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231 Chapter 10 Next Steps Although the direct action phase of the Jackson Movement ended with the Evers funeral march and the resulting negotiated settlement, much was left to be done during what might be called the movement’s implementation phase.Charles Evers and the activist black ministers led the charge to hold the city accountable for its promises while also pushing for additional concessions . Progress was slow, however, and not at all like the kind of full-frontal push that Jackson had witnessed during the four weeks after the Woolworth’s sit-in. As a result, many of the activists began to move in different directions that summer and fall, disappointed that their efforts had not brought about more immediate and tangible results. On Friday morning, June 21, John Salter left Baptist Hospital. This was just two days after Medgar Evers’s burial at Arlington Cemetery and one day after the Jackson ministers met with the mayor to give final approval to the settlement . Despite his doctor’s reluctance to release him, Salter felt able to walk, and he didn’t like being stuck in a place where everyone,including his enemies, could find him. Always a master of surprise, Salter announced his release to the city police by standing on the corner of Lynch Street near the NAACP offices. Two patrolmen driving by responded as the activist had hoped.“Their mouths just opened,”he said,“and they came to a screeching halt.”They stared and then hurried back to their downtown headquarters to report that Salter was back on the streets.1 Still, the brazenness of Salter’s personal actions couldn’t mask the obvious halt of the Jackson Movement’s momentum. According to Salter, it “was destroyed. The ministers had sold the thing down the river.” Even if he had wanted to try and pick up the pieces and continue to push for a resolution granting more rights to the city’s black citizens, many of his supporters had already begun to leave.“Our best workers went off with SNCC and CORE,[to] Canton and the Delta,” Salter said.“It was sad.”2 Eldri Salter had flown back from Minnesota to be with her husband after the automobile crash, leaving little Maria with her parents. Professor Salter, facing increasing criticism from other Tougaloo faculty members, was unsure what his professional future held. He was also suffering aftershocks from the stress of the previous month. During this period, he says, he would wake up 232  Next Steps every night in a sweat, smelling blood—an experience he continued to have, though with less frequency, for the rest of his life. Though Salter was in shock, he was still functioning, and wondering what his next move should be. He decided to first take care of his immediate needs.After a brief recovery period, he and Eldri bought a new car to replace the one destroyed in the wreck and took a short vacation. They headed north, first stopping in Kentucky to visit Anne and Carl Braden of the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF). Salter let on that he might be looking for a new challenge. The family then headed to Minnesota to pick up Maria and on to Kansas to visit John’s grandparents.While there,a call came from Jim Dombrowski,the head of SCEF, offering him a job as a field secretary—organizing grassroots communities around civil rights and economic issues and speaking at fund-raisers and educational events around the country. It seemed like the perfect opportunity , and he accepted. After a summer of travels, which included a trip back to Mississippi to resign from Tougaloo and pack the family’s belongings, the Salters headed to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the SCEF job would be based.3 “‘Mustard Man’Joins Braden”the front page Jackson Daily News photo caption announced.“Tougaloo Prof. Joins Pro-Red Organization” claimed the accompanying article. The white Mississippi establishment was delighted to be rid of this troublesome outside agitator, and Salter, who had both influenced and been profoundly influenced by Mississippi, never lived or worked in the state again. The other Woolworth’s demonstrators, however, stayed—though they also shifted their efforts into the movement’s next steps.4 Up in the hard-core racist town of Canton,where whites—outnumbered by blacks three to one—held on to power through a particularly vicious reign of terror, one of the Woolworth’s veterans was facing a harsh reception. George Raymond had...

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