Lenray Gandy

COFO, 1964-68, Mississippi
Current Residence: Meridian, MS
Email: lenraygandy@yahoo.com

Jackson Mississippi NAACP Leader, Medgar Evers would stop by our business and recruit my mother to participate in boycotts and demonstrations. We followed her lead. I was 8 years old when my brothers Larry, Lance and I met Michel "Mickey" Schwerner and James Chaney of CORE at the COFO Office in Meridian, Ms.

As children we spent most of our days at the COFO Center because we lived across the streets from it. We passed out leaflets voter registration meetings, we passed out civil rights buttons, and we travelled with Mickey and James all over town.

When they were missing during Freedom Summer, I was 9 years old and I attended the Freedom School. We children began to make our own demonstrations and work with elders in desegregating local establishments (Cafe, city bus, etc.) My brothers and I aid in preparing churches for the arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King's visit to our city in 1966.

My brothers and I continued being active in the movement in the Meridian area even after schools integrated.

 


 
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