We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi

Twenty-one. Liz

151 t w e n t y - o n e Liz liz Fusco had not gone home when the students departed at summer’s end. She had left Ruleville and for five months had toured Mississippi , distributing educational materials to the widely scattered Freedom Schools. On my return to the Delta, when I found her at an organizing meeting of the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union in the poor, tiny town of Shaw, I was eager to learn why she was here rather than out with the Freedom School projects. One look at the usually vivacious teacher I remembered from the Freedom School made it clear that the months between had been a severe test for this introspective and questioning young woman. “I was learning things, Tracy,” she said soberly. “It took me all last winter and this spring to learn, painfully, that ‘educational materials’ is not the answer. Dealing with people is the answer.” She hesitated, seeking the way to articulate properly the process of change she had observed. “All of us who came down here last summer as teachers came because we thought schooling was important. For us, schooling meant classes where you worked with kids, helping them to learn a little about who they were. Giving them some American history that they didn’t get in the Mississippi schools. Even some Negro history. A few of the kids we found who were academically apt we even took back north at the end of the summer to get them into good schools. As teachers who had an abiding faith in education, we related best to those kids.” She looked deeply troubled, and shook her head impatiently. “But in the process, we missed all those kids who were hostile to education, hostile to educated people like us, hostile to white people. We missed the angry kids. The revolutionary kids.” “I think you’re being too tough on yourself, Liz. You can’t really measure what those Freedom School classes meant to kids who had 152   |   Return to the Delta never known a sympathetic white, or a really well-trained and dedicated teacher. If you were really missing the boat in connecting with those kids, why didn’t project leaders like McLaurin, who know what the movement needs, intervene?” Her eyes narrowed. “I think they didn’t because they felt intimidated by all of us teachers with all our degrees and educational know-how. So people like me continued to make a lot of mistakes. What’s worst, of course, is that we lost contact with a lot of kids.” “I don’t believe that Mac thought you lost contact with the kids. He told me, two weeks after the Freedom School started, that the Freedom School would only prove to be effective if the kids came to understand what the educational tools were for. But he didn’t write off what was being accomplished by you and Linda and the others. I think he believed it was an evolving process.” “I was torn,” she said, “between the teachers who were talking about ‘remedial reading’ and ‘poor, deprived kids,’ and Mac’s notion that you educated kids by helping them deal with their problems in the community where they lived.” She broke off with a weary shake of her head. “Well, this summer will be different. I intend to become a catalyst.” “What do you mean by ‘catalyst,’ Liz?” 38. Liz Fusco with Ruleville women. “You know more than I do. Teach me about voting here!” Liz   |   153 I studied the young woman. The childish slightness, the jeans, the work shirt, and the bare feet were deceptive. There was a burning dedication about her. You could read it in the bobbing thrust of the sharp face, the staccato drum of the reedy voice, in the shadows that touched the bright, intelligent eyes. “Like Linda Davis,” she said, wetting her lips with her tongue. “She works as a catalyst in the community down in Indianola now. She not only works with kids; she trains people to work with kids. People need this training, and down here they need it from people like Linda who care deeply about freedom. Linda doesn’t run the community center. She doesn’t run anything. What she does is . . . be available. Available to sit down and talk with people about what it means to be a qualified voter, and how to get qualified. Available to...