Mississippi and the Civil Rights Movement

          Mississippi was a battleground during the Civil Rights Movement. Progress was slowly making its way for the African American community. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery; the 14th Amendment gave anyone born in the United States citizenship; and the 15th Amendment granted African-American men the right to vote. These laws weren’t put into action right away, and the federal government didn’t do much to enforce it in the South. Southern states found a way to go around these laws to prevent African Americans from experiencing any freedom. Racial discrimination continued long after the abolition of slavery and the Civil War. Following World War II, African Americans increasingly challenged segregation, as they believed they had earned the right to be treated as full citizens because of their military service and sacrifices. Many blacks returning to Mississippi found themselves fighting for freedom at home. Medgar Evers was one of the soldiers who returned after the war and found that his skin color gave him no freedom. Despite having fought for his country, he and five of his friends were forced away at gunpoint from voting in a local election. This experience led him to commit to the civil rights struggle. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared the segregation of schools unconstitutional, white southerners vowed to never send their children to school with black children. Southern white legislatures argued that the federal government had no power to force states to integrate schools and called the Brown decision “a clear abuse of judicial power.” Challenging Mississippi during the Jim Crow era fueled the most well-known leaders of the Civil Rights Movement such as Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Meredith and many others.

Anne Moody’s Mississippi: Race, Culture and Civil Rights

          Anne Moody’s memoir gave our class a unique perspective of rural Mississippi before and after the Civil Rights Movement. Her memoir is about the constant struggle to overcome racial inequality Anne doesn’t become aware of the racial inequality around her until the murder of Emmett Till; she wonders if there is any real differences between the races. When Anne first hears about the NAACP, she begins to anticipate how these racial inequalities can be overthrown. During the last two years of her college career, Anne joined the NAACP. Word got out to whites in her hometown, and they caused some problems for Anne’s family. Anne’s mother begged her to quit, but she refused to listen. Moody participated in the famous Woolworth sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi. Later, as a CORE activist, when pursued voting rights in Canton where she and other activists experienced constant violent threats. Toward the end of her memoir, Anne concluded that the movement hadn’t done anything to improve the lives of people in Mississippi. The movement focused too much on the voter registration and not enough on the economic issues. Anne ended her autobiography wondering if blacks will ever overcome racism.