Analyzing the hortative and rich of historical facts of the past century book – “Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi” written by John Dittmer, it is necessary to mention that it provides the reader with distinct, true, and important information about black people’s leader who was a black resident in Mississippi and devotedly fought for the rights of the black population of Southern Mississippi.
The issue that Mississippi residents fought for civil rights by themselves is one to differ them from another black fighter for civil rights. The fact NAACP, that is the National Association for the Advancement of colored people, SNCC, the Student Non – violent Coordination Committee, and SCLC, Martin Luther Kings Southern Christian Leadership gave little support or no support at all to the residents makes their achievements more and more prominent in the modern history of America. Despite little support of the federal organizations Mississippi residents organized their groups: COFO, the Council of Federated Organizations, RCNL, the regional Council of Negro Leadership, and MFDP, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to stand for their civil rights. The final establishment of civil rights equal both for white citizens and black citizens of Mississippi was due to the local Mississippi residents and people activity.
After World War II, in 1946 the election was to be held. The war was over and soldiers both white and black returned home. The socio-political situation was just like that: black voters, those who were registered and those who were not, were off from casting their ballots just life before. Whites were trying to prevent the black population from voting by farfetched motives, described by Dittmer as “the last vestige of a dead and despairing civilization”. This historical feature was one of the backgrounds for the later black citizens fighting for civil rights. The Supreme Courts decisive decisions concerning civil rights of different years Smith vs. Alright in 1946, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, the United States vs. Lynd in 1961 predisposed future confrontation. But still, the mainsprings of the movement for civil rights of black citizens were Mississippi residents.
Many examples of how the local people of Mississippi shaped the civil rights movement are historical cases, but Dittmer exemplifies two amid many others. The first was when a local preacher, being disappointed with the racist registration system, explained how to pass the tests and make their voices be heard. This is where the civil rights movement originated. The other case was the resistance against the police and Ku Klux Klan threats to keep on fight for civil rights. The first civil rights advocates in Mississippi, the majority of whom were war veterans, preachers, and religious leaders, received little support or no help at all from national organizations in their attempts to gain equal rights with other populations of Mississippi in the educational and voting system spheres. The post World War II decade in Mississippi for black people was signified with the jobs not much differing from those placating slaves.
Other southern states blacks were much more supported by the federal government and the legal fund of the NAACP. But, the fact that those states were in the “upper south”, where the racial segregation was not so clearly drawn as in Mississippi should be noted. It is “Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi”, in which Dittmer clearly shows the vices of the corrupted political system in the U.S.A. and lack of civil rights assistance at both local and national levels.
A good example of the federal government’s strength and power was Senator Theodore Bilbo. He was so confined to the government if Mississippi blacks were indeed assisted by national groups then they would gain no support in Washington and would be treated severely and hostile in Mississippi towns. And this hostility was faced by the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1946 after their tries to organize the workers. The ruling whites in the Mississippi establishment were so much paranoid about the CIO that immediately linked them with “racial integration and the international community conspiracy”. Fred Sullens, Jackson editor, labeled them “strife breeders…more dangerous than rattlesnakes”.
As Dittmer described, between 1946 and 1949 the CIO gained definite success by joining eleven thousand members to the organization and forming unions. The CIO movement for civil rights quickly fell out of favor in the state. The mistakes of the CIO were of great experience for the civil rights followers for moving away from promoting voter registration.
Despite the CIO’s success, there were no considerable increases in the civil rights movement until 1963. Local activist Medgar Evers murder and especially lack of federal assistance in prosecuting the assassin of the latter was the point for many of Mississippi blacks to realize if this fight for their rights was to be won, they would have to confront alone hostile ruling white majority.
In 1961 the lawsuit against Theron Lynd, Forest County clerk, was initiated by the Kennedy administration. The reason for the assize was Theron Lynds persistence in not allowing blacks to vote in the 1962 elections. The assize was prosecuted by Judge Harold Cox, who gained a reputation of the worst racist among federal jurists. And the case was many times legally investigated after that at different levels until it finally was overturned in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lynds refusal about testing in the registration form, although, was the turning point in the whole city right activity movement. It was Reverend L.P. Ponder of Palmers Crossing of a small Mississippi town that assisted local citizens in registering for the vote. Reverend Ponder gained much support during the summer and fall of 1962 from the part of 150 residents who had worked to have the registration test completed. What is more, the lack of assistance from the national organizations made the Hattiesburg area residents’ achievements headed by the Reverend be prominent and outstanding for the whole movement. John Dittmer acknowledged well that the Hattiesburg movement started because of those issues.
The rise of civil rights activity in Mississippi caused violent and cruel action against blacks voting on the part of whites. The examples of such confrontation were the Sunflower County Ku Klux Klan members’ harass of black people as to the registration and previous mailing them with letters containing threats “stay away from the poles”.
But by that time the process got unstoppable and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, determined to help blacks in voting, supported the residents of Sunflower County in resistance.
The book, on the whole, shows the changes achieved by the 1970s in the civil rights movement. If in the 1950s very few blacks were able to vote, then in the period from the beginning of 1960s to the middle 1960s, considerable changes were seen in the voting system for black people. Though the system was not changed the gains of Mississippi residents are very prominent. “They had changed the closed society, opened up the political process to African Americans, and made it possible for a new generation to build on solid foundation laid out that band of brothers and sister who had challenged America in search of the Beloved Community”.
Works Cited
Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1994.