Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, State Government Funded Racist Department: Civil Rights Photography Portfolio; Match Names With Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Files

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Civil Rights Photography Portfolio; Match Names With Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Files

The latest issue of the New Yorker features a portfolio of photographs by the British photographer Platon. The portfolio, accompanied by text written by David Remnick, includes photographs of the Little Rock Nine, members of the Greensboro Four, members of SNCC, and relatives of Medgar Evers.

It pairs these images with historic photographs of iconic civil rights leaders like Ella Baker and Fred Shuttlesworth. In the context of a movement whose success owes a debt to the power of the visual image, it is a remarkable and moving series of photographs.

You will be amazed at how many of these folks have Sovereignty Commission files ... Take a look ... Here are a few links to get started:

Ella Baker

SNCC

SNCC & 1964 Summer

Medgar Evers "Consolidation" File

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Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Links

On Wikipedia: ” The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency directed by the governor of Mississippi that existed from 1956 to 1977. The commission's stated objective was to "[...] protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states" from "federal encroachment." Initially, it was formed to coordinate activities to portray the state, and the legal racial segregation enforced by the state, in a more positive light.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_State_Sovereignty_Commission Facts About Mississippi Sovereignty Commission: Some facts about the now-defunct Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, whose files were opened to the public Tuesday. FOUNDED: Created by legislative act in 1956, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education outlawed segregated schools. MISSION: The Legislature created the commission to "protect the sovereignty of the State of Mississippi and her sister states" from federal government interference. In practice, it worked to preserve a segregated society and to oppose school integration. In secret, the commission harassed and spied on activists, branding many of them racial agitators and communist infiltrators. http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/bh/badco/missSov.htm MDAH Digital Collection: Sovereignty Commission Online http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/ The Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission by Jo Freeman (2001): “On Thursday, August 18, 1966 I entered the Bellflower Church in Grenada, Mississippi, which the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was using as its headquarters for a voter registration project. I had been a fieldworker for SCLC for over a year but in Mississippi only since June.” http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/FSMMiss.htm