Down to the Grassroots

After the sit-ins, after the freedom rides, a small band of dedicated sisters and bothers turn their backs on the ivy-halls of academe and forego their future careers. They leave the college campus to carry the Freedom Movement down into the soggy swamps of Louisiana, the mean little towns of Mississippi, the red-dirt roads of Alabama, the piney woods of Georgia, and every hamlet and plantation of the segregated South. The press calls them "Civil Rights Workers," but in Mississippi they are known as "Freedom Riders," and in other states as "Freedom Fighters."

James Forman of SNCC doing time in jail.

CORE organizer Frank Robinson working the streets, Sumter, SC. Organizing is a family calling. Frank Robinson's daughter teaching voter registration, Sumter, SC.

There are no computers, faxes, cell phones, or copy machines. Flyers, notices, and reports are typed on old, donated typwriters.   There is no Kinkos or money for printers. Newsletters are cranked out on mimeograph machines and hand-collated on long tables.

Released from jail in Gould, Arkansas, 1964. From left: Bill Hansen, unidentified, Frank Cieciorka, Cleve Sellers, unidentified.

Night march, Albany GA.

..we're gonna talk, talk, with our minds on freedom..

Protests, movements, organizing, all need planning and consensus. That means meetings. Many, many, many meetings. Long meetings. Hard meetings.

SNCC meeting, Alabama, 1962. From left: Reggie Robinson, Bill Hansen, Rutha Harris, Charles Jones, unidentified (behind Charles), Cordell Reagon, Ruby Doris Robinson, unidentified.

COFO staff meeting, Hattiesburg Mississippi, 1964.

Mass community meeting to discuss voter registration and the MFDP in Benton County, MS. 1964.

..And a song will rise.

Singing sustains and energizes us through danger and fear. Through long days and longer nights; through cold, hard winters; and hot, fierce summers, "freedom songs" nurture us, protect us, and keep us sane. They are the expression of our ideology, and the songs we sing together are the pledge of trust and committment that we make to each other.

"What could be more natural? After sorrow, comes joy."   Fannie Lou Hamer on the Meredith March Against Fear, Mississippi, 1966.

Hollis Watkins & Arvenna Hall of SNCC, after being released from jail. Jackson, MS.

SCLC Freedom House, Selma AL. From left: unidentified, SCLC Alabama Director Albert Turner, Bruce Hartford, Rev. Richard Boone, Chuck Fager.

"We Shall Overcome" at the end of a mass meeting in rural Benton County, MS, 1964.

SNCC Freedom Singers from Albany GA, in performance.

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