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Mississippi Civil Rights Activists Inspire Barnard Students to Discuss Racial Issues
Progress on race relations in the American South was addressed directly in a Barnard classroom and in campus lectures and discussions this month by a Mississippi group promoting black-white reconcilation.
"Yes, Mississippi was once controlled by domestic terrorists known as The Klan," said Leroy Clemons, co-chair of the Philadelphia Coalition, a multi-racial task force from Philadelphia, Mississippi, as he spoke Sept. 19 to a standing room- only group of students in Professor Randall Balmer's religion course on "Evangelicalism." "But Mississippi today is a very different place. It's not perfect, but we have come a long, long way since those days."
Clemons was referring to the summer of 1964, known as Freedom Summer, when three young men--James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman--were shot and killed for their part in helping black Mississippians with voter registration and political empowerment. Though the case went to trial three years later, no one was ever convicted of the murders. That is, until the Philadelphia Coalition was formed. To honor the 40 th anniversary of the murders, the Coalition pressed officials to re-open the trial. As a result, 80-year-old former Klan leader, Rev. Edgar Ray Killin, was sentenced this past summer to 60 years for the three murders.
Members of the Philadelphia Coalition, which included Clemson, educator Netty A. Cox Moore, and life-long resident and nurse, Deborah Possey, spoke of living in the shadow of the murders in Neshoba County but never discussing them. The three said everyone knew who was responsible for the killings, but no one wanted to discuss them.
"It's amazing how people could keep quiet over something so dramatic, but there was a lot of fear of repercussions," Clemons told the class. "That's when many of us decided to come together and tell our own story. We knew true reconciliation could only begin to happen if we went back, acknowledged our past, and actually talked about it."
The members came to Barnard in part because senior Jennifer Sokoler wanted to bring the discussion of race to the campus. Sokoler interned this past summer at the Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, Mississippi where she also worked with the Philadelphia Coalition. Their visit was made possible through the President's Diversity Fund, the Office of Residential Life, and the College Activities Office.
The Coalition members first told their stories to over 40 students the evening of Sunday, Sept. 18, in Sulzberger Parlor in Barnard Hall. After Balmer's class Monday morning, they spoke at a luncheon called "Living History: The Civil Rights Movement Today in Mississippi," where 35 students and faculty listened and discussed their own responses to continuing the dialogue about race on campus.
Through Barnard's New York City Civic Engagement Program at Barnard, the campus visit culminated Monday night in the James Room with the inaugural Renee Becker Swartz '55 Lecture, as civil rights activist Rita Bender addressed, "The Legacy of the Mississippi Movement--A Call To Action."
Bender is the widow of civil rights activist Michael Schwerner, and, along with the Winter Institute and the Philadelphia Coalition, was instrumental in re-opening the June 2005 trial of the murders, where she testified.
"Mississippi had a commitment to violent discrimination from the highest levels of government on down to county sheriffs, which was why activists knew if you could crack Mississippi, you could crack the South," Bender said. "Interracial groups now--like the Philadelphia Coalition--are taking the steps to address these historic injustices and their work is significant. Restorative justice can only come by acknowledging the past and accepting responsibility in righting the wrongs."
Bender also told the crowd of 200 students and faculty that much work remains not just throughout Mississippi but throughout the country, as the current hurricane on the Gulf Coast revealed. "Katrina exposed the insidious nature of poverty and racism," Binder said. "Racism is still the elephant in the living room of America. But until we talk about it, we won't get past it."
Sokoler thanked Bender, the Philadelphia Coalition, and President Judith Shapiro for allowing Barnard students to move the discussion on race forward and promised that their "call to action would not go unheeded." Coalition members then conducted a small group training session with members of Barnard's Student Government Association, and were scheduled to visit a local public school Tuesday before returning to Mississippi.
"Our goal was always to educate folks about the Civil Rights Movement," Clemons said. "Instead of a statue to these three slain heroes, we felt educating teachers and students throughout the county, the state, and now beyond, provided a perpetual memorial to these young men in passing on their legacy to the next generation."
--Jo Kadlecek
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