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Mike Healy
History 330
7/23/15
Struggles for Equality in Sunflower County
Indianola, Mississippi which is located in Sunflower County was a small rural town in
the Mississippi Delta that attracted a lot of attention in the 1950s and 1960s for its role in the
Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s and 60s the African American population of Mississippi
and Sunflower County in particular was seeking equal rights and an end to the Jim Crow Laws in
the south. The events that took place during this time were known as the freedom struggles. In
the 1980s, the African American population of Sunflower County began fighting for racial
democracy and social issues. Although the dynamics of the struggles had changed from the
1960s to the 1980s, the fight for racial democracy would not have been possible if not for what
they had achieved in the 1950s and 1960s.
After World War II, many black Mississippians returned home to their families. However,
upon arriving home, many of the men who fought in the war now felt that they whole heartedly
deserved the freedoms and liberties they had just fought for. At the national level people began to
take notice and started to compare the Nuremberg Laws that oppressed Jews and other minorities
in Germany to the Jim Crow Laws in the United States. There was a feeling by many officials in
Mississippi leading up to the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Brown vs. The Board of
Education in 1954 that segregation in schools was coming to an end. In the Delta however, there
was no place for change according to most whites in early 1950s. White moderates were scolded
for even flirting with the notion that it might in their own interests to provide blacks with a
rudimentary educational system (Moye, 41). Up until the Supreme Courts ruling in 1954, very

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few blacks or whites considered a full-scale attack on Jim Crow (Moye, 41). The African
American community faced an uphill battle for equality. Many segregationists were now pushing
for equality as long as all facilities were still segregated (Moye, 51).
As one of the results of the Brown decision, many whites began to form groups known as
Citizens Councils. These groups were formed in response to the resistance to white power that
blacks had begun practicing in the 1950s and 1960s through Civil Rights Organizations (Moye,
65). By 1956, the councils claimed that they had over 80,000 members just in the state of
Mississippi (Moye, 68). The Councils themselves were not directly involved in violence but
they didnt stand up against it either. Citizens Councils did use extreme methods of intimidation
towards blacks and moderate whites as well. National Civil Rights Organizations began to push
forward in the fight to end segregation in the south. These organizations worked heavily with the
legal system. It was necessary to be able to defend the protestors when their rights were violated
or if they were beaten of jailed by the police. Their objectives were to let the rest of the country
see what was happening to blacks in the south. They planned movements all throughout the
south to raise awareness such as sit-ins and freedom rides. These events were planned with the
intended outcome that restaurants and bus terminals would become desegregated or they would
be closed. Many blacks were beaten and some were even killed in acts of violence by
segregationists. This was part of the plan for Civil Rights Organizations. The violence that was
instilled onto blacks simply for riding a bus or siting at a restraint counter showed the rest of the
country that Jim Crow was a lawless system that was only enforced through illegal acts of
violence and intimidation. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was finally passed. This protected
African Americans right to the 14th Amendment, which promised protection under the law for all
citizens of the United States. During the 1950s and 1960s in Sunflower County, African

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Americans fought to end Jim Crow, segregation and achieve full Civil Rights under the Federal
Law.
By the 1980s, African Americans in Sunflower County were still fighting for a better life.
However, many of the dynamics of their goals had changed by this time. In the 1980s, there had
become a problem with the segregation of schools once again. Many private schools had begun
to spring up around the state of Mississippi and in particular Indianola Academy in Sunflower
County. These schools were established so that white children could attend them while black
children went to the public schools in the area. The head of the private school simply could deny
admission to anyone they chose and this case it was African Americans. However, the private
schools were still funded by government money so that even middle class whites could send their
children there without the high cost of tuition. This was essentially legal segregation and once
again the African American community rose up to fight it. They quickly organized and formally
boycotted white businesses and public schools. This crippled the economy because stores and
businesses relied on black business to survive and the school system relied on high attendance
numbers to continue to receive federal money. This shows many parallels to the movements for
freedom in the 1950s and 1960s because all blacks are joining forces together for a cause that
benefits the entire black population. However, there was another instance in Sunflower County
that would contrast to the patterns previously shown by African American movements.
An organization known as Concerned Citizens took a special interest in the labor
disputes between the largely black labor force and the all-white ownership and management. The
labor force felt that they were being treated unfairly. They worked for low wages and were put
through terrible working conditions. The workers began to discuss the idea of forming a Union to
represent them and even discussed the idea of going on strike. As they looked for the guidance

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and support, the workers turned to Concerned Citizens for help. Concerned Citizens told them
that they believed they should form a Union but should avoid a strike at all cost. Also, they
warned the workers that they would not support them if they went on strike. This was a big
change in the approach from earlier movements. Concerned Citizens felt that a strike would
cripple the relations that had been formed between the whites and blacks in Sunflower County.
This was one of the first times that an African American activist group was not simply concerned
with helping blacks because they are black, but rather they were concerned with the big picture
of social issues within a certain community.
The Civil Rights Movements that took place in Sunflower County in the 1950s and 1960s
paved the way for what took also took place in the 1980s. It took time for both citizens and
leaders to adjust to the idea of racial equality and desegregation. The freedoms that were
achieved through peaceful protests and resistance served as the foundation for the social issues
that African American groups addressed in the 1980s. If the movements had been unsuccessful in
the 1950s and 60s African Americans still could have been fighting for basic constitutional rights
instead of focusing on larger social issues for the entire population.