Thursday, August 17, 2006

Victoria Gray Adams: 1926-2006

Victoria Gray Adams flanked
by her two MFDP co-founders,
Fannie Lou Hamer (left) and
Annie Devine (right)
Since I have not seen an obit for Victoria Gray Adams in the mainstream media, I think it's important to celebrate and remember heroes of our movement. So this is from Democracy Now:

"Victoria Gray Adams 1926-2006: Civil Rights Pioneer, Founder of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Dies at 79

"Civil rights pioneer Victoria Gray Adams has died at the age of 79. She was the co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party along with Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine. In 1964 they attempted to unseat the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party delegation during the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.
Victoria Gray Adams began her Civil Rights work in Hattiesburg Mississippi where she taught voter registration and literacy classes that assisted other African Americans to pass the voter registration test. At that time, although 30 per cent of Hattiesburg's citizens were African Americans, only 50 of them had been allowed to register to vote.

"Victoria Gray Adams later became the first woman to run for the U.S. Senate from Mississippi. She also served on the board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by the Rev. Martin Luther King."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lucky for us , like Lucy Parsons VICTORIA GRAY ADAMS believed in struggling for an alternative to capitalism. Try socialism, anarchism, etc.