The biggest issue that African-Americans face is citizenship, or the ability to have the same rights and freedoms as others, attorney Alvin Chambliss said Thursday at a commemoration of Stokely Carmichael’s “Call to Black Power” speech in 1966.
Nearly 150 people came to Broad Street Park on Thursday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the speech, which was given there.
Carmichael spoke after James Meredith’s March Against Fear arrived in Greenwood. Meredith, the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi, started his march on June 6, 1966, in Memphis. He was shot and wounded on the second day of the march. Other civil rights leaders stepped in to continue his journey.
Meredith, now 82, was unable to make the event on Thursday but asked Chambliss to speak on his behalf. Chambliss is the national coordinator of the James H. Meredith March Against Fear.
Chambliss said he has spent much of his lifetime fighting battles in the courtroom. “What people often forget is that the Supreme Court has made mistakes, too,” Chambliss said.
His efforts have been in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to reopen old cases and reverse discriminatory rulings. He has won two of the three cases he has taken before the Supreme Court.
State Rep. Willie Perkins, D-Greenwood, told the crowd that the march’s purpose was “to tell black men to stop being afraid.”
African-Americans had long been begging for freedom, and after not receiving it, they decided to ask for “black power” instead, Perkins said. He added that African-Americans are still struggling in many areas due to a continued lack of power.
To exemplify his point, Perkins asked the crowd to consider that many of the renovations taking place in Greenwood are in areas that blacks do not often frequent. This, he said, can happen when blacks acquire positions of power but have no money once they are in those positions.
The Rev. William E. Morris, the Rev. Johnny Collins, the Rev. Leroy Williams and Evangelist Nellie Morgan all joined for a panel discussion entitled “The Role of the Church in the Movement: Then and Now.”
Morris, pastor of Locust Grove Missionary Baptist Church, told the crowd that the black church had served as “a launching pad of hope” in the 1960s.
“If the church had not given them that hope, they wouldn’t have been bold enough to seek justice,” he said.
Morris said churches should not be divided but should help bring people together.
Morgan, pastor of New Beginnings Church of Holiness, thought that fear still acted as a barrier to action in black communities. Disappointed in Thursday’s turnout, she asked, “If you’re afraid of your own, how can you go out and fight for what’s right?”
Morgan said she’d heard that some people had not come due to the event’s location. The Broad Street area has become reputed for violence and drugs.
Former Greenwood Mayor Sheriel Perkins invited all who had been in the park 50 years ago to come forward and be recognized. She then asked them to write their names on a list so that their efforts could officially be recorded in history.
One of those names was Minnie Thurman-Massey, who said she joined the civil rights movement at the age of 17.
Massey remembered working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress of Racial Equality to get black Americans registered to vote.
She said she was thankful for the opportunity to be heard.
“If you don’t know your history, you will repeat past mistakes,” Massey said. “Love is stronger than hate.”
Former County Judge Solomon Osborne followed Massey, saying, “We don’t give people like that enough credit. In fact, we don’t give them any credit.”
Osborne said he remembers fighting against a Greenwood that had factories with no black supervisors and banks with no black tellers.
Before he took his seat, Osborne reminded the crowd that changes were “brought about by ordinary people who were tired.” He recognized Willie Peacock, Rosemary Freeman, Snowden Jones, Edward Cochran and many more as being facilitators of change in the city.
Perkins thanked those who had stood up for their rights 50 years ago for paving the road for people like herself. Perkins broke barriers when she became the city’s first black mayor and first female mayor.
Willie Ricks, who was with Carmichael on the day of the speech, also spoke Thursday.
Ricks, also known as Mukasa Dada, praised women for their role in the movement. He cited June Johnson, who was badly beaten by Winona police at the age of 15 for her work with Fannie Lou Hamer on voter registration, as a “warrior.”
Ricks said there are many things that still need to be remedied in America. “We still want our freedom,” he said.
Students in grades 7-12 came to the event as part of Jackson State University’s “The Pivotal Role of Young People” with the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute at COFO. The day camp aims to teach students about the struggle for civil rights. The students came from all over the South.
• Contact Chloe Ricks at 581-7124 or cricks@gwcommonwealth.com.
