MARCH AGAINST FEAR

James Meredith's "March Against Fear"

On June 5, 1966, James Meredith, the first black student to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962, embarks on a solo 220-mile "March Against Fear," designed to encourage black voting in Mississippi. On June 6, 1966 in Hernando, Mississippi, Meredith is shot down by white racist Aubrey James Norvell.

Martin Luther King, Jr. hears about the shooting while presiding over the regular staff meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC staff agrees that the march must continue. King explains the group's reasoning in his autobiography:

Meredith began his lonely journey as a pilgrimage against fear. Wouldn't failure to continue only intensify the fears of the oppressed and deprived Negros of Mississippi? Would this not be a setback for the whole civil rights movement and a blow to nonviolent discipline?

On June 7, 1966, King visits Memphis, Tennessee with staff members and CORE director Floyd McKissick. While visiting the recuperating Meredith at the Municipal Hospital, the group is joined by Stokely Carmichael, chairman of the SNCC. In a brief conference, Floyd, Stokely and King agree that the march will be jointly sponsored by CORE, SNCC, and SCLC, and that a national call will be issued for support and participation.

Meredith Mississippi Freedom March

King and a group of marchers begin the second stage of the march, now known as the "Meredith Mississippi Freedom March," starting from the spot on Highway 51 where Meredith had been shot the day before.

King and Stokely (and others) disagree regarding the participation of whites in the march. King emphasizes the importance of unity. "Consciences must be enlisted in our movement, King says, "not merely racial groups." Floyd and Stokely agree to unite around the principle of nonviolence and interracial involvement. On June 8, 1966, the group holds a joint press conference, confirming that the march will be nonviolent and open to white participation.

A manifesto is issued, calling for the President to send voting examiners into 600 Southern counties, order the FBI and U.S. Marshals to actively enforce laws, and strengthen the Civil Rights Bill of 1966.

The number of marchers eventually reaches several hundred. In Granada, Mississippi, on June 14, fourteen marchers persuade 650 African-Americans to vote. On June 17, Stokely Carmichael addresses a huge mass meeting in Greenwood. The "Black Power" slogan gains its first show of public support as Carmichael proclaims: "What we need is black power."

In Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 300 whites attack the marchers with rocks, bottles and clubs.

James Meredith rejoins the march on June 24 and participates in the final rally of 15,000 people at the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi on June 26.

QUOTES

I think that the greatest tribute that we can pay him [Meredith] as he lies on his sickbed as a result of being shot yesterday, is to go out and work harder to remove the conditions from our society and from the state of Mississippi that made it possible for him to be shot.

Freedom is not some lavish dish that the white man will pass out on a silver platter while the Negro merely furnished the appetite.
— King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Address at Meredith March Rally
[Memphis, Tenn.]
7 June 1966

SOURCES

Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Warner Book, 1998).

Clayborne Carson, ed., Civil Rights Chronicle: The African American Struggle for Freedom (Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, Ltd., 2003).

Hornsby, Jr., Alton, Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present (Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1991).

LINKS

Address at Meredith March Rally, 7 June 1966 (transcript)

1966: Black civil rights activist shot (BBC News)