Numerous key events in the Civil Rights struggle occurred in the Greenwood area. It is referred to as “ground zero for the 1960’s Civil Rights struggle in
Mississippi’s Delta” in Jim Carrier’s Traveler’s Guide to the Civil Rights Movement. Many historians consider that the Civil Rights movement began in
Money, Mississippi, just north of Greenwood. Our tour includes Money’s Bryant store, where Emmett Till allegedly whistled at a white woman,
Carolyn Bryant. Carolyn’s husband, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, abducted Till that night, fired one bullet into his head, tied a gin fan
around his neck, and dumped his body into the Tallahatchie River. The photographs of Till’s mother grieving over the mutilated body of her son brought
the evils of Jim Crow to worldwide attention. Even more inflammatory was Bryant and Milam being acquitted by an all-white jury, then later telling
Look magazine in a paid interview all the details of their murdering the boy. As the largest city between Memphis and Jackson, Greenwood was a target
for Civil Rights groups, who fought hard to maintain a stronghold here. They felt that if they could make a change in this town, they could branch out to
the rural areas of the Mississippi Delta. They also felt that if they could overcome the white stranglehold in Greenwood, they could overcome anything.
The split in the Civil Rights movement into violent and non-violent factions also occurred in Greenwood, at Broad Street Park. It was here that Stokely
Carmichael first coined the term “Black Power,” signaling the beginning of the militant movement within the Civil Right struggle. Greenwood was a
“battleground” to two warring factions in the movement: the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and the White Citizen’s Council.
The White Citizen’s Council was formed in Indianola two months after the U.S Supreme Court integrated public schools. They were the non-violent
version of the Klan, “the Klan in suits.” The businessmen who comprised the Citizen’s Council operated with propaganda, blackmail, and by foreclosing
businesses and firing local activists. The SNCC was a small (approximately 200) group of students who initially organized sit-ins and other non-violent
forms of protest. Although small, they became significant in civil rights history due to their voter registration efforts throughout the rural South. Their
efforts in the Mississippi Delta, where Fannie Lou Hamer joined them, were particularly noteworthy. SNCC, along with the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE), also organized the 1961 Freedom Rides, and was largely responsible for Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
After James Meredith was admitted to the University of Mississippi, local Greenwood officials cut off surplus food to Leflore County’s poor blacks.
This action proved counter-productive to the White Citizen’s Council cause, as comedian Dick Gregory shipped in large amounts of food. This, along with
Harry Belafonte raising funds with a Carnegie Hall concert, helped draw national attention to the SNCC.
