Please add your comments about this website and the Civil Rights Movement.

I was just three when my parents became more active in the Civil Rights Movement. My parents took my little sister and myself along on not all but many of the civil rights activities. I remember very clearly going with a mixed group to a whites only restaurant, nice, clean and cool, and becoming very confused when the waitress made us go to the very crowded and hot soda fountain next door. I remember being in a black church in the choir loft and listening to the beautiful voices lifting in song and lifting me up higher than the loft, itself. I very clearly remember all the knees I looked at at the Lincoln Memorial where I was taken during the March on Washington and listened to Martin Luther King, Jr's I Have a Dream speech. Again, the most vivid part of that memory was the glorious singing. I will bear these memories with me always.

Ann McConnell (tarnack58@gmail.com) , Great Falls, MT. August 29, 2010

Thanks so much for collecting and sharing all of this relevant information. We need to know the past to face up the present...
deeply grateful,
Marian

Marian del Moral, Granada, Spain. August 9, 2010

I am writing a dissertation on the attempts to integrate the Jackson, Mississippi Schools — particularly the years 1968-1972. If anyone has suggestions or can offer assistance with this endeavor, please email me at:

stferrell@northgeorgia.edu

Thank you in advance for your willingness to help,

Susan Ferrell
Doctoral Student — Georgia State University
Gainesville, GA. August 6, 2010

I have always been a supporter of civil rights and human rights. This site is a wonderful tribute to those who fight for the rights of all. It was my honor to meet Paul Duncan McConnell and to call him my friend. He remained steadfast in his belief that freedom is an in-alienable right of ALL human beings.

Michelle Lell, Florida. August 6, 2010

So the younger generations can keep conditions on the ground within a healthy perspective, that meaningful change is possible.
Y

Carly Mihalakis, Berkeley, CA. July 31, 2010.

The Civil Rights Movement is known in the UK but does not really feature in our schools curriculum. Beyond old films such as Mississippi Burning, there is little readily available literature.

I have just finished reading The help by Kathryn Stockett and found the book to be very shocking in terms of the segregation and racism intrinsic to the Southern US in the 1960s. I figured some of the narrative to be literary licence and Googled Jackson Mississippi 1960.

I have been left speechless by your website and have discussed the subject with my two teenage sons who prior to actually reading the segregation laws explicitly refused to believe me.

I would like to pay tribute to the movement for its bravery and tenacity. As someone who has visited the US on many occasions, and always been met with the finest welcome and hospitality, I only hope that these dark days are now long gone. Please assure me that is the case?

My sincere thanks for providing this information. It has been both shocking, enlightening and humbling.

Peter Williams. Cardiff, United Kingdom. July 27, 2010

[Thank you so much for your kind words. The legally-mandated de jure segregation that used to pervade the South is no longer with us, but racism, discrimination, and de facto segregation continue to this day. I should mention that veterans of the Freedom Movement despise the film Mississippi Burning and consider it a pack of lies from start to finish, because of its total distortion of the role the FBI actually played and its equally distorted view of Blacks and the role they played in the struggle. A far better, and more accurate film is Freedom Song with Danny Glover as well as the movies and documentaries listed in the Film & Viedo section of our Bibliography.]

I was in Jackson Miss. in the winter 1964-65 and am trying to locate the addresses of some of the old fighters who were also staying at the Freedom House in Jackson. I know that Charles Horowitz is deceased. Two others whose first names only I remember were Phil and George (whites). Is there anyone who can give me info? My email is: helmut.reinicke@club-internet.fr. Thanks!

Helmut Reinicke, France, July 23, 2010

God bless the sacrifices that so many dedicated people made for racial equality. In the early sixties my step-father, a (white) lawyer in Elgin, IL filed suit against a restaurant that refused serving a black man in the group he was with, and fought for civil rights all his professional life, including attending the 1963 March on Washington. Let us not forget the people of all races that stood side by side in this great battle of inequality. Let us also remember that racial hatred only encumbers those who hate, and interferes with the racial bridges needed for all of us to come together as Americans.

PK, Tennessee, July, 14, 2010

I am not from Mississippi, but by choice moved here from California, but a Washingtonian. When I was younger I watched millions of people come to the nation's capital during the civil rights movement. They were determined, dedicated and passionate people who would die to make things right for my generation. I was ignorant of the fact at that time to think that everything in the world concerning race would change. How dissapointing. However, things have changed for the best. When the Jews were in captivity, even they had to be freed. The differenet is that we as a race have forgotten our past and begin to love other races before we love ourselves. As a Black woman and with a daughter, I would first love to be loved by a Black man before any other race. So, integration has had its greatness, but it has also separated us as a people. No other race, leave their race more than the Black man. How sad. Our children our suffering and our women are lonely. Are we yet free? God is our only help with our lasting ill effects of self hatred, poverty, lack of education in a large way and now, homosexuality.

Deborah Thomas, Ridgeland, MS, 5/29/2010

This is a wonderful reminder and a gold mine of information. I'm a baby boomer, first generation that entered the promised land because of the sacrifice of the heroes on this site. I mourn that my generation did not pass your torch on to our children. they don't carry on the work as a community of black people with the passion and understanding of the issues that fired your spirit. We need that kind of passion now to advance the health care agenda as the new Civil Rights Movement. I hope you find the will to mentor the new movement. Bless you for what you've already done.

Deb, Boston MA, May 4, 2010

I'm an adult education instructor in Winchester, KY. I've sent the links to the Alabama literacy test samples to our staff — most of our learners, African-American and white alike, have no appreciation for how much it means to be able to vote and how many people suffered, fought, and died for that right. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And one extra thank you — one of my learners is a Reverend, 70 years old. He remembers the days when he and his family and friends were routinely denied the right to vote, by hook or by crook, by law or by a good old (white) boys club. I admit not knowing enough Kentucky history to know when African-Americans here finally got the chance to truly exercise their right to vote — but I'll bet he does! At any rate — your web site will help me help him improve his GED language skills and give him another opportunity to teach ME a little something (yes, he's taught me more than I've taught him). He's well on his way to earning his GED, and I know he'll love reading through your web site.

So once again — thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Sincerely, Nikk Katzman, April 10, 2010

Hi, im doing a research paper on the Civil Rights Movement. I need help in doing so.I'm really interested in this country's history.

[In compliance with the "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act" we try not to post the email addresses of students. To get help with your project, we suggest you check our "Speakers List" at http://www.crmvet.org/vet/speakers.htm. This is a list of Freedom Movement veterans who are willing to speak or answer questions about the Movement.]

Brittney Morgan, Tallahassee, Florida, February 26, 2010

Entries from 2009
Entries from 2008
Entries from 2007
Entries from 2006
Entries from July — December, 2005
Entries from January — June, 2005
Entries from July — December 2004
Entries from January — June 2004
Entries from June — December 2003