boy,” he said. “I’m mighty thankful.
Then he told Joey how sorry he was for the way he had treated him and how he was going to make it up to him and Dave. Then he began to cry. Joey moved closer to him and bent and kissed him on the cheek.
“Oh, that’s all right, Uncle Thomas. Black people love white people, white people love black people. You just never learned until now. But me and Dave knew it a long time ago. If everyone would be like Dave and me, it would be a much better place to live.”
N. W. C.
Now Is the Hour
Now is the hour
No other time will do
For us to go and get
What belongs to me and you
Now is the hour
To stand for what is right
Together we know
We will win the fight
Now is the hour
That we must say farewell
To tears and hardships
Freedom’s better, I can tell
By: Edith Marie Moore
Some Interviews
Mario Roberto Savio—After a summer of working with the Miss. Summer Project, Mario plans to attend the University of California at Berkeley. “I have enjoyed this small start and if there is any possible chance, I hope to be back again next summer,” said Mario. “The reason I came to the South was because I knew the Negroes down here were being denied the right to vote and I felt something should be done about it.”
Marshall Ganz—A surprise to most people, but Marshall Ganz is staying down here this year. Says Marshall, “I came down here because I have been wanting to come here for a long time. One night, as you all know, crosses were burned, and I felt something should be done about it. Therefore, I left where I was working in the Summer Project and I came down to McComb. I think we have shown the people the handwriting on the wall.”
Dorothy A. Vick
Why Won’t the White Man . . .
Why won’t the white man let me be free?
Am I not a man as well as he?
Oh! If the Negro could only be free,
There’d be no race greater than we!
Of course there are folks who say, “We got what we deserve”
But these are the people who will always serve
They’ll work long and hard with little pay
And never be thankful to see a new day
Oh! If the Negro could only see
How much he could do if he were free.
Oh! If the Negro would not only pray
But help in our fight for freedom and a brighter new day!
Barbara JoAnn Lea
Local Citizen Tells of Voting Test
Mrs. Lillian Ledbetter, wife of a prosperous Negro businessman, was one of the citizens to register to vote on Freedom Day.
Mrs. Ledbetter said that Freedom Day caused her to remember the right to vote was here and that she should take advantage of this right.
“I was not afraid,” said Mrs. Ledbetter, “but I was in doubt as to what would happen after I got to the courthouse.” She found that the registrar was not at all nasty. Mrs. Ledbetter had attended the citizenship class (which is still going on). Therefore, the test was very easy.
FBI agents were and still are on hand to protect prospective voters. Transportation is available if needed. Babysitters are also ready to serve you while you take the test.
Mrs. Ledbetter stated, “I would like for everybody to go register to vote. There is nothing, absolutely nothing to fear.”
Edith Marie Moore
Fighting for Freedom
The thought of being free has entered many minds,
Most of the people are being left out or behind,
Very few people are willing to fight for what they believe is right,
But speaking for myself I’d rather fight day and night.
&
nbsp; To win freedom we will have to fight,
This is how most people accomplished their rights.
But when I say fight I mean non-violently.
We will accomplish more that way.
This is the way that organization named SNCC works.
This is the way they believe freedom should be won.
P. R.
The Declaration of Independence
In the Declaration of Independence it said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In a Negro’s life he wants to know what does it mean by life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The word life for a Negro means to live in fear all the time and work very hard to keep himself alive and his family with very small pay a week.
Liberty to him means that it’s not for him but for the Caucasian man. Because he’s not free to say what he wants when he wants to and how he feels about something. That’s not liberty when you can’t go home asleep at night without your home being bombed when you try to be like the white man.
The pursuit of happiness—we are not happy in a large way because we can’t go to any public place and enjoy ourselves without somebody beating on us or pulling on us and saying everything to us. It’s not happiness when we can’t go to a public beach or movie, or a lunch counter to eat our dinner.
The Declaration of Independence says that all men are created equal. But we are not treated equally. So when will we be treated equally? The law was made July 4, 1776, and it is now all the same in 1964.
To Write in the Light of Freedom Page 14
