Black History Month 2023
'mississippi' - 12 results
Jackson, Mississippi - The state government passed 'An Act to regulate the relation of master and apprentice, as relates to freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes..'
Among other limits, the law sent Black American children to whites for unpaid work. It was slavery, under the guise of child welfare.
Source:
Mississippi Black Codes
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Vicksburg, Mississippi - Whites killed dozens (possibly hundreds) of Black Americans to remove a Black American man as sheriff, Peter Crosby.
No white was prosecuted, investigated, nor punished.
Source:
Daily Alta California, Volume 26, Number 9029, 21 December 1874
1874 Vicksburg Massacre News Article
1874 Vicksburg Massacre
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United States - The system of legal racial segregation lasted until 1965. In theory, non-whites were to have the same access and services as whites. In law and in practice, whites gave themselves prvileges over non-whites in every area of public life. Black Americans were harmed the most, since they were the direct target of Jim Crow laws.
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Hattiesburg, Mississippi - Amos Wilson was a Black American psychologist, social theorist, scholar, and author. Wilson was a professor of psychology at the City University of New York.
Wilson was a key voice on the condition of Black Americans in a white-dominated society, during the late 1980s, until his death in 1995.
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Money, Mississippi - Two white males, Roy Bryant (middle) and J. W. Milam (right) murdered 14 year-old Emmett Till. Roy's wife, Carolyn, lied about Till. That led to Till's murder.
Till was from Chicago, Illinois. He visited relatives, in Money, Mississippi. Till visited a local store, and spoke with Carolyn. Days later, Roy and Milam kidnapped Till, from Till's great-uncle's house. Milam was Roy's half-brother.
Roy and Milam beat and mutilated Till. Then, they shot Till in the head. Finally, Till's body was sunk in the Tallahatchie River. Three (3) days later, Till's body was found.
In September 1955, Roy and Milam faced trial. The jury was all-white. The prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge were white. Roy and Milam were found not guilty.
On January 24th, 1956, Roy and Milam confessed, in a Look magazine article. Milam said he had no plan to murder Till. But, Till showed no fear. Milam murdered Till for that.
Till's murder inspired Rosa Parks. It led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott made Martin Luther King, Jr. a national figure.
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Jackson, Mississippi - Medger Evers was murdered, at his home. The murderer, Byron De La Beckwith, was tried and convicted.
Early Wednesday morning, Medger Evers returned home to his waiting wife and children. Evers got out of his car. He carried T-shirts that read 'Jim Crow Must Go' in his hands. There, he was shot in the back, from an Enfield 1917 rifle. The bullet struck the 37 year-old Evers through his heart.
After the shot, Evers staggered 30 feet, to the front door of his house. There he collapsed. His wife, Myrtle, found him there.
Evers was taken to the local hospital. He was refused entry, because he was a Black American man. His family explained who he was and the hospital admitted him. Evers was in the hospital for 50 minutes, and died.
On June 19th, 1963, Evers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in the funeral procession. Evers' funeral got full military honors.
Myrtle Evers fought to get the murderer convicted. On February 5th, 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of Evers' murder. It took 30 years, but Evers' murderer was sent to prison. Beckwith died in prison on Jaunary 21st, 2001.
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Bogalusa, Louisiana - The first chapter, of the Deacons for Self Defense was formed. The Deacons for Self-Defense was started in November, 1964, in Jonesboro, Louisiana. However, the first chapter started on this day.
This was not the first armed Black American self-defense group, in the United States. But, it was one of the most prominent of the Black Rights period. Twenty (20) other chapters came later, in Mississippi and Alabama.
The goal of the group was to protect Black Rights activists and their families. The Ku Klux Klan and white vigilantes were the worst threats. Police workers were just as bad, but had state power behind them.
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United States - Black Power followed the end of racial segregation. Many younger Black Americans saw this as a chance to gain the same benefits from American prosperity as whites. It was an identity based around a shared experience of oppression and violence, by whites. Their power was to be shown with the removal of legal limits on their ability to produce, and compete.
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Greenwood, Mississippi - Stokely Carmichael said 'We want Black Power.' This was the first use of the term in a political movement.
The phrase was used for many years before Carmichael. Richard Wright wrote a book called 'Black Power' in 1954. On May 29, 1966, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell used the phrase, in a speech, at Harvard.
Carmichael was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was elected chairman, May, 1966. His election showed that integration of SNCC, with whites, was not wanted.
To make the point plain, Carmichael said 'Black Power' at a voting rights rally. He said this in Mississippi, where a number of civil rights workers had been killed, by whites.
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