Letters of Senator John C. Stennis and Rodger E. Ownby
Many Black people wanted to put their constitutional rights into effect, but they experienced oppression, which made it hard for them. The SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was one of the major civil rights organizations that wanted to get the nation’s attention of the oppression black people faced. They wanted this freedom movement to create a great impact even after the student activists left Mississippi.
On June 14, 1964, one of the first group of volunteers, mainly white people of the middle and upper class, traveled to Mississippi to train at the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio after SNCC activist Robert Moses presented for northern white volunteers to participate in many local campaigns in Mississippi. These volunteers were trained to prepare Black people for voter registration and also teach literacy in Freedom Schools, which were schools where Black people learned about political aspects, skills, and the civil rights movement. Volunteers also went as far as creating freedom libraries, freedom housing, and holding many meetings and protests.
However, many locals did not receive these campaigns lightly. One resident who was from Jackson, named Rodger E. Ownby, mailed a letter to Senator John C. Stennis, who was also against desegregation and Civil Rights. In the letter, Mr. Ownby complained to Stennis, explaining that the volunteers were causing trouble and needed to leave. He even suggested to Stennis to contact President Lyndon B. Johnson to get him involved with “throwing out” the Freedom Riders. At the end of the letter, he thanks Stennis for fighting against the Civil Rights Bill.
While John C. Stennis was against the Civil Rights Bill and Civil Rights Movement, he also believed that “the country needed no more laws to solve its racial problems” (Curtis 135). He responded in his own letter to Mr. Ownby, stating that he agrees that the campaigns are “ridiculous”. However, he states that the Civil Rights Bill could not be blocked due to the fact there were 71 votes that supported the bill.
Due to many local citizens being against the campaigns, it led to violent events. This included many of the volunteers who participated in the Freedom Summer campaigns to be arrested, beaten, or killed. It also led to many churches and homes being bombed or burned down. A few of the significant victims were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Shcwerner. James Chaney was from Meridian, MS and Andrew Goodman and Michael Shcwerner were from New York.
The Freedom Summer project eventually brought attention to President Lyndon B. Johnson along with the rest of the nation. In result, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act followed afterwards.
Curtis, Jesse N., “Remembering Racial Progress, Forgetting White Resistance: The Death of Mississippi Senator John C. Stennis and the Consolidation of the Colorblind Consensus”, History and Memory, vol. 29, no. 1, spring/summer 2017, pp. 134-160.
“Freedom Summer.”, National Archives, October, 2020, www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote/freedom-summer
“Freedom Summer”., Standford The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Standford University, www. kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-summer
Menkart, Deborah and View, Jenice L., “Exploring the History of Freedom Schools”, civilrightsteaching.org