Commission. We are being recorded live on cspans booktv so if you have not already please silence your cell phones. If you have not purchased the books, the panels have written you will have an opportunity to do that after outside. The authors will also be signing immediately after this panel in the authors attempt. The moderator for todays panel is robbie luckett. Robbie luckett received his ph. D. From the university offr l georgia with a focus on civilve rights history, the native mississippian he returned home to accept the position ofas associate professor ofci histord and director of the Margaret Wolter center for the study of the africanamerican experiencef at Jackson State University. Look at as a member verse festivals Advisory Board. Thanks chris. Its my great pleasure to moderate this panel on civil rights history that i think its particularly important for two reasons. One is to understand the importance of thisim building ad what it meant particularly for v segregationist in the Civil Rights Movement over the course of history and seconden becausei think this may be the largest crowd at the State Capitol sinca 1966 in the march against fear so we have that going for us asu well. R its my intention to introduce their esteemed panelist and get out of the way and let them take the floor. Dr. Te morris is associate professor of africanamerican African Studies at east ohio state university. She received her bachelors inil african and africanamericanory studies in liberal studies from Emery University and a masters and ph. D. In american studies from purdue university. After morris has Interdisciplinary Research teaching focus that combines american studies black studies and womens studies and with this book as she has taught courses such as history gender sex and power black feminist in the black power movement. She is the authorshh of women pr unlimited the black freedomm struggle in mississippi just out fromiv University Press in 2015. Her work has appeared in southern black woman in the civil rightsig era apress, statebystate study texas a m press 2013, comrades of local history of the Panther Party ank groundwork local black freedom struggles in america. In addition to her teachingica. Research dr. Morris is a board member of women have options, ohio statewide abortion fund, f and has worked with the fannie louan hamer at Jackson State University since 2005. John hill is an assistant i professor of a educational histy at the college of charleston in carolina. Her his research focuses on the history of student and teacher s activism grassroots Educational Programs and segregated high schools during the civil rightsn movement. His manuscript the Freedom School district student activists on the frontline of the Civil Rights Movement is currently under contract with columbia universityty press forthcoming in april 2016. He is coeditor of the Freedom School newspapers writings essays and reports from students activists during the civiltuniv Rights Movement which was justsi released from University Press of mississippi at his research has been published in historyl and education journals including publications in the journal of africanAmerican History the history of education quarterly South Carolina quarterly magazine in the journal ofdr. s social studies research. Dr. Hill Services Connected to civil rights education is a constitutional right to freedomt schools and the young peoples project great dr. Hill currently serves on an Advisory Board at the i. T. Stanback may seem in South Carolina statebo universiy and the penn center on st. Helena island in South Carolina. Dr. John hill. Aram goudsouzian is at the university of memphis where he teaches courses on modern africanAmerican History. He has a ph. D. From purdue university. His books include down to the cross roots civil rights, black power and the meredith march against fear, 2014, and king of the court, university of California Press 2010 and Sidney Poitier man, actor, icon. Dr. Aram god size january. Devery s. Anderson is a graduate of the university of utah and is the editor or coeditor of four books on mormon history, two of which won the christensen award from the Mormon History Association in 2006. His book, emmett till the murder that shocked the world and propelled the Civil Rights Movement s the product of ten years of Exhaustive Research and writing. His research took him to the south and chicago on over a dozen occasions where he interviewed witnesses, family members of both emmett till and his accused killers and spent countless hours in libraries and archives. He has spoken on the till case throughout the United States and the united kingdom. He lives in Salt Lake City and is an editor at signature books. Devery anderson. And were going to begin with d. Tiyi morris. Thank you, dr. Luckett. Good afternoon, everyone. Id like to begin with a quote by mary mccloud bethune. She once decade next to god, we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living. Id like to use that as a frame for the work that i do, because my focus is on women, black women specifically. And i think its also relevant especially given that im the only woman on the panel [laughter] that i make sure that we center women in our discussions this afternoon. So my book, woman power unlimited and the black freedom struggle in mississippi, is about the jacksonbased organization woman power unlimited. The organization was founded in 1961 by mrs. Clary collins harvey, and it was founded because the freedom riders came to town, and she wanted to support them both emotionally as well as materially. She had the opportunity to attend the first trial for the freedom riders, and at that hearing she noticed that some of the individuals were shivering. They didnt have their coats and sweaters with them. And so this mothering instinct kicked in. Mrs. Harvey was middleaged at the time, and many of the freedom riders were collegeaged students, so they were young enough to be her children. And so this mothering instinct kicked in, and she decided she needed to take care of them, and she mobilized other women throughout jackson to really engage in this practice of nurture answer as resistance. So that motherhood in the typical sense that we think of that has simply a nurturing, caringfor role, but trying to take care of these individuals so they could be engaged in the Civil Rights Movement. When the freedom riders where are we leased in prison, women limited was there to meet them, and to help them this their ensuing struggle. Because mrs. Harvey was able to mobilize these women so quickly, they began to take on other initiatives. They were involved this the mainstays of Civil Rights Activism, photo registration as well as school desegregation, but they also brought a humanist agenda that really made them unique in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, and much more progressive, i would say, than many of the oh organizations other organizations of the time. They were flexible, and they did not perpetuate many of the organizational issues that really had been keeping women on the periphery of maledominated organizations. For example, they didnt charge deuce, was they didnt want deuce, because they didnt want to limit anyones participation. They had meet thanksgiving various locations. Sometimes they would be in the masonic temple, various local black churches. So, again, they created an organization that was designed to insure that they had the greatest participation from local women. In addition to these kind of key activism points of the Civil Rights Movement, they were involved this womens strike for peace, they also engaged in antipoverty initiatives, they participated in freedom summer and helped create an Organization Called wednesdays in mississippi. So, again, they had this very broadbased understanding of what it meant to be a Civil Rights Activist. Another unique aspect of the organization was that many of the organizers were middle class women, they were middleaged women, and they were entrepreneurs. Mrs. Harvey owned a funeral home in jackson thats still in existence, mrs. Amy logan sold Beauty Products to black women, and mrs. Jesse mosley owned a shoe store. They were middle class women, these primary organizers, and they didnt have to worry about the same level of economic retaliation from whites that many other blacks had to worry about if they engaged in Civil Rights Activism. They were wellrespected members of their community, they were known in their churches, they had years of organizing experience prior the freedom riders arrival in jab jackson. So they were the perfect women to actually nurture these young activists to be involved and to mobilize activism around the the city and as well as around the state. Ultimately, woman power unlimited was a group of black women who had a very unique and progressive definition of what social activism meant and what social justice meant. So they were unique in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, but they were not really unique in the context of this legacy of black womens activism. Ultimately, they were doing what black women had done for generations, taking care of their families and communities and insuring that the black community could survive to see another day. So one of the things i attempt to do in the week is to con in the book is to contextualize their activism, building on the generations of their foremothers and then laying a foundation for the work that black women are doing to the. And so today. So they are, like fannie lou hamer, ella baker, other black women activists who have been willing to risk their lives and livelihood for the collective good of the black community and to create a really, truly democratic and humanist society. I think these black women are unique and really important. And even though they dont take center stage when we think about traditional definitions of leadership, typically the scholarship p has tended to focus on those who occupy the host visible leadership positions, right . And women oftentimes are not included in that. But what my work attempts to do and what some of the current civil rights scholarship is doing is censoring the works of people, and in that context we really can see the contributions that women like those who were involved in woman power unlimited have made. So writing this book, again, has allowed me to censor black womens Civil Rights Activism also as leadership efforts and mobilization efforts that were central to the mississippi movement. Woman powers Civil Rights Activism then is best understood as this legacy of black womens activism in which leadership has been consistent and valuable. A legacy that is being continued with activists in the black lives Matter Movement and the say her names movement as well. So woman power is so important not only to our understanding of American History and civil rights history, but really to our understanding of humanity. Because it demonstrates the selflessness that black women have had in order to create this humanist and just society. And they as an organization and, i think, the book stands in opposition to the devaluation of black womens lives in activism. Thank you. [applause] dr. Jon hale. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for, thank you for attending todays session. My name is jon hale, im coming from the college of charleston in South Carolina. And as many, if not all of you know, this summer we lost nine lives in the basement of the ame Emanuel Church in charleston which was a catalyst to taking on on the Confederate Flag in South Carolina and other states across the south, so i was a little shocked and surprised coming from charleston were still grieving and trying to understand the ways to move forward from this tragedy and to see two Confederate Flags displayed here on the courthouse, it just reminds me how important the work of all the panelists here is and the work we have to do in mississippi to continue to challenge the use of the flag today [applause] so i want to start out, im actually the second editor on here and the lead author or the lead editor, dr. William stuff key, whos at university of North Carolina in chapel hill, was unable to attend this weekend, but he was certainly the mover and shaker, if you will, behind this book project. And he sends his regrets that he was unable to make it today. But he did want, he did instruct me, if you will, on a few things to say, and he shared with me a document which is also very relevant at this period in time because its written by or submitted by julian bond to sawnton lynn, the coordinator of all the Freedom Schools which this book is about in 1964. But julian bond in this letter is writing to dr. Lynn, and he writes, and i quote there are two ideas that are particularly pressing. One is including a week on the Freedom Schools. This book could be printed in our own presses and could be sold very cheaply, 50 cents to a dollar, if we could get that much for them. In any case, the most important thing would be to, would be to collect the material collected this summer and ideas into one single place permanently and to include some opinion and thought that they would give others ideas and perhaps encouragement for the future. For the Freedom School book, i had thought of doing can it by chapters. One by you, one by charlie cobb, one giving factual material on the Freedom Schools, a chapter illustrated on the two schools that were built and several chapters on materials including poems, essays, newspapers, etc. , that were published and and written by Freedom School studentings. And thats the end of the letter. So julian bond in 1964 called for a book like this. Im glad that julian bond could see this book before he passed away last sunday, and he wrote a nice review for the book as well which were extremely grateful for. I must admit that our editor, craig gill, who its been an honor to work with him, im glad he didnt read this first, because julian bond only wanted a dollar per book, so were happy [laughter] you know, it can sell for a little bit must have. More importantly, of course, what he was calling for is a comprehensive social history of the Freedom Schools or a perspective of the Freedom Schools from the students themselves. Because many times or many author books coming out on freedom summer, sometimes theyre whitewashed. We get the perspective of the white volunteers who, yes, they did risk their lives, but thats not necessarily telling the complete story of the Freedom School. So this book, what we attempted to do was to uncover every Freedom School and newspaper published during the summer of 1964 and collect them in this one volume here in order to provide a students perspective on the Freedom Schools and freedom summer. And, therefore, to honor the integrity of the Freedom School students. There are about 2500 Freedom School students who attended over 40 Freedom Schools during the summer of 1964. So in order to honor their integrity, id like to read just some direct samples from the students themselves and just to give you a sample of some of the profound work that they published during that summer. And please keep in mind that these students are between the ages of, you know, 815 years old writing this, and theyre publishing this and circulated around the state of mississippi. And collectively, the Freedom School newspapers were the largest collection of civil rights newspapers during that summer. The first selection ill read from is a poem entitled now is the hour submitted by edith murray moore. Now is the hour. No other time will do. For us to go and get what belongs to me and you. Now is the hour to stand for what is right. Together we know we will win the fight. Now is the hour that we must say farewell to tears and hardships. Freedoms better, i can tell. As you notice in miss moores poem, theres a sense of urgency and a call to action for all students. And as you read through the collection of newspapers, you see that students are often times urging older adults to participate. And in many ways theyre often not only encouraged, but sometimes t