Home Page

February 22
February 23
February 24
February 25

Shaw High School and Jesse Williams.

SNCC / CORE Activists

February 26
February 27
February 28
March 1
March 2
March 3


Itinerary

Aknowledgements

Afterwords

Get On the Bus 2002: Day 4
- Shaw High School and meeting with Mrs. Jesse Williams, the first African-American teacher to integrate Delta schools.
- Afternoon meetings with L.C. Dorsey, Margaret Block, and Charles McLaurin, experienced civil rights activists.

Today, the group visited a number of places in the Mississippi Delta region, and met people active in the region during the Civil Rights movement. Settled around the turn of the century, this region has historically had a large black population. The area's economy is dominated by agriculture, and ranks among the poorests parts of the nation. Below is a journal entry written by trip member Libby Pozolo.

Journal
Libby Pozolo
Monday 2/25/02

Today was an extremely busy day! Our group had the opportunity to meet some very interesting people that were actually a part of the civil rights movement here in the Mississippi Delta. Luther Brown, the Director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, was a great guide and took us to some historical sites that were key to the movement. Margaret Block also accompanied us for today's events. Margaret was a member of SNCC and very much involved with voter registration in the 1960s.

The group talking with Margaret Block in a Amzie Moore Park in Shaw Mississippi. Amzie Moore heavily influenced Bob Moses, and other civil rights activists involved in voter registration in rural Mississippi.

Our first stop was Shaw High School. I feel that I can speak for the group when I say that driving through the poverty-stricken city of Shaw, Mississippi truly opened our eyes to the unfortunate economic situation in the Delta. The people live in boarded up "shot-gun shacks" and many are unemployed. Only eighteen percent of the people here have cars. The high school itself is also falling apart. We had the pleasure of meeting with Mrs. Jessie Williams who played a key role in integrating the Delta schools and has been at Shaw High School for over 35 years. I found Mrs. Williams to be especially inspiring. Her personal stories of how she stood up to segregation and devoted her life to education were fascinating. Observing first hand the terrible poverty in this area of the South was something I will never forget. It really puts things in perspective and I think made us all realize how much we really have and should be grateful for.

Shaw High School in Shaw, Mississippi. Until 1968, this school was all white. Today, the school is in danger of closing because of a declining economy, and shrinking population. Since 1968, most whites have moved away, and today those that remain enroll their children in mostly white Christian schools.


Speaking with Mrs. Williams in the Shaw HS gym. The podium on the stage reads "Class of 1964", and the stage curtins date from the 1960s.

After enjoying a delicious Southern buffet lunch, we headed off to Mississippi Valley State University to speak with Dr. L.C. Dorsey. Like Margaret, Dr. Dorsey was a SNCC activist involved with voter registration. She took us back to what it was like growing up on a plantation and shared different experiences she had as a child and young woman in Mississippi. It was very inspiring to meet such a distinguished, educated woman who was once a dirt-poor sharecropper. I would've liked to spend more time at MVSU, which is a rather small school of about 3,000 and predominately African-American, and perhaps spoken with some of the students there, but we had to get back on the road and head for an actual historic plantation to meet Mr. Charles McLaurin.

This is why nobody is losing weight on the trip!


On Mississippi Valley State University's campus.


Meeting with L.C. Dorsey. Dr. Dorsey, now a University Professor, was born of sharecropping parents on a Mississippi plantation.

At the plantation we listened as Charles described some of his challenging encounters with recruiting people to register to vote during the Freedom Summer of 1964. Since one of our mid-term essays related to this particular topic, I was especially interested to hear what it was like for him, as a Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party delegate, at the national convention in Atlantic City. He was a very enthusiastic man and had some fascinating stories relating to the harsh treatment he received from the KKK and other white supremacist organizations while in the Delta.

We met with Charles McLauren at Dockery Plantation in Mississippi. Not only an example of a former share-cropping plantation, Dockery plantation is known as the home of the Blues. BB King and other blues musicians invented much of the music known as the Blues at this plantation.


Meeting with Charles McLauren.


I think Tyler was talking with his Mom.

And that about wrapped up our day. We had a very interesting group discussion about today's events this evening. I came away feeling very inspired and anxious to do something with what we have learned and experienced when we return back to Ann Arbor. Speaking to people that were my age when the movement was going on and hearing the things that they did to make a difference really changed my way of thinking. Tomorrow we have another busy day! Good night!

~Libby Pozolo

An excerpt from Rosa Osorio's journal from today:

We met Charles McLauren at the "Dockery Plantation" in Mississippi. He was a part of SNCC and also a major part in the MFDP. He was an amazing speaker and his story was inspirational. Telling us that we as individuals could make a change…"it only takes one person to stand up!" he said and perceived to prove throughout the night. I can't comprehend how he could take beatings and know that at any point he could have been killed! I know that I could also get to that point and I don't know how to internalize that possibility…He spoke about everyone standing behind the leader of the group even if an individual didn't agree…it's amazing how people could stick together on issues so potentially life-changing! I don't know if that could occur today because so many students and the U.S. in general is so "self-oriented" and are less concerned with the well-being of others.

An excerpt from Jenny Nathan's journal from today:
. . . Tomorrow we will be meeting Bob Moses, and I am beyond excited. He is definitely another hero, but he's also another hero who doesn't see himself as such. None of them do. They just do what needs to be done, because somebody has to do it. They don't expect to see change within their own lives, and they don't expect to personally reap any benefits. But they have faith enough to believe that it will come, and are strong enough in their own convictions to keep fighting the good fight. As Charles McLaurin told us today, "The movement is in you, or in the individual who feels hurt enough or indignant enough to get up-to stand up."
Working in Sunflower County, Mississippi, McLaurin was repeatedly harassed and assaulted. As a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City that August, he participated firsthand in the MFDP's failure to be seated. But he never quit, and he never thought about giving up. Today, when Charles McLaurin talks about his experiences in the movement, he is open and honest. You can tell that he looks back on the time without bitterness or regret. Like Reverend Shuttlesworth, he has internalized the struggle to the point where he doesn't need to feel bitter about it. To invoke Dr. King, these men have been to the mountaintop. They were there on the frontlines, and they came up fighting. They're still here, and they'll be damned if they're not going to enjoy every minute. . . .

Excerpt from Sarah Leonard's journal for today:
. . . Today we drove to Shaw High School in Shaw, Mississippi, and met with Mrs. Jessie Williams, the first Black teacher to integrate the schools. Shaw was originally an all-White high school, but it became integrated in the early Seventies. By the mid-Seventies, Shaw was completely Black. Today there is only one White student in the school. I've seen poor schools before, in Grand Rapids, so the conditions at Shaw didn't faze me the way they might have other students (except for the hideous green paint on the walls), but what did surprise me was the size of the classrooms. We passed by a few rooms, and it looked like there were fewer than ten students in class. The photos on the walls of graduating classes showed only about thirty faces, and I think Mrs. Williams said there are about three hundred students at Shaw today. It reminded me of my high school in a way, because Central used to be the most prestigious school in the city. But once they forced busing in the Seventies the White students moved to the suburbs or the parochial schools, and today Central is considered the poorest high school in the city, and is majority Black, with a large Latino population as well. It's crazy the way things can change in just a few years. . .