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Reflections on the Local Movement
- The University Press of Kentucky
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xv Reflections on the Local Movement Sue and Henry’s credibility in Holmes County was impeccable. They were in the movement from the fall of 1964 to the fall of 1969, and they are still identified with the community center at Mileston; they are identified with those first campaigns; and they were close to Hartman Turnbow and Ralthus Hayes. They didn’t get trapped up in the fact they were white. They knew what moved the different forces in the county and could stay out of the fights. They had the ability to listen and do it well. That’s what made them the best organizing team in Mississippi. They were always referred to as a twosome. People said Sue-andHenry like it was one name. They had an exceptionally high reputation among organizers in Mississippi. All of the SNCC staff agreed with me on that point: John Green, Hollis Watkins, Willie Peacock, Bob Moses, and the rest. There was nothing quite like Holmes County’s political organization in all of Mississippi; in fact there was nothing like it in the South. When SNCC considered organizing a broad southern movement, the central question was, Should we create more Holmes counties or more SNCC membership groups? The movement in Holmes County controlled every scintilla of what was political and what was economic. There have been other movements, but nothing as broad-based, indigenous , or contagious as in Holmes. Sue-and-Henry were about the job of energizing and transforming people so those people could energize and transform others. They helped Holmes County set up precinct captains and neighborhood block captains and in that manner transformed the political process. They believed that the greatest political capital we had was the people. xvi Reflections on the Local Movement Sue-and-Henry were the catalyst that built the most powerful black political organization possible in Holmes County. Lawrence Guyot, former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee field secretary, chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964 to 1968, and member of the board of directors of Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement of Mississippi ...