A PIECE OF THE SCRAPBOOK

A PIECE OF THE SCRAPBOOK (BITS AND PIECES OF THE JACKSON MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT)

The historic first picketing in the history of downtown Jackson: December 12 1962. We were immediately arrested by almost 100 Jackson police officers. This launched the extremely effective boycott of downtown Jackson which grew, in time, into the massive Jackson Movement. In addition to Eldri and me, the arrested pickets were Ms. Bette Anne Poole, Mr. Walter Mitchell, Mr. Ronald Mitchell, and Mr. Rupert Crawford -- all Tougaloo students of mine.

Throwing down the gauntlet to the Mississippi power structure: May 12, 1963. I made the motion before a special meeting of the Mississippi State Board of NAACP Branches -- of which I was the only non-Black member -- which sought the broadening of the Jackson Boycott into a massive non-violent protest movement. My motion was approved unanimously. Following this, Medgar Evers and I went to my house at Tougaloo College and I then typed this individual letter many times: to Governor Ross R. Barnett, Mayor Allen C. Thompson, City Commission, Bankers Association, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Jackson Association, Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the Mississippi Economic Council. Medgar and I signed each letter at that point and he left for Jackson to get Mrs. Doris Allison's signature. The power structure, dominated by the powerful White Citizens Council, stonewalled. It brought in thousands of (white) " law enforcement officers " -- the many hundreds of Jackson city police, the thousand member Jackson police auxiliary, sheriffs and deputies and constables from every one of Mississippi's 82 counties, the entire Mississippi Highway Patrol, and finally the National Guard. The State Fairgrounds was turned into a gigantic concentration camp. Thousands of our people demonstrated and there were very massive arrests. Repression was bloody. Klan types poured into Jackson from the entire region. Medgar was murdered, I was almost killed, and now -- decades later -- Mrs. Doris Allison and I talk by phone at least once a week. My collected papers are held by the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History (as well as at State Historical Society of Wisconsin) and I am a Life Member of the august Mississippi State Historical Society.

(Mrs Doris Allison passed away several years ago. Her good spouse, Ben, joined her soon after. They remained staunchly committed to the struggle for a full measure of human rights for all throughout the whole of their long lifetimes. We miss them both very much. They are the Godparents of our grandson/son, Thomas, and they will always remain so. H.)

More Scrapbook on the next page: The full text of what was likely the most sweeping court injunction of the '60s - which we defied - and some very up close photos of the heavy police beating of John Salter, Jr. Scroll down to Continue.

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It
contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native
Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing
techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number
of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover
page -- has about 36 representative links.
www.hunterbear.org

See - A Few Basic Pieces in our Jackson Movement
"Scrapbook". Three consecutive web pages beginning with
http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm

And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book,
Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of
the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm