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The
University of Southern Mississippi -- McCain Library and Archives
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Alphabetical List of All Collections | Collections Listed By Subject |
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Copyright: This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code). In 1963, Adickes spent part of her summer teaching in the black community of Prince Edward County, Virginia, where public schools had been closed in response to the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision to outlaw segregation. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, inspired by the Virginia project, organized a similar project for Mississippi for the next summer. Adickes was recruited by SNCC, and on July 4, 1964, after attending an orientation and training session at LeMoyne College in Memphis, she came to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she served as a freedom school teacher at Priest Creek Baptist Church in Palmer's Crossing. At the end of the summer, Adickes accompanied six of her students to the Hattiesburg Public Library, where the children were denied library cards. As a result of their persistence, the police were called and the library was closed. The group then made its way to the lunch counter at the Kress store. In compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the waitress allowed the students to place orders. However, she refused to serve Adickes. The group decided to leave, and when they walked outside, Adickes was arrested for vagrancy, even though she was carrying $70 in cash. Attorney Eleanor Jackson Piel took on the case, which was removed to federal court and dismissed. In turn, Adickes sued Kress for denying her civil rights. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was settled out of court in 1970. Adickes donated the money she received from the settlement to the Southern Conference Educational Fund. Among those who received financial assistance from Adickes' contribution were Jimmella Stokes, one of Adickes' most promising freedom school students, and the children of slain civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer.
Folder 1 contains Adickes' Freedom Summer Journal (July - August 1964). Folder 2 contains items from Palmer's Crossing, including a copy of the first issue of Freedom News, the joint newspaper of Priest Creek and St. John's freedom schools, and a map of Palmer's Crossing denoting streets with freedom names (Summer 1964) Folder 3 contains six photographs taken during the summer (Summer 1964) Folder 4 contains post-summer correspondence, including letters from Jimmella Stokes, one of Adickes' freedom school students; Addie Mae Jackson, Adickes' Freedom Summer hostess; and Mary Stepps, Addie Mae Jackson's granddaughter; Carolyn Moncure, another Freedom School student; Ellie Dahmer; and Ella Baker. Also included are two signed pieces of hate mail directed toward Adickes (November 1964 - May 1990) Folder 5 contains news clippings about Adickes' summer in Mississippi (ca. 1970 - 1994) Folder 6 contains a reunion booklet from the Freedom Summer 25th Anniversary held at Queens College in New York (June 1989) Folder 7 contains a number of articles/papers written by Adickes, including four about Hattiesburg freedom schools, one about the anti-Vietnam War movement, and one about the evolution of a radical teacher (1967 - 1998)
Folder 8 contains copies of two of Adickes' books: Legends of Good Women (1992) and To Be Young Was Very Heaven (1997)
M326 Shaw (Terri) Freedom Summer Collection M366 Kwanguvu (Umoja) Freedom Summer Collection M323 Ellin (Joseph and Nancy) Freedom Summer Collection M257 Glass (Jinny) Mississippi Freedom Summer Diary Photograph Log: Available. |
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