People

Fairley, JC

Fairley was the co-owner of Fairley’s Radio and TV Repair at 522 Mobile Street and was the President of the Forrest County NAACP from 1962 to 1966. As president, Fairley pushed for the desegregation of public areas, increased voter registration […]

Fairly, Ken

Ken Fairly, from Hazlehurst, was a journalist and police officer who served in local, state, and federal positions.  He investigated Ku Klux Klan activity and was present as a police officer at the riot at the University of Mississippi in […]

Farese, Orene E.

In 1938, Orene E. Farese became a high school English teacher in Ashland, MS, located in Benton County. In 1939, she married John Farese. During World War II, Gov. Paul Johnson appointed Farese as the chief clerk of the Benton […]

Farese, Orene E. and Farese, John

In 1938, Orene E. Farese became a high school English teacher in Ashland, MS, located in Benton County. In 1939, she married John Farese and moved to Benton County. With a forthcoming war, WWII, Gov. Paul Johnson, appointed Farese as […]

Filner, Robert: Oral History

United States Representative Robert Filner participated in the Freedom Rides in 1961. He explains the conditions at the city jails, the county jails, and Parchman State Penitentiary in Mississippi. The oral history was filmed for the documentary The Children Shall Lead […]

Fleming, Willie

Fleming, an Army veteran, worked as a voter registration activist during the “Freedom Summer”of 1964. Sources: “An Oral History with Honorable Unita Blackwell.”Civil Rights in Mississippi: Digital Archive. 1977. http://www.lib.usm.edu/%7Espcol/crda/oh/blackwell.htm

Folsom, Jimmy Crawford

Jimmy Crawford Folsom, Sr., was one of the first black men to vote in Union County in the 1930s. He was born in 1871 to parents who both had been slaves who purchased their freedom and later bought a farm […]

Ford, Benjamin F.

B.F. Ford was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1893 and came to New Albany in 1921 to serve as principal of the African American Union County Training School. At the time, the five-teacher school provided education only through the eighth […]

Ford, Eva Mitchell

Ford taught from the 1910s at a black elementary school up until school integration. After integration, she became the first black teacher at Iuka Elementary School.

Forrest, Nathan Bedford

Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821-October 29, 1877) was a Confederate army general and an instrumental figure in the founding and growth of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest was perhaps the American Civil War’s most highly regarded cavalry and partisan […]

Fort, Rosa

Tunica’s high school for black students. It replaced all of the former plantation schools and served 3,000 black students in the 1960’s. Sources: Desegregation in Tunica: http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1802/Parker/Parker.html

Foster, Hazel

Hazel Foster ran a beauty shop and the Foster Funeral Home in Ripley and was a member of the NAACP. She applied for notary public status but was denied on the grounds that “she is far above average in inteligence […]

Freedom Rides

In the summer of 1961, the Freedom Riders, a group of mostly young people, both black and white, risked their lives to challenge the system of segregation in interstate travel in the South. The purpose of the rides was “to […]

Freelon-Foster, Dianna

Mrs. Foster was 16 years old when the Meredith March came through Grenada. She was also one of the students who integrated the all-white high school in the city. Ms. Foster was elected as the first African-American and female mayor […]

Futorian, Aviva

Aviva Futorian, originally of New Albany, was a young graduate from Brandeis when she worked in Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964. She worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1964 to 1966, largely with the Benton County […]