Oral History/Interview
2006
Born in Mississippi and raised in Jackson, Jimmy Travis was attending Tougaloo College when he became active in the Freedom Movement. At 20 years of age he became a SNCC field secretary. Assigned to Greenwood MS, he worked on the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) voter registration campaign and obtaining food for Black citizens who had been cut off from subsistance commodities for trying to register to vote. In February of 1963 he was driving Bob Moses and Randolph Blackwell to a freedom house when they were fired upon by white racists. Two of the bullets hit Jimmy, almost killing him. After he recovered, Jimmy along with John Hardy, George Lowe and MacArthur Cotton organized a voter education project in extremely dangerous Walthall County. In 1964 he was active in organizing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
See Mississippi Voter Registration — Greenwood, Greenwood Food Blockade, Voter Registration Movement Expands in Mississippi, Mass Action in Greensboro, and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) Founded for background & more information.
For more information on Jimmy Travis see Profiles: Jimmy Travis, (One Person One Vote).
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