James Charles Evers was an American civil rights activist, businessman, radio personality, and politician. Evers was known for his role in the civil rights movement along with his younger brother Medgar Evers. After serving in World War II, Evers began his career as a disc jockey at WHOC in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In 1954, he was made the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) State Voter Registration chairman. After his brother's assassination in 1963, Evers took over his position as field director of the NAACP in Mississippi. In this role, he organized and led many demonstrations for the rights of African Americans.
Edward James "Son" House Jr. was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was an American Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
Colored is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow Era to refer to an African American. In many places, it may be considered a slur, though it has taken on a special meaning in Southern Africa referring to a person of mixed or Cape Coloured heritage.
Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision effectively approved the exclusion of any minority children from schools reserved for whites.
Tulsa Community College is a public community college in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1970 and is the largest two-year college in Oklahoma. It serves approximately 23,000 students per year in classes. TCC consists of four main campuses, two community campuses, and a conference center situated throughout the Tulsa metropolitan area with an annual budget of approximately $112 million. The college employs about 2,270 people, including 280 full-time faculty and 536 adjunct faculty. In 2022, the Tulsa Community College established the Cyber Skills Center as a part of its workforce development initiatives. The center, supported by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, focuses on building a diverse tech workforce in the Tulsa area.
Lionel Cole is an American pianist and composer. He has served as a regularly touring member of Mariah Carey's live band. Cole also partnered with Malcolm-Jamal Warner, to create the jazz and funk band Miles Long. The first album, The Many Facets of Superman, featured En Vogue's Cindy Heron and soul icon Teena Marie.
The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constitutional convention held at Washington, Mississippi in advance of the western portion of the territory's admission to the Union in 1817. The current state constitution was adopted in 1890 following the reconstruction period. It has been amended and updated 100 times in since its adoption in 1890, with some sections being changed or repealed altogether. The most recent modification to the constitution occurred in November 2020, when Section 140 was amended, and Sections 141-143 were repealed.
William Alexander Percy was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature. In a largely Protestant state, the younger Percy championed the Roman Catholicism of his French mother.
Amzie Moore was an African-American civil rights leader and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta. He helped lead voter registration efforts. His former home is a Mississippi Landmark. A historical marker commemorates its history. It is now a museum and interpretive center.
Legacy Releasing was an independent film distribution company based in California. It was founded in 1996 by Mark Borde and J. David Williams, veterans in the motion picture industry.
Clifton Taulbert is an American author, business consultant, and speaker. He is best known for his books Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored (1989) and Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Values that Build Strong Communities (1997). Taulbert offers courses in Character Education and Building Strong School Communities through Knowledge Delivery Systems, an online resource for educators
Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Values That Build Strong Communities is a memoir by Clifton Taulbert, first published in 1997.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling 8–0 that although states have broad power to regulate economic activities, they cannot prohibit peaceful advocacy of a politically motivated boycott.
Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored is a 1996 American period drama film directed by Tim Reid and starring Al Freeman Jr., Phylicia Rashad and Leon. The screenplay was written by Paul W. Cooper. The film is based on Clifton Taulbert’s real life and his non-fiction book Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored.
The Meridian race riot of 1871 was a race riot in Meridian, Mississippi in March 1871. It followed the arrest of freedmen accused of inciting riot in a downtown fire, and blacks' organizing for self-defense. Although the local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter had attacked freedmen since the end of the Civil War, generally without punishment, the first local arrest under the 1870 act to suppress the Klan was of a freedman. This angered the black community. During the trial of black leaders, the presiding judge was shot in the courtroom, and a gunfight erupted that killed several people. In the ensuing mob violence, whites killed as many as 30 blacks over the next few days. Democrats drove the Republican mayor from office, and no person was charged or tried in the freedmen's deaths.
Hollis Watkins was an American activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party national convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi. He also was a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.
Henry "Hank" James Thomas is an African American civil rights activist and entrepreneur. Thomas was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders who traveled on Greyhound and Trailways buses through the South in 1961 to protest racial segregation, holding demonstrations at bus stops along the way.
Allen Johnson was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, an activist in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and he was also a minister of religion. Johnson is the grandfather of Georgetown law professor Vida Johnson.
The New Year's Day March in Greenville, South Carolina was a 1,000-man march that protested the segregated facilities at the Greenville Municipal Airport, now renamed the Greenville Downtown Airport. The march occurred after Richard Henry and Jackie Robinson were prohibited from using a white-only waiting room at the airport. The march was the first large-scale movement of the civil rights movement in South Carolina and Greenville. The march brought state-wide attention to segregation, and the case Henry v. Greenville Airport Commission (1961) ultimately required the airport's integration of its facilities.
