Canton Freedom House, Canton Mississippi

A note about pictures throughout this blog: not all of these will be great! That's because my main focus is hearing from the people who are sharing their stories. In most cases, I take these to capture the information on plaques, or to help me remember all I've seen.

May 21, 2021

Canton Freedom House is about ten miles outside of Jackson, MS. It's a civil rights museum that shrinks the decades between the Freedom Summer and today. This is a place that was the headquarters for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and was also used by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick"). 

George and Rembert Washington 

George and Rembert Washington are pictured above in front of the store they owned and ran. They also owned the building across the street, which became the Freedom House. Like many who were active in the civil rights movement across the south, the Washingtons' business and buildings were attacked, and Mr. Washington was arrested and fined for 'offenses' like trash-burning.

The plaque above details the Washingtons' involvement in the movement, and some of the consequences of it. the notice below details Mr. Washington's arrests and fines, and some of the violent acts directed at them. One of the curators explained that they learned that putting chicken wire over the windows stopped molotov cocktails from breaking windows and setting the building on fire. The chicken wire had saved them from numerous attacks.

The Freedom Summer was in 1964, with its focus mainly on registering voters in the South. Poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, violence, and straight up murder were some of the tactics that Southern whites used to keep Black voters away from the polls. Only 7 percent of Black Mississippians were registered--the lowest level in the nation.

The formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was also a focus of the Freedom Summer agenda, along with the establishment of Freedom Schools. The Freedom House in Canton is the only such place that has survived, and its curators, who were young teens at the time, remember the activities, the comings and goings of Dr. King, James Meredith (he integrated University of Mississippi), Fannie Lou Hamer, James Farmer, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), and others.

During my visit, curator Wesley Rushing told me the personal story of moving to Canton when he was about eleven. Up until then, his family had been sharecroppers on a plantation in the Delta. Because the landowner cheated the farmers, they always 'owed' the owner money at the end of each year. The plantation had a creek running around it, and there was only one way on and off--right past the owner's house. So they couldn't just move without paying what was 'owed'--$900. The family borrowed the money from friends in Canton, paid the owner, and moved off the plantation. 

This is a common sharecropper's story, and many sharecroppers, like Fannie Lou Hamer, were evicted from their homes and what little livelihood they had when they registered to vote, or took part in any of the rights activities. Just outside of Selma, civil rights workers built a tent city for sharecroppers who had been evicted after taking part in marches. The National Park Service has some personal stories here.

Wesley Rushing said he never finished high school because working as a sharecropper meant he could only attend school in December and January, when there was less work to be done. He was so far behind in school, he wouldn't have graduated until his early twenties, and he was already being badly taunted by schoolmates. He went to work in a steel mill and retired with a good salary.

A Carport is Many Things

May 20, 2021

Jackson, Mississippi

Visit to Medgar and Myrlie Evers' Home

Former home of my grandparents in Lancaster, Ohio. Built 1959.

My grandparents' house in Lancaster, Ohio had a carport. None of the many homes (over 10 of them?) I lived in as a child ever had one, so their carport was a unique little adventure when our family would visit during the summer. It was adjacent to their neighbor's carport, but was about four feet lower, so there was a little wall that gave the space an even cozier feeling.

My grandpa used to smoke his pipe out there after dinner, sitting on the low wall, with his foot up on the milking stool. I loved the smell of the pipe smoke, the warmth of the summer evening, and the fireflies. It's different than hanging out in the driveway, which would be weird. For many people, it's like an outdoor living room. The acoustics are different, and you can stand out there during a belligerent midwestern rainstorm and feel safe from potential danger. This is how one should feel in their own home, or that of a beloved family member, right? 

Daisy Gatson Bates and L.C. Bates home. Built 1955.

Daisy Gatson Bates' Little Rock home had a carport, too. At her home, she received bullets in the mail, harassing phone calls, and white supremacists regularly threw rocks through her windows. When she was a young child, her mother was raped and killed by three white men. Home wasn't a safe place for Mrs. Bates or her mother, Millie Riley. Mrs. Bates was the President of the Arkansas NAACP, and critical support to the Little Rock Nine.

Medgar and Myrlie Evers' home. Built 1956.

When I stood in Medgar and Myrlie Evers' carport this evening, I felt a similar serenity, coziness, and shielded safety that I had felt in my grandparents' carport. The Evers' carport had muffled acoustics, too. The neighborhood was quiet. Yet the Evers family didn't feel safe and in fact weren't safe in their home. Mr. Evers insisted that the children's mattresses be placed directly on the floor so that they were less likely to be hit if someone shot at the house. He did drills with them to prepare them for shootings or bombings. 

Medgar Evers was the NAACP's first field secretary. He was shot to death in his carport on June 12, 1963. He was initially refused medical attention at the hospital, which was for whites only. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was a 37 year old father of three.