Divine Agitators: The Delta Ministry and Civil Rights in Mississippi

TEN. Winding Down

After its early 1971 budget and staff crisis, the Delta Ministry focused almost solely on providing technical and research assistance in legislative matters, economic development, education, and welfare. A board of directors replaced the Commission on the Delta Ministry. Black Mississippians , rather than the NCC and representatives from member denominations , played the major governing role on the board. The Ministry became independent of NCC control, with the status of a related movement, but continued to receive donations from several national denominations to sustain the reduced operations. By the mid-ipyos, however, the Ministry had few remaining sources of support. Unwilling to abandon the cause to which he had devoted much of his adult life, Owen Brooks continued the Ministry, often as little more than a one-man operation. Brooks also worked for two African American congressmen whose elections from the Delta's Second Congressional District the Ministry had helped make possible through its many years of work. After leaving the Ministry, several former staff members continued to work in Mississippi on behalf of the poor and excluded. They and the many other staff and hundreds of volunteers who had served in the state since 1964 had the satisfaction ofknowing that they had contributed to some notable political, economic, and social change, but many of the original problems remained.1 Reduced to four workers plus two administrative support staffers, the 1 97 CHAPTER TEN Winding Down Delta Ministry continued to be very active, despite operating during 1971 on an Ncc-approved budget of only $150,000. According to journalistNeal R. Peirce, in the early 19705 the Ministry remained "the only broad-scaled social action agency working with Mississippi's blacks."2 Brooks, the Delta Ministry's director, stayed at its Greenville office, which he shared with Freedom Village. Brooks concentrated primarily on assisting the development of Mound Bayou asit applied for federal and private grants to improve facilities and to create businesses through the Mound Bayou Development Corporation . He sat on the corporation's board of directors, where he worked closely with Mayor Earl Lucas, who had been elected with Ministry support in 1969. Most of an extensive sewerage and water installation project in Mound Bayou was completed during 1971, paid for by federal funds secured with the Delta Ministry 's technical assistance.The federal government insisted that to continue to receive federal funding, the Mound Bayou Community Hospital and the Delta Health Center had to merge and consolidate their overlapping services into one program. Consequently, Brooks assisted in the merger process, which began in 1971, and in May 1972, he became chairmanof the board of directors of the newly established Delta Community Hospital.3 With less success, Brooks and the Delta Ministry also engaged in welfare rights organizing in Washington County. Both the United Methodist Church and the UPCUSA refused the Ministry's requests for grants to support self-help classes and community workshops designed to inform people of eligibility requirements for welfare, training, and housing programs. Despite limited funds, the welfare rights program helped more thanfivehundred families obtain welfarebenefits, arranged welfare hearings for sixty-two people, and distributed emergency relief to several hundred families in Washington and surrounding counties.4 Although based in Greenville, Brooks also worked on issues that extended beyond the Delta. He served as secretary of the board of directors of STAR, a statewide OEO-funded vocational training program sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Natchez-Jackson. The board met inJackson, which had also become the location of the Delta Ministry's other office.5 In May 1971, less than two months after closure of its office at Mount Beulah, the Ministry opened a full-time office in the state's capital to "better coordinate state-wide research and development efforts." Harry Bowie, the Ministry's associate director, and the remaining core staff, Rims Barber and Charley Horwitz, occupied the Jackson office. The three men focused primarily on broad-range issues, which necessitated proximity to the state government and state agencies. The Ministry provided "technical assistance to community organizers and citizenship education groups," "advocacy development around issues of Day Care 198 Chapter Ten and Medical programs," and "consultantservices in the formation and funding of community projects." It also continued its earlier involvementin education by furnishing research assistance for groups concerned with monitoringschool desegregation and providing "technical assistance for community groups on educational issues and programs."6 The Jackson office enabled the Delta Ministry to...