This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement

Part Three: State and Local Terror

127 Part Three: State and Local Terror V iolence against the freedom movement was systemic. In county after county, so-called forces of law and order turned a blind eye to what can only be called terrorism. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups engaged in relentless warfare against change while police departments, sheriffs’ departments, and state police authorities frequently worked hand-in-hand with the Klan. In Amite County, where the sheriff’s brother headed the Ku Klux Klan, one of SNCC’s earliest Mississippi supporters, NAACP leader Herbert Lee, a fifty-two-year-old father of nine children, was shot and killed in broad daylight by a member of the state legislature who was never charged or brought to court. An eyewitness willing to testify against the legislator was later ambushed and killed. “Citizens’ Councils” of businessmen, lawmakers, and other “responsible” whites were actually the white-collar face of the Klan. Mississippi and several other states created or revived criminal anarchy and criminal “syndicalism” laws aimed at crushing dissent by making opposition to the government illegal. As one small-town mayor in Mississippi responded to an assertion of constitutional rights: “That law ain’t got here yet.” That the number of dead was not higher was partly due to one of the littlediscussed dimensions of the southern freedom struggle—armed selfdefense . 128 left Ben Chaney, the younger brother of James Earl Chaney, is comforted by his mother during the funeral service. George Ballis, Meridian, Mississippi, 1964 right Speaking at the funeral of James Earl Chaney, CORE leader Dave Dennis said, “I have attended these funerals and memorials, and I am sick and tired. . . . The trouble is you are not sick and tired.” George Ballis, Meridian, Mississippi, 1964 129 130 131 left In the burned ruins of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Neshoba County, Fannie Lou Chaney speaks at a memorial service for her son James Earl Chaney and co–civil rights workers Michael “Mickey” Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. The three young men were arrested while investigating a fire that burned this church to the ground and, later that same day, they were murdered by a Ku Klux Klan mob. David Prince, Neshoba County, Mississippi, 1964 below A mourner grieves at the same memorial service for civil rights workers Michael “Mickey” Schwerner, James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. David Prince, Neshoba County, Mississippi, 1964 132 below Neshoba County deputy sheriff Cecil Price watches the memorial service for James Earl Chaney. Himself a Klan member, Price was convicted in 1967 of conspiracy in the three murders and imprisoned. David Prince, Neshoba County, Mississippi, 1964 right SNCC leader and COFO project director Bob Moses stands solemnly in the ashes of Mt. Zion before speaking at the memorial service. Tamio Wakayama, Neshoba County, Mississippi, 1964 133 134 In Birmingham the use of fire hoses and dogs backfired. National outrage caused President John Kennedy to denounce segregation—the first U.S. president to do so—and to urge its legal ban. Bob Adelman, Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 135 Despite force and violence by police and firemen, protestors hold onto each other and withstand the full fury of the water. Bob Adelman, Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 136 above White hecklers insult two young women who are part of a voting rights drive. Bob Adelman, Selma, Alabama, 1965 right A picketer is arrested behind Loveman’s Department Store. Civil rights leaders believed that if they could break segregation in Birmingham, it would collapse throughout the South. Bob Adelman, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 137 138 A young woman penned in by Sheriff Jim Clark’s posse glares as her fellow demonstrators chant, “No more Jim Clark over me.” Clark was eventually convicted of drug smuggling. Bob Adelman, Selma, Alabama, 1965 139 In January 1966 nearly one hundred homeless former plantation workers occupied the decommissioned Greenville, Mississippi, air force base, demanding the base be made available for homeless families. They also asked for land, job training, and jobs. They were evicted at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. Maria Varela, Washington County, Mississippi, 1966 140 The U.S. military evicted more than one hundred plantation workers from the Greenville air force base. “People are hungry in the Delta,” a protestor told the Justice...