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Unita
Blackwell
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 “Nothin'
from nothin' leaves nothin'. We didn't have nothin', so I
was gonna try to see, could I get something? And one of those
things was my right to register to vote and become a citizen
of these United States.”
Unita Blackwell was a sharecropper who rose to become Mississippi’s
first black woman Mayor. During the Civil Rights movement,
she worked for voting rights, and was arrested over 75 times,
facing firebombs and burning crosses. She was part of the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that went to the Democratic
Convention in 1964 and challenged President Johnson and the
regular Democratic Party for the right of representation.
She is a past national president of the U.S.-China People's
Friendship Association and has visited the country several
times. In 1992, she was awarded the prestigious MacArthur
"genius" grant. She continues her work in Mayersville
where she was Mayor for over 20 years. |
Flonzie
(Goodloe) Brown-Wright
|
 “It's
been in my generation, in 1963, that blacks in this country
could not register [to vote] without getting their heads cracked.
I’ve seen it.”
When Flonzie (Goodloe) Brown-Wright tried to register to vote,
she was asked to define “Habeas Corpus,” as part
of the registration form only black Mississippians were expected
to answer. Although she didn’t know what it meant at
the time, she studied the Mississippi constitution and returned
to successfully register to vote. She vowed that she would
get the job of the man who denied her the right to vote. And
she did. She became the first black woman to be elected County
registrar. She is now an author and lecturer. |
Mae
Bertha Carter
|
 “I
found myself back on the bed praying until my children came
home. I went out on the porch when I saw the bus coming and
I counted my children one by one as they got off the school
bus.”
Mae Bertha Carter was a sharecropper
and mother of 13 who promised herself that her children would
not pick cotton, but get the education she was denied. The
U.S.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 called for the desegregation
of all public schools which enabled the Carters to be the
first to integrate the Drew County Schools. After enrolling
their children, they were startled by gunshots in the middle
of the night.  Their
decision also led to the loss of jobs and their home. At the
all-white schools, the Carter kids were tormented and shunned
by the other students. Undeterred, they all graduated and
went on to get college degrees. Mae Bertha Carter was an active
NAACP
member and leader in the Head
Start program. |
“It
was shocking to go to a classroom and to sit down, and then everybody
pushes their desks to the side, and says I don't want to sit beside
you.”
--Gloria
Carter Dickerson
(Mae Bertha Carter’s daughter) |
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"The
Unita Blackwells, the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Annie Devines, the
Victoria Grays - There's a whole list of them. Without understanding
them, you don't understand anything about Mississippi's movement,
and why it was so strong."
--Charlie
Cobb
(SNCC student leader) |
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