Message from the Chairman

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Chairman’s Corner

Honoring Mrs. A.M.E. Logan (1915-2011)

By Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr., SCLC Chairman

The pattern was pretty much “set in stone” that when a Freedom Rider was released from jail or prison in Jackson, Mississippi, he or she would be given a meal in a local restaurant and an airline ticket to go back home. Governor Ross Barnett expressed praise for the “Mississippi Negroes” for not getting involved in the civil rights movement—and laid the blame on “outside agitators.”

When James Bevel and I were released from Parchman Penitentiary, we saw a need to stay and recruit some local people to participate. We consulted attorney Jack Young about staying, and he referred us to the District Attorney. The DA knew that Bevel was already home, being a native of the state of Mississippi, and I, as Bevel’s friend, chose to stay with him.

With the help of Medgar Evers, we were able to set up an office across the street from his office and set about our work. Others from SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) were also set up and ready to mobilize. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at the home of Mrs. A.M.E. Logan on Biloxi Street.

I was treated as a member of the family. She cooked wonderful food, which reminded me of my own grandmother’s cooking. Cornbread and collard greens and all the trimmings. I helped with chores around the house by sweeping up and cutting grass, etc.

Bevel and I were arrested a second time for continuing to recruit and organize in Jackson. This time, we were convicted of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. As it turned out, some of our recruits were only 15 years old which was difficult to believe due to their size. Being in solitary confinement included sleeping on the concrete floor. When I returned to living in the comfort of Mrs. Logan’s home, I had to sleep on the floor until I could condition myself to rest in the luxury of a real bed!

I sometimes stayed overnight in Medgar Evers’ office while he dressed in regular clothes and borrowed an old truck to drive. His mission was to rescue tenant farmers who owed the plantation owner so much money they could not leave. He put them up in town, then sent them north to begin a new life. The typical migration from Jackson was usually to Chicago or East St. Louis. I got to know Medgar Evers quite well through those experiences.

Mrs. A.M.E. Logan was very supportive to all of us. I called her “fearless” and admired her very much. She was always dressed nicely, and she was very active in her church and in so many community affairs. To my knowledge, she was never hampered by law enforcement in any of her endeavors.

Mrs. Logan was never as well-known as Rosa Parks or Coretta King, but she is an outstanding example of the many women without whom the civil rights movement would not have been as successful. In 1991, when I was in Jackson at Tougaloo College to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Mrs. Logan and her daughter Shirley came to the school to visit with me. A photograph of them was taken during the visit and is included in this article.

Known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” in Jackson, Mississippi, she was 96 years old when she died in 2011. According to the Mississippi Civil Rights Project, in 1943, she sold a rubbing oil that was developed by George Washington Carver and encouraged her customers to join the NAACP and register to vote as she went door to door selling her product. She became the official hospitality chair for the NAACP. Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal minister with great love for the church, so her parents named her A. M. E. In 1915. She inherited her father’s work ethic, passion for helping others, and economic independence. This led her to join in providing aid to the Freedom Riders who arrived in Jackson in 1961.

She was a co-founder of Womanpower Unlimited which was intended to provide a safety net, motherly nurturing, and support to the young civil rights workers. In her excellent book, “Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi,” Tiyi M. Morris gives a powerful account of the organizing skills and social justice accomplishments these women, led by Mrs. Claire Collins Harvey, obtained over the years. Mrs. A.M.E. Logan was elected to be the executive director.

Womanpower Unlimited branched out to the whole country and formed, or affiliated with, numerous other organizations to augment the lives of Black Americans and of all Americans. They expanded to include programs such as voter registration drives, school desegregation, and participation in “Women Strike for Peace.” The book describes how the “bottom up” theory of decision making worked so that everyone was involved and had input into how things were done.

Mrs. A.M.E. Logan & daughter Shirley

A.M.E. Logan stayed busy. She was active in her church as well as many other organizations. She was a founding member and fi rst secretary of the Jackson Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 2010, the city of Jackson, Mississippi changed the name of Biloxi Street to AME Logan in her honor. She was still selling Avon products at the end of her life and was recognized as their oldest salesperson in 2010.

She was believed to be 96 years old at the time of her death, but whenever she was asked about her age or date of birth, she replied, “I am as old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth.”

Writer’s Recommendations and Note:

“Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi” by Tiyi M.

Morris (part of the “Politics and Culture in the Twentieth-Century South Series). “In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma” by Bernard LaFayette, Jr. and Kathryn Lee Johnson.

Online course “From Freedom Rides to Ferguson” gives Coursera participants an opportunity to learn from activist Bernard LaFayette, Jr. in the context of several locations important to the Civil Rights Movement. https://news.emory.edu/stories/2015/10/er_lafayette_coursera_course/campus.html

Writer assisted by Jane Osgerby, who also has photography credit.

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