Oral+History+Project

Summary
Mississippi in the 1950s Mississippi was very segregated in the 1950s. It was the poorest state in the nation and 86% of all non-white families lived below the national poverty line. Most blacks were not registered to vote. 45% of Mississippi was black and only 5% of them were registered to vote. In the late 1950s, the NAACP went to Mississippi in an effort to register more blacks. During the summer of 1964, civil rights activists from the North descended on Mississippi to try to end the political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the area. The activists wanted to give blacks the voter registration. “Freedom Summer marked the climax of intensive voter-registration activities in the South that had started in 1961. Organizers chose to focus their efforts on Mississippi because of the state's particularly dismal voting-rights record: in 1962 only 6.7 percent of African Americans in the state were registered to vote, the lowest percentage in the country”, according to Core website. In 1955, the famous case of Emmet Till took place. 14-year-old Emmet Till was caught whistling at a white women. One week later, J. W. Milam and his half-brother Roy Bryant arrived at Emmet's house and took him from his grandfather. They beat him to death and dumped his body into the Tallahatchee River. An all-white jury found the two not guilty. Life was very hard for blacks during this time. Almost everything was segregated and there was a lot of violence and racism. There was a lot of racism faced towards people who attemped to register to vote.

Works Cited

[|Here is a website that explains what was going on in Mississippi in the 1950-60s.]

Interview Tell the story of when you were in Mississippi in the 1950s.
I entered the Air Force as a 2nd lieutenant assigned as a Judge advocate (an attorney trying court-martial cases and acting as base claims officer). At Greenville Air Force Base in Greenville, Mississippi starting in October 1955.

Greenville was located on the Mississippi river in the heart of cotton growing country. The city was over 45% African American with many working as sharecroppers in the cotton fields, and all being very poor.
 * How would you describe Mississippi at the time?**

There were many threats against them as a result of people from the north coming down to get them registered to vote. Several months before I arrived three of these young men who were working to register voters were murdered about 35 miles from Greenville. The killers were members of the Ku Klux Klan, which was very active in Mississippi at this time. It took over 25 years to bring the killers to trial and conviction.
 * Did you experience a lot of violence or racism towards African Americans?**

As a result, the level of racism was extreme, with separate school systems for white and African-American students. At the movie theater Africa-Americans were required to sit in the balcony, with the first floor reserved for whites. This separation also existed in restaurants and other public facilities. Bathrooms and water fountains were designated as white only.
 * How would you describe the segregation at the time?**

One day the base commander Brigadier General called me to his office. He was concerned that a sergeant was transferring in from Japan where he had married a Japanese woman. At that time Mississippi had a miscegenation statute as the law. A miscegenation law prohibited marriage between different races. The General knew I had met the Local Judge in Greenville and asked if I would speak with him about the issue. To show the extreme level of racism, when I related the problem to the Judge he asked where I had gone to law school. I told him Northwestern University. He could not believe how dumb I was and what lousy job the law school had done. He then went on to tell me the law did not care about Japs (his words) but that only Negroes (his words) were covered, in spite of the clear statement in the law referring to marriage between different races.
 * Did you face any important issues that you had to deal with?**

You can understand how an African-American would be treated if he were brought before this Judge. Actually, I was too polite with the judge…I should have challenged his reasoning, but was concerned about the air force base relations with the city.
 * Looking back, do you wish you did something differently, such as approach a problem differently?**

Most Mississippians treated us ok. But as Base claims officer, I had to be part of a convoy of fire engines medical that would go out night and day to airplane crash sites. Greenville air force base trained new pilots and there were frequent crashes or pilots dropping fuel tanks on cotton fields that caused damage to crops. I had to obtain info and file a claim for reimbursement from the government. More then once, I was threatened verbally and was the recipient of very nasty comments about my religion. I believed most of these people were active in the Ku Klux Klan. After these incidents, I always had an armed air police officer accompany me.
 * How did people in Mississippi treat you?**

Yes. After experiencing the southerner attitude towards African-American, it reinforced my desire counter this when I left the air force. Over the years, I have been extremely active in assisting African-Americans to purchase homes. Also I started a program in Milwaukee called “Neighborhood Housing Services” to help stabilize neighborhoods and encourage more home ownership/s.
 * Did your perspective on racism change after you went home from Mississippi?**

I was very surprised at how much segregation there was towards African Americans. Reading Mr. Levy's thoughts gave me a different perspective. It was very interesting to interview someone who had witnessed all the harsh treatment blacks had went through. Also, to see his reaction to what happened. Through this interview I learned that whites were treated poorly too. Mr. Levy stated that he was "threatened verbally about his religion."
 * Reflection **

Mr. Levy witnessed the segregation when he went to Mississippi. He says that everything was segregated and the level of segregation was "extreme." Blacks had to seat in the balcony for movies, they couldn't drink from the same drinking fountain as whites, couldn't go to the same school, many people didn't care about African Americans and their education and if they got equal rights or not. Many people were satisfied with a segregated community. I was able to see that going to Mississippi changed Mr. Levy's perspective on racism. He now helps African Americans purchase homes. This interview helped provide a perspective of someone who witnessed the terrible treatment of African Americans in Mississippi in the 1950s.