Sandra Adickes

Last updated

Sandra L. Adickes is American civil rights activist, both during the Vietnam War and with the New York City teachers' union. She is known for her role in the Mississippi Freedom School of 1964, and as the plaintiff in Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. She has also written several books including To be Young was Very Heaven and Legacy of a Freedom School.

Contents

Early life and education

Adickes was born on July 14, 1933, and grew up in New York. [1] Adickes has a B.A. from Douglass College (1954), and an M.A. from Hunter College (1964). [1] In 1977 she earned a Ph.D. from New York University. [2] She has taught English at multiple schools, including the College of Staten Island [3] where she and Elizabeth Worthman began a program called Vocational Education for Transitional Adults to women in need of funds to attend college. [4] She also taught at Winona State University. [5] [6]

Civil rights activism

In 1964 Adickes was a teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, New York, [7] and the disappearance of civil rights workers in Mississippi made her "sick and sore at heart" so she joined a group of six teachers from New York City on a civil rights project to Mississippi. [8] [9] The group in New York relied on fundraising by the United Federation of Teachers, and Adickes co-lead the project with Norma Becker. [10] The program was a part of the movement for Freedom Schools in which temporary and free schools were started in the American south to provide new educational opportunities. [11] In the spring of 1963, Adickes was recruited by Richard Parrish an African American officer of the UFT for a freedom school project in Prince Edward County. Adickes signed up to join members of the civil rights movement for the Freedom Summer of 1964 and she helped recruit forty other teachers for the Freedom Schools. [12]

Supreme Court case

In 1964, was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and she took her students to the Hattiesburg Public Library to receive a library card. [13] : 276  The library was closed by the chief of police in response to a request from the Hattiesburg town mayor, Claude Pittman. [7] After being denied at the library, she and her students went to get lunch together at a Kress store where they were denied service because Adickes, a white woman, was with six of her black students. [14] [12] [13] : 276 

In response, Adickes sued and filed a lawsuit, with her lawyer Eleanor Jackson Piel. [15] Adickes sued on two counts— (1) her rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment were violated as she was being denied service on the basis of race, and (2) she claimed the arrest was the result of Kress and Hattiesburg police collusion. [16] The court decision said that Adickes was refused service under color of any . . . custom, or usage, of the State" in violation of her rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Adickes appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari. [17] [18] The case was settled out of court, [19] and Adickes gave her portion of the settlement to the Southern Conference Education Fund to be used for scholarships for the black youth. [12] [20]

Later years

Adickes' activism continued during the Vietnam War when she was again working with Norma Becker in a group called Teachers Committee for Peace in Vietnam who gathered 2700 signatures from people against the war and took out a full-page ad on May 30, 1965, in NY Times. [21] [13] : 174–175  She also crossed picket lines in a 1968 New York City teachers' strike when she left the union [22] because she felt it was no longer relevant. [23]

Awards and honors

Adickes was awarded the "Woman of the Year" by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 1966.[ citation needed ]

Select publications

Adickes is the author of multiple books. Legends of Good Women is a fiction. To be Young was Very Heaven presents women in New York City in the period prior to World War One, [24] and Legacy of a Freedom School presents Adickes' experiences working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hattiesburg, Mississippi</span> City in Mississippi, United States

Hattiesburg is the 5th most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the population now being 48,730 in 2020. Hattiesburg is the principal city of the Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Covington, Forrest, Lamar, and Perry counties. The city is located in the Pine Belt region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</span> Activist organization during the US civil rights movement

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee, the Committee sought to coordinate and assist direct-action challenges to the civic segregation and political exclusion of African Americans. From 1962, with the support of the Voter Education Project, SNCC committed to the registration and mobilization of black voters in the Deep South. Affiliates such as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama also worked to increase the pressure on federal and state government to enforce constitutional protections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Wright Edelman</span> American activist for childrens rights (born 1939)

Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for civil rights and children's rights. She is the founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. She influenced leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fannie Lou Hamer</span> American civil rights activist (1917–1977)

Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Doar</span> American lawyer

John Michael Doar was an American lawyer and senior counsel with the law firm Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel L. Payne</span> American journalist

Ethel Lois Payne was an American journalist, editor, and foreign correspondent. Known as the "First Lady of the Black Press," she fulfilled many roles over her career, including columnist, commentator, lecturer, and freelance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Her perspective as an African American woman informed her work, and she became known for asking questions others dared not ask.

Victoria Jackson Gray Adams was an American civil rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was one of the founding members of the influential Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Dahmer</span> American civil rights activist (1908–1966)

Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer Sr. was an American civil rights movement leader and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for his work on recruiting Black Americans to vote.

Norma Becker (1930–2006) was a founder of the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, which drew tens of thousands to protest the Vietnam War, and of the Mobilization for Survival coalition. She served as chairperson of the pacifist War Resisters League from 1977 to 1983.

Sanford Rose Leigh, also known as Sandy Leigh was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and the director of the largest project in Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Hattiesburg Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unita Blackwell</span> American civil rights activist (1933–2019)

Unita Zelma Blackwell was an American civil rights activist who was the first African-American woman to be elected mayor in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Blackwell was a project director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and helped organize voter drives for African Americans across Mississippi. She was also a founder of the US–China Peoples Friendship Association, a group dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States and China. She also served as an advisor to six US presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Luper</span> American civic leader

Clara Shepard Luper was a civic leader, schoolteacher, and pioneering leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. She is best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in movement, as she, her young son and daughter, and numerous young members of the NAACP Youth Council successfully conducted carefully planned nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch-counters, which overturned their policies of segregation. The success of this sit-in would result in Luper becoming a leader of various sit-ins throughout Oklahoma City between 1958 and 1964. The Clara Luper Corridor is a streetscape and civic beautification project from the Oklahoma Capitol area east to northeast Oklahoma City. In 1972, Clara Luper was an Oklahoma candidate for election to the United States Senate. When asked by the press if she, a black woman, could represent white people, she responded: “Of course, I can represent white people, black people, red people, yellow people, brown people, and polka dot people. You see, I have lived long enough to know that people are people.”

Raylawni Branch is a black Mississippi pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, a professional nursing educator and US Air Force Reserve officer. She is best known for her leading role in the integration of the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg) in 1965, which was peaceful as opposed to the violent riot triggered by white racism after the enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi (Oxford) in 1962.

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.

Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144 (1970), was a United States Supreme Court case where the majority ruling, written by Justice Harlan, asserted that the burden of showing a lack of factual controversy rests upon the party asserting the summary judgment. It was later challenged by Celotex Corp. v. Catrett (1986), but the case was not officially overruled. While the issue before the Supreme Court was a fairly technical matter, the subject matter regarded the violation of white teacher Sandra Adickes' civil rights in the segregated South, after being refused service at a restaurant because she wished to eat with her black students.

David J. Dennis is a civil rights activist whose involvement began in the early 1960s. Dennis grew up in the segregated area of Omega, Louisiana. He worked as co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), as director of Mississippi's Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and as one of the organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Dennis worked closely with both Bob Moses and Medgar Evers as well as with members of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His first involvement in the Civil Rights Movement was at a Woolworth sit-in organized by CORE and he went on to become a Freedom Rider in 1961. Since 1989, Dennis has put his activism toward the Algebra Project, a nonprofit organization run by Bob Moses that aims to improve mathematics education for minority children. Dennis also speaks publicly about his experiences in the movement through an organization called Dave Dennis Connections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorie Ladner</span> American civil rights activist (1942–2024)

Dorie Ann Ladner was an American civil rights activist and social worker. Along with her sister Joyce, she was a leading community organizer in Mississippi for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s. She was a key organizer of the Freedom Summer Project, which promoted voter registration for African Americans in Mississippi. She participated in the March on Washington and the March from Selma to Montgomery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Michaels</span>

Sheila Babs Michaels, also known as Sheila Shiki-y-Michaels, was an American feminist and civil rights activist credited with popularizing Ms. as a default form of address for women regardless of their marital status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceola Wallace</span> American seamstress and civil rights activist

Ceola Wallace was an American seamstress and civil rights activist from Mississippi. She was one of the African-American women who filed lawsuits in the women's poll tax repeal movement to eliminate the requirement to pay taxes before one could vote. She was active in the 1964 voter registration, Freedom Summer Project.

Eleanor Virden Jackson Piel was an American civil rights lawyer. She entered civil rights law after United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, a case where interned Japanese Americans were tried for declining to be drafted. She practiced law until she was in her early 90s.

References

  1. 1 2 "Collection: Sandra E. Adickes Papers | University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library & Archives". specialcollections.usm.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  2. ↑ Adickes, Sandra (1977). The social quest: the expanded vision of four women travelers in the era of the French Revolution (Thesis). OCLC   60863327.
  3. ↑ Community College Frontiers Spring 1977: Vol 5 Iss 3. Community College Frontiers. Spring 1977.
  4. ↑ Dullea, Georgia (1976-07-12). "City U. Tuition: Obstacle in Leap From Kitchen to Campus". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  5. ↑ "Opinion | Even Now the Civil Rights Struggle Needs Young Activists". The New York Times. 1993-06-27. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  6. ↑ Hood, Orley (2003-07-22). "Freedom Schools: A page out of history". Clarion-Ledger. pp.  , . Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  7. 1 2 "Hattiesburg Library Closes After 7 Negroes Enter It". The New York Times. 1964-08-15. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  8. ↑ "EIGHT CITY TEACHERS OFF FOR MISSISSIPPI". The New York Times. 1964-07-01. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  9. ↑ "Fear rises by more enlist". Daily News. 1964-06-25. p. 953. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  10. ↑ "30 EXPRESS FEAR ON WORK IN SOUTH; Teachers Will Help Negroes in Mississippi Project". The New York Times. 1964-06-25. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  11. ↑ Erenrich, Susie (1999). Freedom is a constant struggle : an anthology of the Mississippi civil rights movement. Montgomery, AL: Black Belt Press. ISBN   978-1-881320-58-6.
  12. 1 2 3 Adickes, Sandra (2005). The legacy of a freedom school. Springer.
  13. 1 2 3 McAdam, Doug (1988). Freedom Summer. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-504367-9.
  14. ↑ Ranzal, Edward (1964-11-14). "Civil Rights Worker Sues Kress For Arrest at Mississippi Store". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  15. ↑ "Wall teacher to bring $550,000 rights suit against Kress chain". Asbury Park Press. 1964-11-11. pp.  , . Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  16. ↑ "Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. | Case Brief for Law School | LexisNexis". Community. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  17. ↑ "Supreme Court's Actions". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  18. ↑ Burton, Anthony (1970-06-04). "Lunch counter gal of 1964 is still fighting". Daily News. p. 135. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  19. ↑ Burton, Anthony (1971-05-08). "Saga of a sandwich". Daily News. p. 46. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  20. ↑ "Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Sandra Adickes". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  21. ↑ Marzell, Terry Lee (2012). Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America's Disenfranchised Students. Wheatmark Inc. pp. 216–218. ISBN   978-1-60494-810-3.
  22. ↑ Perlstein, Daniel H. (Daniel Hiram) (2004). Justice, justice : school politics and the eclipse of liberalism. New York: P. Lang. pp. 73–74. ISBN   978-0-8204-6787-0.
  23. ↑ Ramparts 1968-11-17: Vol 7 Iss 7. Ramparts Magazine Inc. 1968-11-17.
  24. ↑ Reviews for To Be Young Was Very Heaven
  25. ↑ Review of Legacy of a Freedom School

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.