Wednesdays in Mississippi: A Jewish Social Justice Case Study
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2014 marked the 50th anniversary of Wednesdays in Mississippi, a little-known story of American housewives who created change in their communities. Learn about the contributions of and challenges for these women from interviews and historical documents that tell the story of how they organized across racial and geographic lines during the Civil Rights Movement.
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Wednesdays in Mississippi: A Jewish Social Justice Case Study
- 1. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change WEDNESDAYS IN MISSISSIPPI
- 2. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change
- 3. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change You Cannot Be What You Cannot See Who is this person? What did this person do? Why did they do it? Who am I? What do I do / What do I want to do? Why do I do it?
- 4. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Sharing Stories, Inspiring Change POWER COUPLES Power Couples showcases extraordinary Jewish women, matching an early female trailblazer with a modern woman at the top of her game.
- 5. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change The American Civil Rights Movement
- 6. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Racial segregation is both legal and cultural 1896 “Separate but equal” in Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court case
- 7. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Racial integration in schools 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
- 8. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Integration of public services 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 9. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Nonviolent direct action drives change 1960 Woolworths Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
- 10. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Ending racism in interstate travel 1961 Freedom Rides
- 11. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Broad public and political support 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 12. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Focus: Voting rights and political representation 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
- 13. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Federal enforcement of racial equality 1964 & 1965 Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts Passed
- 14. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Jewish participation in the Civil Rights Movement The Holocaust Jews felt like outsiders and empathized with Southern African Americans Jewish values relating to social justice Escape/rebel against upper/middle lass lifestyle
- 15. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Focus on Voting Rights and Political Representation 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
- 16. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Addressing deeply-entrenched racism Mississippi The Deep South
- 17. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Mississippi Freedom Summer Project Coalition of Mississippi Organizations National Student Organization
- 18. Volunteer Profile Jews made up an estimated half of all white Freedom Summer volunteers; less than 1% of the US population at that time Northern volunteers were mostly white, affluent; many college students. Southern volunteers were mostly African American, Christian, college students and working class individuals from a diverse age range Stopped for training in Oxford, OH before heading to different communities in the South
- 19. “My husband, Michael Schwerner, did not die in vain. If he and Andrew Goodman had been Negroes, the world would have taken little notice of their deaths. After all, the slaying of a Negro in Mississippi is not news. It is only because my husband and Andrew Goodman were white that the national alarm has been sounded.” Rita Schwerner
- 20. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Letter from an Activist Heather Booth, Ruleville
- 21. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Heather Booth, Freedom Summer Volunteer Heather Booth and Fannie Lou Hamer
- 22. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Another Perspective • Polly Cowan was a mother of two Freedom Summer volunteers (Paul and Geoff) • Volunteered with the National Council of Negro Women • Worked closely with the NCNW Director, Dr. Dorothy Height
- 23. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Wednesdays In Mississippi (WIMS) Sharing information with home community Building bridges in Southern communities Social Change
- 24. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change WIMS Inputs and Outcomes Relationships Leadership Political and economic power Rights for women and children Educational and health access
- 25. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Dorothy Height Explains WIMS • Why were women participating in Wednesdays in Mississippi? • What strategies were the organizers using to make change?
- 26. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Team Structure
- 27. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Interfaith Collaboration by Women’s Groups National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) Church Women United Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) League of Women Voters American Association of University Women Wednesdays in Mississippi
- 28. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Collaborating across geographic lines
- 30. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change How WIMS worked Before the Trip During the Trip Meet with local hostess, gather impressions Visit Freedom Summer Projects Share knowledge about Civil Rights efforts with hostess appeal to her (and her network) to take action Review study kit and suggested reading (before trip) Travel to Jackson, Mississippi Meet-up with WIMS staff and community members After the Trip Write up debrief including names of potential allies or opponents (don’t take notes in front of the hostess!) Reach out to home community
- 31. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change WIMS: An example of women’s changing roles Betty Friedan
- 32. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Southern Jews’ new “white” status
- 33. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change Two Activists Share Their Stories • Dr. Josie Johnson and Maxine Nathanson • From Minnesota • Went south to Mississippi in a team of four • View the whole interview: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Qpmhb5AiDKI
- 35. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change What can we learn from WIMS? • How did these women make change in their communities and in the Civil Rights Movement? • What is the significance of women working together in this story? • What, if anything, do you think was revolutionary and/or dangerous about these women? • What relevance does this story have to today? • What aspects of the Wednesdays in Mississippi model of activism seem most relevant today? What aspects seem less relevant?
- 36. Sharing Stories Inspiring Change WEDNESDAYS IN MISSISSIPPI
Notas do Editor
- From the Atlanta meeting in 1964. Clarie Harvey was the spokeswoman for the Jackson women. More here: http://www.history.uh.edu/cph/WIMS/creation/AtlantaMeeting_March-1964.html
- Jewish educators are essential partners. Educators are catalysts for bringing the rich and inclusive history of Jews in America to students of all ages and genders. Together we inspire (young) Jews to learn about who they want to be and what impact they want to have on the world.
- Left: Dorthea Lange, Theatre in Leland, Mississippi, June 1937. Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. Retrieved from: http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b32104/. Right: Arthur S. Siegel, photograph of sign reading "We want white tenants in our white community," Detroit, Michigan, February 1942. Retrieved from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:We_want_white_tenants.jpg.
- Photo Source: http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org/files/2011/05/danvile_front.page_.jpg
- Photo source: http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/montgomery_bus_boycott_montgomery_ala_1955_1956
- Photo source: Jackson Mississippi Daily, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/28/50-years-mississippi-woolworths-sit-in/2365789/
- Photo source: Reported to have been taken by Joe "Little Joe" Postiglione of the Anniston Star.
- Photo source: http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/montgomery_bus_boycott_montgomery_ala_1955_1956
- Photo source: http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/montgomery_bus_boycott_montgomery_ala_1955_1956
- Photo source: http://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/montgomery_bus_boycott_montgomery_ala_1955_1956
- Jews went south for a variety of reasons, some of which were the Holocaust, Jewish social justice values, empathy with the experience of “the outsider,” to escape or rebel against upper middle class lifestyle.
- Photo source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Lyndon_Johnson_signing_Civil_Rights_Act,_July_2,_1964.jpg
- In Mississippi in 1964, 42% of the state's population was African American, but less than 5% could register to vote due to literacy tests, poll taxes, and physical intimidation. The racial caste system was held firmly in place by a tradition of violence against African Americans. If you could make change in Mississippi, other states would follow.
- In 1964, The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO, which included National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), with national support from SNCC, launched the Freedom Summer project, a new campaign that built on and expanded the community organizing that both orgs had been doing for a few years in the South Map: http://www.keepinghistoryalive.com/media/photo-fs-largemap.jpg
- 1,000 Northern students, mostly white and affluent. Half of whites were Jews though Jews only made up less than 1% of the population. Worked on voter registration (efforts that had been led by SNCC starting in 1962, before that by CORE, NAACP, and regional rights groups), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and Freedom Schools. The project created more than 40 freedom schools (some of which became enduring, community-based institutions) that taught reading, math, politics, and African American history to black children. Over the course of the summer about 60,000 African Americans signed up to join the MFDP, and the newly-formed party sent a slate of delegates to the August 1964 Democratic National Convention, demanding to be seated in place of the all-white regular state delegation. Photos, clockwise from top left: http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/manu/id/5748 http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/manu/id/207 http://www.crmvet.org/images/imgfs.htm http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/manu/id/216
- In 1964, 42% of the state's population was African American, but less than 5% could register to vote due to literacy tests, poll taxes, and physical intimidation. The racial caste system was held firmly in place by a tradition of violence against African Americans. Most infamous are the murders of James Chaney (21 years old), an African American from Mississippi, and Michael Schwerner (24) and Andrew Goodman (20), both Jews from New York. Went missing on June 21, 1964 Rita Schwerner worked tirelessly for justice in the case—Seven men were found guilty but served relatively short sentences. Edgar Ray Killen, who had planned and directed the murders, was acquitted in the 1967 case but was finally convicted of three counts of manslaughter in 2005. 6 civil rights workers were murdered and volunteers also experienced 1,000 arrests, 80 beatings, 35 shooting incidents, and 30 bombings of homes, churches, and schools. Volunteers for Freedom Summer knew that this was a risk they were taking. Many accepted it knowing that southern blacks were facing the same risks every day. Part of the tactic was to get media attention from white participation
- Like many Jewish activists, Heather came to activism through the collective Jewish experience of persecution during the holocaust and a profound sense that Jews had to keep similar injustices from happening to others. Spurred into justice activism by a post-HS trip to Yad V’shem Left college to volunteer for freedom summer Has continued this work through her life—working on the behalf of women and African Americans
- One day in 1963, Prathia Hall, a SNCC Volunteer from Mississippi, called Height and Cowan and asked them to come down and see how girls and women in participating in the civil rights movement were being treated.
- This inspired the idea to create a program drawing specifically from women and women leaders within Northern and Southern communities who had the power to create change.
- Polly Cowan and Dr. Dorothy height Women on the teams were in leadership of aforementioned organizations as well as “additional notables selected from the fields of law, medicine, education, community service, and arts and letters.”
- 8 teams of women, 4-6 per team during july and august Ny, Boston, Washington, D.C., St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Chicago Leadership of organizations as well as “additional notables selected from the fields of law, medicine, education, community service, and arts and letters.”
- Project sites included: Hattiesburg, Jackson, Vicksburg, Canton, Meridian, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurel
- 3 women coordinated, living in Jackson permanently Study kits with “basic facts on Mississippi, the city they will visit, the background of the local civil rights projects, plus selected bibliogaphy (sic) on Southern attitudes, etc.” Visit with local women to gather impressions of the local situation from their POV Visit voter registration centers, freedom schools, and other student CR projects. Meet again with local women and share what they learned on the visits to the projects. Bring info about police brutality and mal-treatment to the perspectives of local women and ask them to take action (human decency) Participants covered their own expenses
- From the Atlanta meeting in 1964. Clarie Harvey was the spokeswoman for the Jackson women. More here: http://www.history.uh.edu/cph/WIMS/creation/AtlantaMeeting_March-1964.html