Page Four
._

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. November l3, 19M

Grail Describes Mississippi Experience — Wow About Us. '

(EDITOR‘S NOTE: The
following is taken from a let-
ter written by Vicki Mittle-
lellldt, ’63, who is now a stu-
dent at the Yale School of Di-
yinity. The letter was written
on Oct. 8.),

Last week the National Coun-
cil of Churches issued an emer~
gency call for ministers to

ome down to McComb, Mis-
lissippi. l was one of the three
from here who went to McComb
for a week. Bear with me for
awhile for I would like to take
the time to relate some of my
experiences.

First a little background on

' McComb. . . . McComb was
the first city to have any “north-
ern agitators" enter and try to
attempt to organize the Negro
community. This initial action
was done under the auspices of
SNCC in 1361. Because of lack
of interest on the part of the
northerners and a lack of mon-
ey the project was discontinued
As soon as the northerners
moved out of the community,
the White citizens of McComb
took the opportunity to put the
Negroes “back in their places."
,There followed a prolongEd pe-
riod of bombings, beatings, po-
lice harassment, and the like.
It was not until a year ago that
SNCC moved back into the
oommunity to stay no matter
what The program expanded
this summer under the direc-
tion of COFO (Conference
of Federated Organizations),
which sponsored a strong Mis-
sissippi Summer Project. Then
came the fall when many of the
students working there had to
leave to return to school. Again
the retaliation of the white citi~
zens was felt. As you may have
read in the press reports
,(what ones there were), there
have been sixteen bombings,
eight burnings of homes and
churches, plus continual arr
rests, beatings, and police ha-
rassment since th e begin-
ning of July, with the majority
of these occurring in Septem-
ber. The total Negro commun»
ity was, needless to say, demor-
aliZEd. The National Council of
Churches wanted white and Ne-
gro ministers from the North
to go into McComb to offer
some balance of power. Hope-
fully some of the retaliation
could be stemmed by having
persons in the area who could,
at any time, call out of the
state and to their local news-
papers issuing stories on the
condih'ons in McComb.

Moving on from an ”objec-
tive” account of what was

happening, I would like to
enumerate some of my person-
nl impressions about the trip.

Dave, Jim and I flew from
New York to Jackson. The air-
port in Jackson is outside the
city, so we climbed into the
back of a limousine for the trip
into the city. No one said a
word to us the whole trip, ex-
cept one southern gentleman
who asked me if it would be all
light if he smoked a pipe. (My
first and last contact with the
white, deitistic approach to the
white woman.) All during the
trip the three of us, were con-
otantly watched in the side
mirrors. What amazed me was
how we were immediately tak-

 

en for “outsiders." I later asked
a student here from Mississippi
why this was. His answer was
that the way we dress, our
mannerisms, and, especially,
the cut of my hair gave us
away immediately.

When we arrived in J aekson,
the other gentlemen in the lim<
ousine had their bags _carried
by Negro porters in one direc-
tion. The three of us picked up
our bags and walked in the op-
posite direction into the Negro
community. I did not realize it
at the time, but with that ac-
tion of entering the Negro com—
munity I was thereby barred
from any further possible con-
tact with the white community
for as long as I was to be in
Mississippi. In a sense, we had
changed identities and were
now, for all practical purposes,
black (This was less true for me
because I am a white woman.
The hierarchy of life in the
South seems to be a very funda-
mentalist God, the white wo<
man, the white man, the Negro,
and the ”Nigger lover.” Given
this hierarchy there w ere
months when 1 was an asset to
the group I was with, and there
were other moments when I
was decidedly and frightenly
(sic) a death warrant.)

Once Within the Negro com-
munity we went to the office of
the National Council of Church-
es (NCC). There we were
briefed somewhat on how to
act in event of violence or po-
tential violence, Oddly enough
this session helped to calm me
somewhat. For the night before,
before going “calmly” off to
sleep, 1 had'spent some time
trying to think out how I would
act in the different situations.
In one instance I had decided
that the best manner to con-
front a hostile mob would be
to attempt to establish some
rapport with the person who ap-
peared to be the leaderl This
could be done by asking if he
knew my name or where I was
from. This was precisely the
strategy described to us. It’s
odd. . . . once in a new‘irame-
work of thinking the fears that
bothered one at the beginning
are the accepted facts of living.
The problem then is not what
the situation is, but how to best
cope with it.

 

From Jackson we went to a
small town about twenty miles
away. The car We traveled in
was a Hertz rent-away car,
They are fast, and air condi-
tioned. The air conditioning
helps because all traveling is
done with the windows closed,
the doors locked and the seat
belts securely fastened. Hertz
now when renting to the NCC
immediately disconnects the

dome light with all the doors. ’

This is so that one will never
be silhouetted in the dark and
thereby be an easy target This
was a precautionary method
learned by the death of Med-
gar Evars. ‘

In Edwards we changed cars
It was dusk; we had over eighty
miles to travel; We did not know
the way for sure; the man who
was guiding us had been picked
up by the police on the road to
McComb just that afternoon;
and now the car was integrated.
Since white women civil rights
workers had only been allowed
into the McComb area two
days earlier, one of our. con-
cerns was would my presence
be an assetor not? As we trav-
eled we were followed by p0<
lice in various small towns
along the way, but were never
stopped for “supposed” traffic
violations. This was an encour-
aging sign.

We arrived in McComb and
went immediately to the COFO
groundsr COFO has two houses
to house the workers and one
building used as an office. Now
there is a permanent staff of
eight workers from all over
the nation — Oregon to New
Yorkia‘lso there is a girl from
Germany, one fellow from Can-
ada, and another from England.
I was very impressed with the
calm, pervading atmosphere
Each person was there by
choice and that is all that is
asked. There is a job to be done
and it is carried out in a calm
and effective manner.

Every night persons take
turns standing guard. The pur-
pose of the guard is to warn
mose who are sleeping of im-
pending danger. Earlier this
summer the Freedom House
where the workers slept had
been bombed—no one was in—
jured, but this was due in part
to the warning system, The

 

SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE

SUMMER SCHOOLS IN:
FRANCE—From June 20 lo July Is

in Paris at the Clio Unlvmilairs. a

corner (or sludenl: from all pm of the world in addition n. the
courier origin in previous years. we m .er offering .i. advanced

literature course
language program .i all levels.

conducted entirely in

French and an intensiﬁed
on». mm. high in Englixh and

centered on Modern Franco—literature. 37‘). and social and political

hisiery. Board. room,

tuition, and two excursions
I'ALY—Frcm June In to July 19 in Florence at Tam d.

3700
glimmer, ml.

Cenl’ury Villa. Chums taught in English and centered on the Italian
Renniuance— rt. literature, music or theatre Ind Florence under the
Medici. Spec | advanced work it provided for art history majors.

Seminar in Run m
Intuitive work m It

GREEK mun

philoropliy for history and philoiophy rind-m.
an: beginning. intermediate and ndvancnd. Board.
room, lumen, mi lwo .xcuniom __

$550

A two-week tour of 6mm and ti»- omk island: i. also coma tal-
lowing oh. smlr Lawrence Summer Sehooll—from July 2? he Airgun
l2. A sml. Lawrence faculty mmbu uccemplniu "in group. 1».

notary l... been planned to includ- ill. molt important liirvarlul and

.rchnloqiul rim,

For information and applicntlom writer SUMMER SESSIONS

JUNIOI YEA! AIROAD

SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
BRONXVILLE. NEW YORK

Sarah Lawrence College .lw scoop” nus...“ entering mi. junior year
iron. other wing... in in JUNIOR YEAR ABROAD program in P. ,

Geneva and Rome. Instruction is
therefore, . knowledge of rum.
inquire:

given in the language of w. country:
or lino" l. required.

JUNIOR YEAR ABROAD
SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
HRONXVILLE. NEW YORK

 

guard also serves to take down
the license plate numbersof the
cars (which are not police
cars) that constantly circle the
Freedom House grounds every
night. Theefirst night I slept
in Freedom House. The only
disturbance that night was two
investigations, one by the FBI
and another, just a casual in-
spection by the local police.

The next day Dave, Jim and
I spent canvassing the Negro
neighborhoods for potential
voters and young kids to at-
tend the Freedom Schools. Al~
though this was our assigned
task, I think we accomplished
the most just by being friendly
white people in the area. All
day we were followed by the
police and, at times, by white
men in unidentified cars.

Perhaps you have read about

the three women from McComb‘
who went to see President
Johnson about the bombings.
These women’s homes all had
been bombed and they went to
the President to request some
form of federal enforcement of
the existing national laws. They
had just returned our first full
day in McComb, and I was to
he the guest of one that eve-
ning “to sleep."

Mrs. Dillon who was my host-
ess is truly a magnificent per-
sonll Her home had been
bombed (nine sticks of dyna—
mite were thrown, but fortun-
ately only one exploded) on
August 28th The next day she
was held for a short period of
time for the bombing. Her hus-

CIVIL RIGHTS—
Continued on Page 5

 

Forecast for Ski-Burbia:
Fair and warmer, authentically,

Wife Stay

For the ski slopes, or the lock of the ski slopes every day of
your busy life. This is the “Arctic Turtle”...named for the
wonderfully warm way the notched collar rolls softly into c
cuddly turtleneck. The fabric is Polara pile of 100% Acrllan'
acrylic, nylon quilt lining. 35.00;

Poynier's 4th

Ave. Fashions

Grlnnell's Complete Style Shop for Women
"Somelhing New Every Day"

 

