Amite County is located in Southwest Mississippi on the Louisiana border. Its county seat is Liberty, founded in 1805 and is, thus, one of oldest towns in the state. Following the Civil War, Amite County was 60% African American, and several of its sheriffs were African American as well. After Reconstruction, many African Americans were disenfranchised and racial violence escalated. Until July of 1965, only one out of a population of 5,500 African Americans in Amite County was a registered voter. Twelve years after the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, Amite County contained no integrated classrooms. Two years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it failed to provide even one integrated public facility, and one year after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it possessed no federal voting registrar. The Ku Klux Klan was particularly active in Amite: the sheriff in 1966, Daniel Jones, was the son of Brian Jones, the county’s Klan leader.
Amite County
Amite County
McDew, Charles “Chuck”: Oral History
Charles “Chuck” McDew participated in the civil rights movement in many parts of the American South, including Mississippi. He was a pivotal movement activist in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In this interview, he begins by discussing segregated seating laws in the South versus elsewhere. He then describes the Greensboro sit-ins. He concludes by discussing his hopes for change in Mississippi. His interview is featured in the documentary The Children Shall Lead (link).
Chuck McDew from Winter Institute on Vimeo.
His oral history may also be viewed here.
Interview Data
Name of Interviewee: Chuck McDew
Name of Interviewer: Susan Glisson
Date: April 10, 2004
Place of Interview: Oxford, MS
Time | Topics/Names/Events Discussed |
0:00-2:00 | Jim Crow |
2:00-4:00 | Plessy vs. Ferguson; Sumter, SC; arrest |
4:00-6:00 | Arrest; train travel |
6:00-8:00 | Segregation; language of segregation |
8:00-10:00 | Plessy vs. Ferguson |
10:00-12:00 | Taxes; equal facilities |
12:00-14:00 | University of Texas Law School; Mr. Sweet |
14:00-16:00 | Inequality in Southern schools; separate but equal |
16:00-18:00 | Nonviolent action |
18:00-20:00 | Brown vs. Board of Education; Montgomery Bus Boycott |
20:00-22:00 | Montgomery Bus Boycott |
22:00-24:00 | February 1, 1960 – beginning of sit-ins |
24:00-26:00 | Sit-ins; desegregating buses; Ohio |
26:00-28:00 | Segregated bus travel |
28:00-30:00 | Bus travel; Anniston, AL |
30:00-32:00 | Freedom Rides; SNCC |
32:00-34:00 | Freedom Rides; SNCC; violence |
34:00-36:00 | Mississippi |
36:00-38:00 | Sit-ins; wade-ins; Mississippi; desegregation |
38:00-40:00 | History of race relations in Mississippi |
40:00-42:00 | Mississippi; Ross Barnett; Ole Miss; SNCC in Mississippi |
42:00-44:00 | Atlanta; Mississippi; Pell City, AL; Jackson, MS; Ku Klux Klan sign in Mississippi |
44:00-46:00 | Racial conditions in Mississippi; Emmett Till; racial violence |
46:00-48:00 | “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” |
48:00-50:00 | Mortality; changes in Mississippi; McComb, MS; Chatawa, MS; Amite County, MS; fear |
50:00-52:00 | Dante’s Inferno; Amite County, MS; Freedom Rides in context of larger movement |
52:00-54:00 | Freedom Rides in context of larger movement; significance of Mississippi in movement; Christianity |
54:00-56:00 | Morality; humanness; change; ability of young people to make change |
56:00-58:00 | Change in Mississippi; courage |
58:00-60:00 | “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” |