Civil Rights Movement
The Education of Jesse Leroy Brown
Pioneer of the Skies: Jesse Leroy Brown
The Civil Rights Movement in Natchez, Mississippi
Introduction
The oldest city in Mississippi, Natchez was a key site of the Civil Rights Movement in the state. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which terrorized Black people through bombings, beatings, and murder, was active throughout southwest Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s. Blacks were also treated unequally due to the Jim Crow system of discrimination. As a result of the work of Black leaders in the Civil Rights Movement in Natchez, the city and the state moved closer to establishing equal rights for all.
The Civil Rights Movement in Natchez, Mississippi
The civil rights movement in Natchez, Mississippi, is a portrait of hate, hope, and heroism. The movement began during the segregated Jim Crow era when Blacks lived under the constant threat of racial violence and culminated with major concessions from the White establishment.
The Big Dreamer: James Meredith’s Fight for Integration
Applying to the University of Mississippi on January 20, 1961, Meredith was immediately rejected after writing in his application that he was a Black man. Unwavering in his mission to be admitted, he reached out to Medgar Evers, field secretary for the NAACP.
Student Protest at Delta State College in March 1969
Today, legal and institutionally supported racial segregation within places of higher learning feels like a thing of the past. Yet, integration and increased representation of students of color, especially Black students, did not come easily in the Mississippi Delta even after racial segregation was outlawed.
The Role of Lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi
In the early twentieth century, Black people in Mississippi who aimed to exercise their rights as citizens of the United States had few allies. State and local government officials, acting under the authority of the 1890 state constitution, blocked efforts by black citizens to vote and operated separate schools for White and Black children.