Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country: The Benton County Civil Rights Movement by Roy DeBerry et al (review)

Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country: The Benton County Civil Rights Movement provides a nuanced view of poor Blacks’ impact on the civil rights movement by using various relevant sources that include but are not limited to personal papers, organizational records, photos, and oral histories. Using forty-eight Black and white voices, ranging from a ninety-three-year-old retired cafeteria worker named Eldora Johnson to white landowners, this project reveals the undercurrent and uncovered stories of Mississippi, the most southern place in the South. Together these sources empower Benton’s histories.

For example, the authors show how one of these local voices, Benton County Citizens Club founder Henry Reaves, repurposed the NAACP into a platform for activism. The Citizens Club created an independent newsletter, the Freedom Train, that helped build the movement. Through these personal stories told in their own words, we learn how activists risked their lives to promote the freedom struggle via word of mouth, secret deliveries, and other subversive methods.

Relying on such oral histories, the authors provide a balanced portrait of a deeply racist society. Their extensive interviews help create a portrait of African American life and describe the structure of the community and the organizing tradition. These stories offer readers a greater appreciation of those poor Blacks who chose to sacrifice.

The book begins with a description of how Benton County’s Black population responded to early-twentieth-century Jim Crow, extralegal lynching, and sharecropping. Later, the authors explore how Black Mississippians gradually embraced the civil rights movement. Further, Black Benton Countians sacrificed for future generations. Chapter 2 not only shares Benton’s first civil rights activists’ stories but also includes those of their children, nephews, and nieces, which provides a complete perspective on events. This unique, inclusive approach personalizes the motives that drove Black organizers. For instance, this chapter captures three living generations of the Tipler family, ranging from the matriarch born in 1907, who possessed memories of her grandparents who had been slaves, to her grandchildren, born fifty years later in 1957 and 1959, who desegregated the schools in Benton County.

The authors focus on community, familial, and social networks, such as the siblings who desegregated Ashland Elementary School over a decade after Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The authors consider white responses to Black activism by describing the perspectives of white students during the civil rights era. They also explore white landowners who leveraged their power to maintain Blacks’ economic dependency.

The last portion of Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country highlights the fruit of Black organizers’ efforts. Activist Crystal Steward’s reflections encapsulate the core attitudes shared by interviewees and speak to the book’s aim. “It was all worth it,” she recalled; “We’re not where we ought to be, but thank the Lord we’re not where we used to be” (p. xli). The interviews showcase how ordinary Black farmers, sharecroppers, and janitors made sacrifices to obtain citizenship via voting rights. In conclusion, this book’s organization and participation with its subjects are just as inspiring as the stories. Future researchers and general readers will gain fresh ways to conduct, collect, and convey poor yet impactful Black voices.