Freedom's Children (23 page)

 

1962 Representatives of SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and NAACP create the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) to promote voter registration activities in Mississippi.

 

1963 APRIL-MAY. Massive protest demonstrations take place in Birmingham to challenge segregation. Led by Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, the police attack protesters with dogs and fire hoses. Thousands are arrested, many of them children. So many thousands of children are involved that the campaign becomes known as “The Children's Crusade.”

1964 SUMMER. The “Freedom Summer” project begins in Mississippi with a plan to bring more than a thousand young people to the state to work on voter registration and other community projects.

1965 FEBRUARY 18. Civil rights worker Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten and shot by state police in Marion, Alabama. He dies eight days later.

1968 APRIL 4. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

BOYD, DELORES: Montgomery, Alabama. At age eight, Delores started attending Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) mass meetings. She says, “I grew up in those meetings, and I consider the MIA as much a part of my educational background as I do my formal schools.... That's when I got my excitement about being a lawyer. I remember Dr. King and others telling us about the legal battles. They'd say, ‘Our lawyers are filing here' or 'Our lawyers are going to test this. So it dawned on me early that the law played an important role.” In 1965 she was one of the students who integrated the Montgomery schools. Today Delores Boyd is an attorney in Montgomery and co-owner of Roots and Wings, A Cultural Bookplace.

 

CARR, ARLAM: Montgomery, Alabama. Arlam was five years old when the bus boycott began. His mother had helped organize the MIA, and so he understood what was happening. “If we were driving and I'd see somebody walking, I'd say, ‘Mama, Mama, pick those people up!' ” When he reached high school age, he brought a lawsuit to end segregation in the Montgomery school system. Today he is a producer/director of a news program and other specials for Montgomery television station WSFA.

 

CARTER, MYRNA : Birmingham, Alabama. Myrna was arrested and jailed during the demonstrations in 1963. She says, “I was recently in church with my twelve-year-old son. Our pastor said we can look back and remember Reconstruction days. But rights were soon lost because we became too complacent. That disturbed my son. All the way home he kept saying, ‘Mama, please explain it to me. Are they going to do to us like you used to tell me? Are we going to have to have certain water fountains again?'

CHANEY, BEN: Meridian, Mississippi. Ben was involved in civil rights activities with his older brother, James Earl Chaney, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Ben was arrested “more than twenty-one times before I was twelve years old” for “demonstrating without a permit.” Today he is president of the James Earl Chaney Foundation, a human rights and civil rights organization. Among its projects, the foundation has been working to improve voter registration laws.

 

COLVIN, CLAUDETTE: Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated bus nine months before Rosa Parks defied the same segregation laws. Claudette was fifteen years old at the time, and argued with the police officers that it was her “constitutional right” to remain in her seat. Her arrest and imprisonment were an early impetus for the boycott that was to be the beginning of the civil rights movement. Today she lives in New York City and is a nurse's aide at a private nursing home.

 

DEBERRY, ROY: Holly Springs, Mississippi. Roy grew up on a farm in rural Mississippi and attended a one-room schoolhouse. As a teenager, he became involved in the civil rights activities of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1964, with other young people from the community, Roy wrote and performed in a play called “Seeds of Freedom” about the life and assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers. He asked, “Do you hate this white man for killing Medgar, or like a tree do you plant a seed of freedom and let it grow? In many ways in terms of symbols, we were the seeds, and so they didn't kill it.” Today Roy DeBerry is assistant superintendent for education for the state of Mississippi.

 

EUBANKS, THELMA: McComb, Mississippi. Thelma was fifteen years old during Freedom Summer in 1964, and was arrested many times for civil rights activities. “Being a COFO kid made me feel like I was somebody, it really did. It just broadened our perspectives on things, letting us know we didn't have to take this if we didn't want to.” She and several others were the first to integrate McComb High School in McComb, Mississippi. Today Thelma Eubanks Alston is a nurse's aide at an integrated nursing home in McComb.

 

FOSTER, FRANCES: Birmingham, Alabama. Frances was fourteen years old when she was arrested for participating in one of the first sit-ins in Birmingham. She remained involved through the 1960s. “I feel that the movement carries on with me today. I can do anything I want to do. I'm not frightened by anything or by anyone.” Frances Foster White lives in Birmingham today and is a psychiatric technician working with adolescents at the University of Alabama hospital.

 

GADSON, MARY: Birmingham, Alabama. Mary was a teenager when she was involved in the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations. She says, “When we were growing up as blacks, you either were a teacher, nurse, or something like that. I didn't want to be any of those. To me, that was a stigma. I wanted to do something else, something different. And the movement gave me the sense that I could.” Mary Gadson Russell married her high school boyfriend, Larry, also a participant in the Birmingham movement. Today she lives in Birmingham and works for a county agency, handling emergency food programs and running training workshops for volunteers.

 

GREEN, ERNEST: Little Rock, Arkansas. Ernest was one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School in 1957. He was the only senior in the group, and the first black student to graduate from Central High. Ernest Green lives in Washington, D.C. He was assistant secretary of labor for employment and training in President Carter's administration, and is currently an investment banker.

 

HENDRICKS, AUDREY FAYE: Birmingham, Alabama. Audrey Faye was nine years old when she was jailed for a week during the demonstrations in 1963. She says, “You always had a focus on why you were marching. It meant to me a change. To be able to go where we wanted to go. Not to be traveling on the road and worrying can we stop here, is this place okay? Not to have a fear that you're driving into the wrong place at the wrong time.” Today Audrey Faye Hendricks lives in Birmingham and works for the Social Security Administration.

 

HINKLE, TOWANNER: Selma, Alabama. Towanner was a high school student when she marched in the Selma demonstrations in 1965 to protest against segregation and voting restrictions. She and other students were arrested many times. When she herself reached voting age, she says, “the first place I went was the courthouse. I was so proud to say I want to register to vote.” Today Towanner Hinkle Grimes lives and works in Selma. She is also a deputy registrar and works at the polls during elections.

 

HOWARD, BARBARA: Montgomery, Alabama. Barbara was six years old when she participated in the bus boycott. She went on to become a teenage activist in the Montgomery movement during the 1960s. “I wish,” she says, that “every child lived in a home like the one I grew up in, with a mother who had the interest, the courage, and the foresight to raise children in spite of the odds, in spite of the poverty, in spite of the segregation, in spite of color. She never taught us to hate anybody, but to get out there and live life as if you are just as important as anybody else.” Today Barbara Howard lives in Tuskegee, Alabama, and works at the Tuskegee Institute. She has also returned to school to finish up her college degree.

 

HOWARD, PRINCELLA : Montgomery, Alabama. Princella was a student leader in the Montgomery movement of the 1960s, heading the voter registration activities in 1964. The movement, she says, “was my life. It was a real strong family. They were very strong, powerful cords. I mean, once you're in, you're in for life.” Today Princella Howard Dixon lives in Jonesboro, Georgia, and is a marketing consultant for a health and fitness center.

 

JACKSON, JAWANA: Selma, Alabama. Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at Jawana's house whenever he came to Selma. He was “Uncle Martin” to her. Jawana was four and a half years old at the time of the Selma movement in 1965, and recalls round-the-clock civil rights activities at Brown Chapel. “I can remember going down to the mass meetings as a toddler. All the women frying the chicken, and the aroma of the food. You could get fed down there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week during the height of the movement.” Today Jawana Jackson lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and works at the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

 

LACEY, JOSEPH: Montgomery, Alabama. Joe was a teenage participant in the bus boycott. Toward the end of the boycott he drove a church station wagon, carrying people back and forth to mass meetings. He was frequently trailed by police but never caught. “I learned every little street in Montgomery so I could lose the police.” Today Joseph Lacey lives in Montgomery and is the head of collections in the financial aid office at Alabama State University.

 

MARTIN, LARRY: Meridian, Mississippi. Larry grew up in Meridian and at age eleven was working at the civil rights center opened by Michael and Rita Schwerner. He says, “Freedom to me meant being treated equal. I mean, not just because I'm a black boy, but treating me right. That's all.” Today Larry Martin lives in Meridian and works for a guitar company in the city.

 

PATTON, GWENDOLYN: Montgomery, Alabama. For Gwendolyn, “freedom meant that no one could say ‘no' to me without a very good reason. I demanded a rational approach as a little child. It has kind of permeated my whole life.” In college she became active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), participating in many protest actions to end segregation. Today Gwendolyn Patton lives and works in Montgomery. She helped organize the Alabama Democratic Conference to see how to “best utilize the black vote to have positive impact on the lives of our people.” She continues to be a political activist.