Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi: Protest Politics and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 1960-1965

Introduction

1 Introduction When you’re in Mississippi, the rest of America doesn’t seem real. And when you’re in the rest of America, Mississippi doesn’t seem real. —robert parris moses The closed society of Mississippi thus swears allegiance to a prevailing creed with over a hundred years of homage behind it. Based on antique assumptions no longer tenable and on a legendary past, the doctrine of white supremacy is guarded by a bureaucracy, by ceaseless, high-powered and skillful indoctrination employing both persuasion and fear, and by the elimination, without regard for law or ethics, of those who will not go along. Within its own borders the closed society of Mississippi comes as near to approximating a police state as anything we have yet seen in America. —james w. silver, 1964 M y objective is to trace the development of student support of the civil rights movement in Mississippi from 1960 to 1965, along with the growth of protest, parallel politics, and the resultant parallel political organizations. White Mississippi resisted the movement, and to a great extent the federal government failed to meet its promises and legal commitment to protect civil rights workers and local African Americans. During the initial years of the movement, African Americans and small numbers of white workers reminded the federal government of what it could legally do to protect those who sought to exercise their inherent constitutional and statutory rights. The movement gradually turned from freedom rides and sit-ins to voter registration as a result of prompting from local leaders such as Amzie Moore in the Delta and by promises of greater federal protection for voter registration workers. However, by the end of 1963, attempts to register African Americans in Mississippi had almost completely failed, as had the federal government’s promises of protection. Mock registration of African Americans and “freedom” 2 student activism and civil rights in mississippi elections were then conducted to prove to the American public—and to African Americans themselves—that if African Americans were given the opportunity to register to vote for their own candidates in Mississippi, they would vote. Following on the heels of the “Freedom Vote” in the fall of 1963, the movement retooled itself, decided to bring in large numbers of white volunteers, and launched the “Freedom Summer” project of 1964. During spring and summer 1964 the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was created and delegates were elected. The MFDP then challenged the right of regular Mississippi Democratic Party delegates to be seated at the Democratic National Convention in August 1964. In addition, the MFDP questioned the right of the elected Mississippi congressmen to be seated in Congress in January 1965. Although these two challenges initially failed to accomplish their objectives, they did bring about a change in spirit on a local level and in future political developments for Mississippi African Americans with promised changes in the way future Mississippi Democratic Party delegations would be seated at Democratic National Conventions. The summer of 1964 saw the disappearance of three civil rights workers—Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman—which put a great deal of pressure on the U.S. Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and, after the campaign in Selma, Alabama, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mississippi presented the greatest resistance to the progress of African Americans in the entire South. The Mississippi movement provides a picture of how civil rights strategy evolved organically to crack the white power structure throughout the state and to weaken its influence on the U.S. Congress. The Mississippi movement was supported by students, and it acted on a statewide basis. Movement activists developed strategies to support local activists . These paths of action were essentially developed within the framework of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Centrally decided actions were developed with local support. Movement activists, encouraged and supported by local leaders, moved into local communities and stayed to develop connections with local people and gradually create local cadres of leadership. Although the civil rights movement caused little change in the numbers of registered African American voters before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it did bring a change of heart for many African Americans. Local people overcame their fears and publicly expressed their desire to change the “closed society.” They first used “freedom registration” in the 1963 Freedom Vote and then in the [18.217.67.225] Project MUSE (2024-04-16 07:09 GMT...