Unita Blackwell Is Symbol of Change in Mississippi

By David Pitts
Washington File Staff Writer

(Keynote speaker at international racism conference)

Oxford, Mississippi -- "I'm proof that things can change," says Unita Blackwell, a living legend who went from picking cotton to a leadership role in the civil rights movement. Later, she also became mayor of Mayersville, a small town in the Delta, a mostly poor region Mississippi. She is the first African American female mayor in the state.

Blackwell, who reminisced about good and bad times in Mississippi, was the keynote speaker at a conference titled "International Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity and Intercultural Relations," held April 18-22 on the campus of the University of Mississippi, affectionately known as Ole Miss.

The 68-year old, former activist grew up in the Delta region of the state at a time when conditions there were desperate. She came from a family of sharecroppers (tenants farmers who shared their crops with landowners) and picked cotton into adulthood. She recalls that in those days of legally mandated segregation in Mississippi and in the South generally, white people "had all the power, economically and politically."

The year that changed her life was 1964 -- Mississippi Freedom Summer. She joined forces with "the freedom riders and with activists working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)." The objective was to register African Americans -- fully 36 percent of the state's population -- to vote. Most blacks had effectively been prevented from doing so since the end of the Reconstruction period after the U.S. Civil War (1861-65).

Blackwell remembers that she had "so many Molotov cocktails thrown in my front yard, I had to teach my son how to recognize them and not touch them." But she persisted in her efforts "because I believe in freedom." She also participated in the struggle to desegregate the delegations that Mississippi sent to the Democratic National Convention -- then all white.

The effort failed in 1964, but succeeded four years later after the national Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were passed ending legally mandated segregation in the state and throughout the South. For the first time since Reconstruction, Mississippi sent an integrated delegation to the 1968 Democratic Convention, which was held in Chicago. It was the crowning achievement of Mississippi Freedom Summer.

"In 1984, I was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco," Blackwell says. "Twenty years earlier, I wasn't even allowed to vote." She offers her story to the conference attendees, who come from a large number of countries, as proof that nations can change and make progress "if there is a belief in freedom and the willingness to organize and be active."

Blackwell, like other speakers at the conference, also referenced the changes at Ole Miss that garnered headlines worldwide in 1962 after James Meredith became the first African American to desegregate the university. He was accompanied by federal marshals because of resistance to his admission at that time. One person was killed and many injured in confrontations with the police, army and national guard.

But 39 years later, African Americans are a routine presence on campus. In 1983, Ole Miss took an important step when it decided that the battle flag of the Confederacy could no longer serve as either the formal or informal banner of the university. University officials say they hope these and other steps will increase the percentage of African Americans attending the institution.

In an April 17 referendum, however, Mississippi voters decided -- by a 2-1 margin -- to keep the Confederate battle emblem on their state flag, a vote that cannot be seen in racial terms alone, says Blackwell. People in her majority black Issaquena County, for example, voted for the old flag whereas majority white Madison County voted for the new flag design.

Blackwell leaves no doubt, however, that she would have preferred a vote for a new flag. "When I think about the (Confederate) flag, I think about the Ku Klux Klan and when they burned crosses in my yard -- and they had that flag," she says. "But most young people never saw that. It's an educative process. The elders need to do a better job of educating people about what happened here."

Lafayette County, dominated by Oxford and Ole Miss, voted by a slim majority for the old flag. University officials expressed regret about that decision during the conference and stressed that the policy of the university in favor of equal educational opportunities is clear. One official indicated that funding is almost complete for the building of a civil rights memorial on campus to honor all those who fought for equal educational opportunities in Mississippi. The state government will fund a major portion of the cost.

Blackwell remarks that at one time it would not have been possible for her to speak on the campus, let alone be a keynote speaker at a conference here -- an indication of how far the university, the state of Mississippi and the nation has come. In more recent years, she says she has taken an interest in civil and human rights in other countries as well as the United States. She has traveled to Africa and Asia, particularly China, to learn about the situation there.

She is a past national president of the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association and has visited the country a number of times. "The same principle applies to international relations as to relations within countries. It's all about understanding and working together to forge solutions," she says. "Everyone -- all over the world -- has two eyes, a nose and a mouth; we should get along and treat each other right."

Blackwell remained at the conference following her address, conferring with foreign visitors who were very much interested in her role in the movement for equal rights in Mississippi. She urged continued activism in America and elsewhere. "You can never give up," she says.