幺力视频

Civil Rights forum highlights struggle, progress

Civil Rights forum highlights struggle, progress

Contact: Zack Plair

幺力视频 graduate student Nick Timmerman moderates a panel including Stephanie Rolph, assistant professor of history at Millsaps College; Shirley Hanshaw, associate professor of English at MSU; Michael Vinson Williams, dean of social sciences at Tougaloo College; and Chris Taylor, president of the Oktibbeha County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The forum, held Thursday [Oct. 29] at the Hilton Garden Inn in Starkville, highlighted the struggle of African Americans during Starkville鈥檚 civil rights movement. (Photo by Megan Bean)

STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擨n a crowded ballroom in Starkville鈥檚 Hilton Garden Inn, Oktibbeha County native Chris Taylor spoke candidly about his experiences growing up African American in the segregated South.

Serving on a panel gathered to discuss that very issue, Taylor looked into a room of faces 鈥 some white, some black, some of other races or ethnicities 鈥 all listening intently. There was no 鈥渨hite鈥 or 鈥渃olored鈥 side of the room. Everyone sat together.

It wasn鈥檛 always like that in Starkville, said Taylor, the president of the Oktibbeha County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Seeing it, he added, showed just how far things had come.

鈥淲e have come a long way as a society, and we (African Americans) are now in a position where we are not afraid,鈥 Taylor said. 鈥淭here was a time you couldn鈥檛 say things like this to a crowd like this.鈥

A two-hour community forum Thursday night [Oct. 29] highlighted the struggles of African Americans during Starkville鈥檚 civil rights movement, starting from its slow-moving grassroots beginnings in the early 1960s through the public school desegregation process in the early 70s. Others serving on the panel included Shirley Hanshaw, associate English professor at 幺力视频; Michael Vinson Williams, dean of social sciences at Tougaloo College; and Stephanie Rolph, an assistant professor of history at Millsaps College.

聽Funded by the Mississippi Humanities Council, the forum, 鈥淎 Shaky Truce: Civil Rights Struggles in Starkville, MS, 1960-1980,鈥 was a collaboration between the university鈥檚 history department and MSU Libraries.聽

The forum also debuted a digital history website () on Starkville鈥檚 civil rights movement, with interviews compiled by a team led by associate professor of history Judy Ridner, and assistant professors Hillary Richardson and Nickoal Eichmann with MSU鈥檚 Mitchell Memorial Library.

While the website now includes 16 interviews giving firsthand accounts of Starkville鈥檚 civil rights movement, Ridner showed brief clips of some of the interviews Thursday to sum up the story of the team鈥檚 research findings. While Starkville鈥檚 movement didn鈥檛 become as physically violent as other more notable movements of the era in Mississippi, Ridner said it didn鈥檛 鈥済o smoothly.鈥 In fact, interviews pointed to local blacks being slow to organize because of fear of reprisal from whites.

Once the NAACP started a Starkville chapter in 1969, marches, protests and a boycott of downtown businesses followed. The flashpoint of Starkville鈥檚 public school desegregation in 1971 brought the struggle to a head, Ridner observed, with black unrest and white resistance to change reaching their height.

Still, as project participant Nancy Bardwell noted during a part of her interview shown during Thursday鈥檚 event, life went on. Now a library associate with MSU, Bardwell was among the African American students who desegregated Starkville High School in 1971, and she remembered feeling awkward.

鈥淭here was still a divide in the classroom,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was obvious we didn鈥檛 want to be there, and (the whites) didn鈥檛 want us there. But that was just the way it was, and we made the best of it.鈥

In another interview, Starkville resident Minnie McCarter noted that, over time, the integrated classes 鈥渕ade it work,鈥 and many students formed friendships that crossed racial lines.

Those in attendance on Thursday could sign up to tell their own stories to be published on the project鈥檚 website, one that Ridner said she hopes will continually evolve.

鈥淲e鈥檝e found that this region of Mississippi is understudied in terms of the civil rights movement, and that has created an African American community who feels completely neglected as far as telling their stories,鈥 Ridner said. 鈥淲e want this to be a vehicle for them to tell their stories so that we can create a dialog in the community about this time period and what it means.鈥

MSU is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .