Civil Rights Tour Booklet | Emmett Till Academy

James Meredith addresses the large crowd at 1966 March Against Fear.

Exploring the History of the Mississippi delta Through the Lens of civil Rights

civil rights Tour Scan for Photo Credits

The photos used in this document are not the intellectual property of the Emmett Till Academy and are used for educational purposes only as allowed by Fair Use Doctrine. Original sources are credited via QR code. Licensed Photography are by Pexels and Unsplash. com. Original photography by Jyesha Johnson. History compiled by Charles McLaurin, Civil Rights Activist and SNCC Program Director.

MISSISSIPPI STATE MAP

TOUR STOPS A - DREW B - PARCHMAN C - CLARKSDALE D - MOUND BAYOU E - CLEVELAND F - SHAW G - INDIANOLA H - GREENWOOD / MONEY I - RULEVILLE J - GLENDORA K - SUMNER L - TUTWILER M - DREW

TOUR SITES

** indicates location of freedom trail markers.

Introduction

Martha Prescod, Mike Miller, and Bob Moses do voter registration work, Mississippi, 1963.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to the Mississippi Delta in August of 1962 and opened voter registration projects in Greenwood and Ruleville, Mississippi. Between August 1962 and 1968, movements developed which challenged and changed the status quo in Mississippi and broadened the base of political participation in the state and nation. The following locations in the Mid-Delta are landmarks of the work and struggles that led to the changes.

Greenwood, Mississippi Significance: The building that housed the first SNCC office in the Delta; Broad Street Historic Park; The Leflore County Courthouse where the Freedom Vote was conceived; The Elks Lodge (first to open doors SNCC); and the Wesley United Methodist Church (site of SNCC food and clothing distribution center and mass voter registration rallies).

In June 1962, a young black college student, Sam Block of Cleveland, MS, decided he would organize a SNCC voter registration project in Greenwood. Sam was inspired by the leadership of Amzie Moore in his hometown of Cleveland.

Sam met Bob Moses during one of Bob’s several visits to Amzie home. According to Sam, Bob dropped him off in Greenwood one afternoon and told him “good luck.” At first, Sam had no problem finding a place to stay due to his

professional dress and business personality. But as Sam started to move about the black community telling people about his reason for being in Greenwood, attitudes toward him started to change.

Eventually, Sam met and made friends with a World War II veteran who owned a photography studio on Avenue I. He had a vacant second floor which he allowed to become the first SNCC office in the Mississippi Delta in 1962. But the calm came to an end when half a dozen white men, reported to be members of the KKK, mounted the stairs leading to the second floor. Pressure was placed on black individuals and businesses in the immediate area of Avenue I and Broad Street. Greenwood would then become a continuing challenge for SNCC and its efforts to stay in Greenwood.

Money, Mississippi Significance: The old Bryant Store Building and Freedom Trail Marker to a murdered 14-year-old black boy, Emmett Till.

T

he story of Chicago native Emmett Till’s murder begins in Money, MS. Allegedly, he whistled at a Mississippi white woman while he and others gathered there on the outside of Bryant Grocery Store in 1955. Later, Till was taken from his great-uncle’s house at gunpoint by the woman’s husband and brother-in-law. He was driven to the Andrew Plantation

in Drew, MS where he was beaten, nearly to death. Later, Till was taken to Glendora where a gin wheel was fastened to his neck with barbed wire. His brains were blown out by a gunshot wound to the head. Till was dumped into the Tallahatchie River where his bloated body surfaced and was found by fishermen. Till’s murderers were tried and set free by an all-white jury.

Bryant Store 1950’s.

Ruleville, MS

Significance: Hometown of Fannie Lou Hamer. Home to markers in her honor including a museum, memorial garden and grave site.

Ruleville is the hometown of Fannie Lou Hamer, the sharecropper turned freedom fighter and political activist.

This small town played a significant role in the development of the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta. The William Chapel AME Church was the only church in Ruleville (or in Sunflower County) that civil rights and voter registration meetings could be held between 1962 and 1965. It was also in the William Chapel Church that Fannie Lou Hamer first raised her hand to go register to vote at the Sunflower County Courthouse in Indianola, MS.

Fannie Lou Hamer speaks before the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, August 22, 1964.

After Fannie Lou was forced off the plantation, she lived with the lady who invited her to attend that fateful mass meeting.

Ten days after Fannie Lou Hamer moved into Ruleville, night riders shot into the homes of community leaders and two young black college students were wounded.

No one was brought to justice.

Hamer and her husband, Perry

“Pap” Hamer, are buried in a memorial garden which was created by friends of Fannie Lou Hamer following her death in 1977.

A small Hamer museum is located inside the Hamer multipurpose building. A freedom trail marker was unveiled at the William Chapel Church on Saturday, November 16, 2013.

(See the Ruleville Tour Guidebook for other local tour sites.)

drew, MS Significance: Andrew Plantation, City Jail, Carter Family Integration of Drew Public Schools.

Historically, Drew has a connection to the Emmett Till murder case because of the Andrew Plantation southwest of the city. The Andrew Plantation is where J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant brought Emmett Till after taking him from Money, MS. J.W Milam’s brother, Leslie Milam, worked as a manager of the plantation.

The shed where Emmett Till was beaten is still standing on the Andrew Plantation today.

The town of Drew played a significant role in the successful freedom summer of 1964 voter registration work in North Sunflower County. While the whole of Sunflower County was oppressive to its Black citizens, Drew was considered most oppressive of all. Mass arrests

of civil rights workers, including Charles McLaurin of SNCC raised the consciousness of the Black majority living under white supremacy rules and powerlessness due to the lack of voting rights.

workers were placed in this building prior to spending the night in an old rundown building at the Sunflower County Farm located near Moorhead, MS. The group was finally released after posting cash bonds.

There is a small one-room white stone building historically used as the jail by the town of Drew. The building, located on the roadside as you turn off of U.S. Highway 49 toward downtown, still stands today. This Stone Jail is where Sunflower County Freedom Summer Project Director Charles McLaurin, and a group of young Freedom Summer volunteers, were arrested and jailed for refusing to stop urging Drew’s Blacks to register to vote.

Freedom Summer voting rights

The pressure on the black population in Drew eased when a black man, Jimmy Langdon, was elected Superintendent of the Drew Public School District.

Also instrumental was the Carter family’s decision to integrate the town’s all white public schools under the “Freedom of Choice Plan” of the Drew Public Schools in 1965. Mrs. Mae Bertha Carter, a black sharecropper, enrolled all seven of her children into the allwhite Drew Public Schools. The book Silver Rights tells the story.

In 1971, an 18-year-old black girl named Joeatha Collier was killed by white men in a drive by shooting as racial tension rose over public school integration.

The Carter Children Mae Bertha Carter

“Everybody has a purpose in life, and God has built inside the strength you need to carry out your purpose.”

— Mae Bertha Carter

Clarksdale, MS Significance: Home to markers in honor of Aaron E. Henry

C

larksdale, MS, was the hometown of Aaron. E. Henry, a black pharmacist, State NAACP, COFO and MFDP leader, and freedom ballot candidate for Mississippi Governor. A historic marker today stands on the sidewalk of the vacant lot where Henry’s drug store was located on 4th Street (M.L.K. St.) The business was firebombed several times in the 60’s. Henry worked on the garbage truck after he was arrested for leading a boycott of downtown Clarksdale.

-See tour guide for information about other landmarks related to Aaron E. Henry’s life and struggle to secure equal justice for himself, his family, and the black population of Clarksdale.

Henry inside his pharmacy in 1964.

Mound bayou, MS Significance: Founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves. Led by Isaiah T. Montgomery. Home of Taborian hospital.

The all-black town of Mound Bayou, MS, was founded in the spring of 1887 by pioneers from Davis Bend. They were formerly enslaved by Joeseph E. Davis, elder brother of confederate president Jefferson Davis.

In 1887, Isaiah Montgomery and Benjamin Green purchased 840 acres of land in the Yazoo Delta of Northwest Mississippi to found Mound Bayou. The town recently celebrated its 124-year history. Famous history markers in this community include those dedicated to Isaiah T. Montgomery, Dr. T.R.M. Howard, and Medgar Evers.

The small town in Bolivar County was known as “A Jewel in the Delta,” at the height of its

prosperity. It was home to Doctor Theodore Roosevelt Mason (T.R.M) Howard, a black surgeon and administrator at the all-black hospital. Dr. Howard led a courageous fight for equal justice for the Black Mississippi population from his professional position between the early 1930s and 60s. He also organized the Regional Council of Negro Leadership in 1951, which predates the NAACP in Mississippi as a civil rights organization. Dr. Howard encountered very strong opposition from US FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. He received many threats on his life and finally had to leave Mississippi to preserve his life.

Isaiah (I.T.) Montgomery was a delegate to the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention and served as mayor of Mound Bayou.

Dr. T.R.M. Howard, President of the Miss. Regional Council of Negro Leadership, at a press conference at the Hotel Theresa.

Cleveland, MS

Significance: Home to historic markers of Amzie Moore, friend of Bob Moses and SNCC organizer.

Cleveland, MS, was the hometown of Amzie Moore, a black businessman and NAACP leader who invited SNCC into the Delta in 1962. Because of this, Amzie Moore’s business, located on U.S. Highway 61, was subjected to racism.

Amzie Moore was a World War II veteran who returned from the war to find that he had none of the rights at home which he fought for overseas. While Amzie was able to register to vote in Bolivar County, he was not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary. To gain voting and civil rights for himself and the Black

population of Cleveland and Bolivar County, he organized the NAACP in Bolivar County.

Amzie Moore asked Bob Moses of SNCC to bring SNCC organizers to the Mississippi Delta.

In August of 1962, Bob Moses brought Charlie Cobb, Landy McNair and Charles McLaurin to Amzie’s house in Cleveland.

Today, Amzie Moore Park and marker in Cleveland are dedicated to his legacy. Amzie Moore’s House, located at 614 Chrisman Street, is today a museum. A historic marker and Freedom Trail Marker are located on the property.

Amzie Moore

Mississippi Civil Rights Activists, 1963: Bob Moses, Julian Bond, Curtis Hayes, unknown man, Hollis Watkins, Amzie Moore, E.W. Steptoe.

Tutwiler Funeral Home

Tutwiler, MS The Tutwiler Funeral Home is the location where Emmett Till’s body was prepared, three days after the young man was brutally murdered. After Emmett Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River on August 31, 1955, it was sent to Tutwiler.

Woodrow Jackson prepared the body there in anticipation of its return to Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley in Chicago. After the body was prepared, it was released to Emmett’s uncle, Crosby Smith.

From left: Walter Reed, Willie Reed, Mrs. Mamie Bradley, mother of Emmett Till, Michigan congressman Charles Diggs, Dr. T.R.M. Howard, and Amanda Bradley, at the trial Emmett Till’s murder. 1955.

Indianola, MS Significance: Home to The Sunflower County Courthouse as well as several instrumental black leaders and business owners.

Indianola is home to the Sunflower County Courthouse where Fannie Lou Hamer registered to vote in 1962. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there from atop a mound of dirt while leading the James Meredith March Against Fear of Voting. Indianola was also the home and business place of Oscar and Alice Giles, leaders in the MFDP, COFO and Head Start. The Giles’ Penny Saving Grocery and home was firebombed by racists. An Indianola Freedom School Historic Marker stands where the building was firebombed and destroyed in 1965.

Indianola was also the birthplace of the White Citizens Council. Following the 1954 High Court ruling legally ending racial segregation

in public education, the White Citizens Council was created with a mission to stop school integration by all means. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was slow moving into Indianola and Drew, MS due to the strong entrenchment of the White Citizens Council and a tradition of intimidation, violence, and economic reprisals against black people.

The modern freedom movement that started in Ruleville in 1962 was finally able to find support in the Black Indianola community due to the involvement of the elderly and young people in 1964.

(See the Civil Rights Tour Guidebook.)

Sunflower County Court House Built 1898 with 1927 addition before remodeling in 1967.

Sumner, MS

T

he 2020 census lists Sumner, MS, as a town with a population of 270 residents located in the Mississippi Delta. Sumner is one of two county seats in Tallahatchie County. The Sumner courthouse, in 1955, was the site of the trial of two white men, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, who went on trial accused of the abduction and murder of 14-year-old Chicago native Emmett Till. The trial lasted for five days before an all-white male jury who deliberated just over one hour before acquitting the two men of Till’s murder. Shortly following the acquittal, Milam and Bryant confessed to Till’s murder in an interview with Look magazine for which they were paid. Today, the Sumner courthouse has been renovated and is open to tourists.

Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam

The jury at the trial of two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, charged with murdering Emmett Till. 9/20/1955.

According to Mayor Johnnie Thomas and markers tracing the movement of the men who killed Emmett Till, Glendora is where the gin wheel, which was fastened to Till’s neck prior to placing his body in the Tallahatchie River, was taken from. Today, the Emmett Till Museum is located in the old gin.

Old Black Bayou Bridge in Glendora, Mississippi.

Glendora, MS Significance: Home of J.W. Miliam. Location of cotton gin which played a key role in the Till murder case.

Glendora, MS, is the home and business place of J.W. Milam. Milam is one of two white men responsible for the death of Emmett Till.

The building that once housed the Glendora Cotton Gin is now the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center.

Male prisoners on the porch of a building at Parchman Penitentiary.

Parchman, MS Significance: Penal Facility

The notorious Parchman Prison, established in 1901, later became a place of incarceration for Freedom Riders who were arrested for protesting racial segregation in Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s.

Belzoni, MS (Not A Tour Stop) Significance: Home of Reverend George Lee, pastor and voting rights activist.

Reverend George W. Lee is considered to have been the first black man to die in the fight for voting rights in America. Reverend Lee’s name is the first of 40 names listed on the civil rights memorial in Montgomery, AL. Reverend George W. Lee was the pastor of a Baptist congregation in Belzoni, MS and was a staunch supporter of voting rights and also president of the local NAACP. Reverend Lee was constantly urging his congregation to register to vote in Humphreys County. On May 17, 1955, two white men came to Reverend Lee’s shop and told him to stop registering blacks to vote in Humphreys County

and to remove his own name from the voting rolls. Reverend Lee closed his business early and as he was driving down a street only a short distance from his home, a white man with a shotgun fired into Reverend Lee’s car. The blast ripped off part of his face killing him instantly. No one was ever brought to justice.

On May 10, 2013, a freedom trail marker was unveiled at the Green Grove MB Church, the site of Reverend Lee’s funeral in 1955.

The funeral was held outdoors because the church was too small to accommodate the large crowd.

Rev. George W Lee is buried in Green Grove cemetery next to the church.

Reverend George Lee

Greenville, MS (Not A Tour Stop) Significance: Center of Commerce and Community during the Civil Rights era.

James Carter was a black businessman known to some as “Babyface” and often referred to as the black mayor of Nelson St. This was due to his strong civic concerns and involvement.

Carter supported black voting and racial reconciliation as a means of bringing about social political and economic change in Greenville and Washington County.

Compared to other delta towns such as Indianola, Greenwood and Clarksdale, Greenville was liberal and it was said that the city officials treated black people with a degree of respect as long as they “stayed in their place.”

In 1962, Greenville had a black

policeman and black detectives.

The local newspaper in Greenville was the Delta Democratic Times.

The newspaper mostly spoke to a balance between the races and did not play to race baiting. It spoke out against the KKK types in Greenville.

SNCC organizers working to register black voters enjoyed the support of James Carter and other local black businessmen, such as Buddy Gulf who operated a gas station on Nelson St. where organizers purchased gas and had their cars serviced and repaired.

Levi Chappelle operated a printing shop on Nelson St. and Fulton’s Cafe, located across the street from the Carter’s cleaners, where there was great food all of the time. The Elks club, the VFW club,

The Flowing Fountain, and Maze restaurants at the railroad tracks were places of black life and soul entertainment.

Mostly young people from the Greenville community and Coleman High School got together to socialize at Maze. The fact that they were young and civil rights workers made them highly visible in the Black Greenville community.

Then, in the summer of 1963, SNCC made connections with a group of young people who started meeting with them in the SNCC office to discuss local problems. The main complaint of the young group was racial segregation in downtown public places, including the Greyhound bus station, the city and county

SNCC Mass Meeting, Greenville, MS, Summer 1964

court buildings, and Strange Park. Strange Park was located near the Black community but only Whites were allowed to use the park. In 1963, several young black people were arrested for trying to use the park. Several young people were also arrested for using the white section of the bus station. The old bus station is still standing. The SNCC office, located in James Carter’s cleaners building on the corner of Nelson and Harvey Streets, is today a vacant lot.

Contact Us

Get in Touch

For More Information on the Emmett Till Academy, visit us online or in person.

Educating Tomorrows Leaders

159 North Main Street Drew, Ms. 38737

Emmett Till Academy

gdickerson@we2gether.org www.We2gether.org (601)-832-3253

Gloria Dickerson Founder, CEO Gloria Dickerson, Founder and CEO of We2gether Creating Change, Inc., created the Emmett Till Academy to develop young leaders and empower them with the necessary tools and information to speak out for change, justice, and equality. The Academy empowers youth in Sunflower and Tallahatcie counties through a weekly program that teaches students about the Civil Rights Movement and racial justice today in the Mississippi Delta and the United States through educational activities, field trips, and service learning.

Education And Service Learning Our Services The premiere 12-week course contextualizes what preceded the murder of Emmett Till, including local African American organizing efforts in the 1940s and 1950s—and the events that followed his 1955 murder.

Classes

Who We Are?

What is the Emmett Till Academy

In 1955, the death of Emmett Till served as a catalyst to spark the Civil Rights Movement. Till was murdered at the Shurden Barn located in the Drew, MS. Rev. Jesse Jackson describes Emmett Till as “the big bang of the Civil Rights Movement.”

There are currently no markers in Sunflower County acknowledging his murder.

34% of Sunflower County residents live at or below the poverty line, and 74% of the county is African American. Educational programming grounded in local history, African American history, and racial equity is needed.

Youth attend civil rights history lessons that connect to issues today; field trips; arts programming; and a service project.

Racial Equity

Statement We believe that racial healing and

racial equity are necessary if we are going to accomplish our mission to be a change agent in the transformation of poor and low income communities from perceived places of poverty, low skills, and despair to places of prosperity, abundant skills, and hope. If we are to inspire people in low income communities to create good lives and vibrant healthy communities and if all people, in places where we work, are happy, whole, and healthy, our work

Field Trips

must include efforts to dismantle racial

Students visit prominent civil rights sites

hold some low income families back.

and museums throughout the country, including Washington, D.C. & Selma, AL.

Activities

inequities that limit opportunities and

Testimonial The Emmett Till Academy has been a great

Students gain career skills through

experience that will lead students to many possibilities. We have traveled through the

practical experience in the arts including

Mississippi Delta on a Civil Rights Tour with

photography and film training.

The Real Delta Tours, owned and operated

by Abe Hudson. We have also traveled

Career Prep

to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Civil Rights Museum. This

Students receive college-level lectures

was an experience that had the impact

from diverse professionals on topics such as social justice and human progress.

of awakening and raising awareness within students. This trip helped them to understand the need for stronger and more powerful young leaders.

Designed By Beunkka A. Davis, Ph.D.