Mississippi Mau Mau
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MISSISSIPPI MAU MAU: MEDGAR EVERS AND THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE, 1952-1963 _______________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri-Columbia ________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _________________________________________________ By KRISTIN R. HENZE Dr. Robert M. Collins, Dissertation Supervisor December 2017 © Copyright by Kristin R. Henze 2017 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled MISSISSIPPI MAU MAU: MEDGAR EVERS AND THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE, 1952-1963 Presented by Kristin R. Henze A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. Robert M. Collins Dr. Carol Anderson Dr. Theodore Koditschek Dr. Mark Carroll Dr. David Brunsma ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to acknowledge the generous assistance I have received from many people in the course of writing this dissertation. First and foremost, a very special thank you to my academic advisor Dr. Carol Anderson, who whole-heartedly supported my work and graciously gave of her time and knowledge to this project and my maturation as a scholar. Even when I stumbled multiple times on this journey, her advice and inspirational work guided me back onto the right path. Her example as a mentor and teacher has impressed upon me the gravity of responsibility that comes with being a professional historian. For this and so much more, I am deeply grateful. Special thanks is due to Dr. Robert M. Collins, who served as my interim committee chair and was instrumental in guiding me toward completion of this project, Dr. Theodore Koditschek, Dr. Mark Carroll, and Dr. David Brunsma, who offered valuable analysis and critiques of my work, and Nancy Taube, whose administrative expertise and inimitable kindness made navigating the administrative waters of graduate school possible. Without the help of archivists and librarians in the locations where I conducted my research, my hopes for this project would not have been fulfilled. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Special Collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Southern Mississippi are filled to the brim with staff who provided indispensable assistance. None of this would have been possible without the love and support of my friends and family. To my dear friends and colleagues in this academic endeavor – Emily Backes, Aaron Dowdall, Michael Marden, Bryan Vandevender, Emily Rollie, Angela Rehbein, Joshua Nudell, Kris Maulden, Betty Murray, and especially William Mountz and Jonathan Jones (my lifelong ii partners in crime) - thank you for your encouragement, assistance, and all the laughs along the way. Much appreciation is also owed to Becky Berry, my favorite teacher who makes history tangible and exhilarating, Megan Noltemeyer, who convinced me to follow my heart and turn my love of history into a career, Carol Benton, my sounding board and fellow literary nerd since eighth grade, and Ming Hsieh and Valerie Villa, who quite literally kept me alive over the past few years. Finally, I reserve my deepest gratitude for my parents, Steve and Rosalyn Henze, my brother Nathan, sister-in-law Bobbie, and the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who offer me unceasing love and encouragement every day. To Jack, Samuel, and Audrey, I dedicate this work to you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………….......………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………..………......v INTRODUCTION….……………………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER 1. Hold High the Wall: Erecting the Barriers of Institutionalized Racial Separation in Mississippi……………………………………………………………………….……16 2. Viewing Home Through Foreign Eyes: Becoming a Mau Mau in Mississippi………….69 3. A New Day for the Negro? Mississippi Responds to Brown…………………………...121 4. All the World’s a Stage: Spotlighting Mississippi………………………………….......176 5. “Everybody Knows About Mississippi Goddam”……………………………………...237 CONCLUSION: “History Has Reached a Turning Point, Here and Over the World”………...307 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………....324 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………...…….337 iv ABSTRACT Mississippi Mau Mau expands upon existing historical analysis of the ideological connections between African liberation struggles and the Black Freedom Movement in the United States by concentrating on the ways in which American civil rights activists absorbed and utilized knowledge from anti-colonial movements. This dissertation focuses on the career of NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers and connects the growth and development of his approach to fighting white supremacy in Mississippi to his interpretation of the Mau Mau movement in British colonial Kenya. While Mississippi may have felt as though it was worlds apart from Kenya, Evers was profoundly influenced by the Mau Mau use of force and mass participation to compel political and social change. Mississippi Mau Mau explores how, after being introduced to the story of the Kenyan uprising in both the mainstream and African-American press, Evers examined the racial climate in Mississippi through a transnational lens and transformed his analysis into grassroots strategies for change through his work with the NAACP. In realizing the significance of grassroots mass participation, unremitting dedication to action in the face of massive retaliation, an emphasis on class unity, and the use of a publicity campaign to highlight select cases of discrimination for broadcast on the national and international stage, Evers sought to permanently cripple Mississippi’s white power structure. His determination to achieve his and the NAACP’s objectives sometimes led to his frustration with the reactions of the National Office to the movement’s failures in Mississippi, as well as with the numbers of black Mississippians who did not participate due to pressure from state authorities and private organizations resolute in their mission to maintain white supremacy. Nevertheless, Evers’ strategic efforts not only helped lay the foundations for a mass movement in Mississippi, but also positioned it at the heart of the global struggle for black liberation. v INTRODUCTION On June 1, 1963, three individuals carrying picket signs stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the Woolworth department store in Jackson, Mississippi. Though the first official day of summer was three weeks away, hot sticky air permeated the downtown commercial district as Medgar Evers, Roy Wilkins, and Helen Wilcher marched with placards decrying police brutality and imploring passersby not to buy from white-run stores on Capitol Street. Within minutes, police officers brandishing electric cattle prods arrived on scene, confiscated the signs, and arrested the picketers. At the nearby corner of Capitol and Farish, Justice Department officials and newspaper reporters documented the incident. This was not the first arrest of protesters in Jackson that week, nor would it be the last. Only a few blocks away, almost five-hundred teenagers seized in earlier mass demonstrations lingered inside a makeshift jail at the state fairgrounds. Thrown into garbage trucks for transport to the temporary stockade, the young detainees staved off uncertainty and boredom by discussing the significance of that afternoon’s arrests. Evers, Field Secretary of the Mississippi state office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Wilcher, a member of the Jackson branch, were no strangers to the oppressive tactics employed by city law enforcement to shut down civil rights demonstrations. Wilkins, Executive Director of the NAACP, personally experienced Jackson’s notorious brand of justice for the first time.1 1 “Jackson Exhibit Halls Are Converted to Jails,” Washington Post, Times Herald, May 31, 1963; John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 163. 1 At the Hinds County Courthouse, they were each booked on felony charges of restraint of trade and released on $1,000 bonds. The bail money was authorized by NAACP Director of Branches Gloster Current, recently arrived from New York City headquarters with Wilkins and other high-ranking Association officials to assist with coordinating movement operations in Jackson.2 A boycott of Capitol Street businesses launched the previous December had expanded to include a succession of protest marches, picket demonstrations, and sit-ins collectively labeled the Jackson movement. Students from local black high schools and colleges served as its primary foot soldiers, inspired by the wave of direct-action protests moving across the South. By the hundreds, they risked life and limb to engage in mass demonstrations that brought worldwide attention to the plight of Mississippi’s black communities and connected their struggle to the national movement for black freedom. For Medgar Evers, the militant, grassroots movement evolving in Jackson was a culmination of nine years of efforts to grow the NAACP in Mississippi and a representation of the future of civil rights activity within its borders. As he returned to the Association’s Jackson headquarters, he was greeted