I've got the light of freedom: the organizing tradition and the Mississippi freedom struggle

1152 Pages·1997·3.81 MB·English

by  Charles M. Payne

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Page i
I've Got the Light of Freedom
Page iii
A CENTENNIAL BOOK
One hundred books
published between 1990 and 1995
bear this special imprint of
the University of California Press.
We have chosen each Centennial Book
as an example of the Press's finest
publishing and bookmaking traditions
as we celebrate the beginning of
our second century.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Founded in 1893
Page v
I've Got the Light of Freedom
The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom
Struggle
Charles M. Payne
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
©1995 by
The Regents of the University of California
First Paperback Printing 1996
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Payne, Charles M.
I've got the light of freedom: the organizing tradition and the Mississippi freedom struggle /
Charles M. Payne.
p. cm.
"A Centennial book."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-20706-8
1. Civil rights movementsMississippiHistory20th century. 2. Civil rights workers
MississippiHistory20th century. 3. Afro-AmericansCivil rightsMississippi.
4. MississippiRace relations. 5. Civil rights movementsMississippiGreenwood
History20th century. 6. Greenwood (Miss.)Race relations.
I. Title.
E185.93.M6P39 1995
323'.09762dc20 94-24645
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page vii
For my grandparents,
William Smith from Claxton, Georgia,
Anna Mae Smith from Fitzgerald, Georgia,
and Rachel Payne
from Cambridge, Maryland
Page viii
Page ix
Contents
Acknowledegments xiii
Introduction 1
One 7
Setting The Stage
Two 29
Testing The Limits Black Activism in Postwar Mississippi
Three 67
Give Light And The People Will Find A Way
The Roots of an Organizing Tradition
Page x
Four 103
Moving On Mississippi
Five 132
Greenwood
Building on the Past
Six 180
If You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me
The Redefinition of Leadership
Seven 207
They Kept The Story Before Me
Families and Traditions
Eight 236
Slow And Respectful Work
Organizers and Organizing
Nine 265
A Woman's War
Ten 284
Transitions
Eleven 317
Carrying On
The Politics of Empowerment