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152 Chapter 7 More Demonstrations, Less Unity In the week after the sit-in, the grassroots phase of the Jackson Movement sparked to life, a direct response in large part to what had happened at Woolworth’s. The impact of the sit-in began to be realized the next day, when every major newspaper in America carried front-page coverage, many with pictures of Memphis Norman being attacked by Bennie Oliver. Even Jackson’s conservative Clarion-Ledger—which had published limited stories on the Jackson Movement’s prior picketing efforts—put a photo of Oliver grabbing the back of Norman’s neck on page one.1 In the Wall Street Journal’s front-page analysis, James Tanner noted, “It seems practically assured that Jackson is in for a siege similar to Birmingham ’s.” Interestingly, he also wrote that Medgar Evers believed, even at this early stage, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would eventually take part in the Jackson demonstrations. Tanner knowingly suggested, however, that it would be a tougher place to crack. Noting that the Citizens’ Council’s almost six thousand members nearly ruled the city, Tanner quoted Evers saying, “They have infiltrated government here from the governor’s chair down to the policeman on the beat.” Tanner described the white power structure as puzzled about black citizens’ demands: “They have their own playgrounds and parks,” an anonymous civic leader was quoted saying. “A group of white businessmen cleaned up their slums. We built them a golf course. I don’t know what more they could ask for.”“But,” Tanner concluded,“the Negroes are asking for more.”2 Jackson NAACP president Doris Allison had heard about the sit-in on her way back from St. Louis, where she had buried her sister the Friday before and stayed over the weekend to console her father. On Monday afternoon he had called her to the television screen for the news about the ministers walking out of the mayor’s meeting. That night, Medgar Evers called. “Mrs. Allison, I need you.”3 She was on the next afternoon’s train. As the train entered Tennessee , some white teenagers listening to a transistor radio let out a scream. “Some Negroes are getting stomped in Woolworth’s in Jackson, Mississippi!” they cried. Allison rushed over and asked them to turn up the volume. Once she heard the report for herself, she let out a holler.“Keep those stompin’shoes More Demonstrations, Less Unity   153 on, sweetheart,” she exclaimed,“because you’re gonna have to do some more stompin’!”4 The next morning, Allison arrived at the NAACP office just as the day’s plans were being made for limited picketing and sit-ins up and down Capitol Street.“I got my stompin’ shoes,” she told Evers.“I’m ready.” Evers tried to dissuade her, saying, “Let the group from Tougaloo go.” But Allison would have none of it, so Evers asked her to hand over her valuables for safekeeping and cleared her to participate. She became the first of the NAACP elders to join in the direct action phase of the Jackson Movement.5 That same morning, CORE’s Dave Dennis and George Raymond began conducting workshops on nonviolence to help the cadre of young people now eager to get involved. Evers had also told the media to expect demonstrations that day, but he didn’t reveal their times or locations. As was the case the day before, he and Salter hoped that stealth would help them gain a few precious extra minutes for reporters to snap photos and get the story from the demonstrators ’ perspective before they were arrested.6 By this point, however, the police were intently watching the comings and goings at the NAACP office. Despite the surveillance, Doris Allison was determined to outfox them. Instead of heading east toward Capitol Street, she headed west toward Jackson State College, walking slowly toward a restaurant up the street. There, she met others who had brought handmade posters to hang over their shoulders like sandwich boards to carry their messages to the TV audience.“No Fear, No Doubt, No Retreat,” one read.“Jackson Needs a BiRacial Committee,”stated a second.“Don’t Buy on Capitol Street,”demanded a third. Rather than carrying their signs in paper bags as the picketers had done the day before, Allison’s group rolled up the posters in newspapers held under their arms. From the restaurant, two separate groups were driven toward Capitol Street, half an hour apart...

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