People

Rand, Deborah

Deborah Rand, a graduate of Carleton College and a Freedom Summer 1964 Volunteer, worked in Moss Point on voter registration and at the Freedom School. She later served as a teacher, then became a lawyer focused on housing issues. Sources: […]

Redmond Jr., W.R.

The Reverend W.R. Redmond, Jr., served as pastor of the Burns United Methodist Church. In 1945, he organized the Oxford Training School football team. In 1971, he became the first African-American member of the Oxford School Board. A scholarship was […]

Reed, Annie Laurie

Reed served as a grassroots organizer and voter registration activist for Unita Blackwell during the “Freedom Summer”of 1964 and throughout the Civil Rights movement. 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 “Barfootin’.”Unita […]

Rembert, Emily: Oral History

Emily Rembert is a native of McComb, Mississippi, and was young during the civil rights movement. Her mother worked at a nursing home, and her father worked on the railroad and had a printing office in his home, where Rembert […]

Rimmer, U.S.

U.S. Rimmer was the first Black elected to a judgeship in Beat 5, Madison County. Sources: Brown-Wright, Flonzie. Looking Back to Move Ahead Germantown, OH: FBW, 1994. Cheeks-Collins, Jennifer E. Black America Series: Madison County, Mississippi Charleston: Arcadia, 2002. Townsend […]

Rinaldi, Matthew James

Matthew James Rinaldi’s personal account of happenings in Attala County 65′-66′: “I first went to Mississippi as a civil rights worker in the winter of ’65-’66 with a large group of students from Oberlin College. We were sent for one […]

Ripley, Minnie

Minnie Ripley, known as “Momma Rip”in Issaquena County, was among the first symbolic black members of the Mayersville community to register to vote and was an involved activist at the local, state, and national levels. Born in 1900 in Vicksburg, […]

Road, Rapp

Rapp Road is a historically black community in Albany, New York. Most of the families who live there came from the town of Shubuta in Clarke County, MS. In the 1930’s and 1940’s many African-Americans left Clarke County for a […]

Robbins, Rev. William Ivory (W.I.)

Robbins began his ministerial work at age twenty-six. He served as pastor of Mt. Herman Baptist Church for twenty-seven years and St. Paul Baptist Church of West Point for twenty-three years. Robbins helped bring stability to the civil rights movement […]

Rogers, Bilbo

Bilbo Rodgers participated in Freedom Summer 1964 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rodgers was born in November 1924 to a sharecropping family in Louisville, Mississippi. Following service in the Army during World War II, Rogers moved to Pascagoula to work […]

Rosenthal, Sam

Sam Rosenthal was the Jewish mayor of Rolling Fork, MS, county seat of Sharkey County. He served uncontested from 1924 to 1969. As mayor, he modernized the town’s electricity and improved the library and school systems. Sources: Institute of Southern […]

Rush, Georgia and her son Rush Jr., John Thomas

Georgia Rush and her family were members of Mt. Zion United Methodist church. Mrs. Rush and her son, J.T., attended the church finance meeting on Tuesday evening, June 16, 1964. As Mrs. Rush and her son were leaving, armed Klansmen […]

Russell, Irwin

Irwin Russell (1853- 1879) was the author of “Christman Night in the Quarters”and other poems. He won fame with his poems in the Negro dialect. A memorial located on 1055 College in Port Gibson was constructed for Russell on land […]