BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Hollis Watkins
| Hollis Watkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 29, 1941 Lincoln County, Mississippi |
| Residence | Jackson, Mississippi |
| Parent(s) | John Watkins Lena Watkins |
Hollis Watkins is an activist who was a participant in Mississippi’s civil rights movement during the 1960s. He was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi, and is a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement :
Early life
Watkins was born in July 29, 1941, in Lincoln County, Mississippi near the town of Summit. He is the youngest and twelfth child of sharecroppers John and Lena Watkins. His family was able to purchase a farm about 1949, and Watkins graduated from Lincoln County Training School in 1960. During his youth he attendedNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) youth meetings led by Medgar Evers. Watkins met Robert Parris Moses, more commony known as Bob Moses, who was organizing for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) [1] in 1961. Watkins joined SNCC, and began canvassing potential voters around McComb, Mississippi. He participated McComb’s first sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter, for which he was jailed for 34 days. During his time in jail, he was threatened on several occasions, including once being shown a noose and told that he would be hung that night.[2] Later participation in a walk out at McComb’s colored high school led to 39 more days in jail.[3] Watkins' activism also had a personal price, as many of his extended family ostracized him, and would not recognize him in public for fear of losing their jobs in white reprisals.[4]
Early career[edit]
Vernon Dahmer, president of the Forrest County, Mississippi NAACP asked SNCC for help with voter registration, and Watkins moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to help with that project. Watkins worked half days at Dahmer's sawmill to pay his way, and spent the rest of the time organizing voter registration projects. He was rebuffed from efforts to meet at Hattiesburg's Baptist Churches, but had success at the St. James Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. His first effort led to six people volunteering to try and register, including Victoria Gray Adams.[5] At the request of Amzie Moore he next went to Holmes County, Mississippi. In addition to canvassing potential voters, Watkins went to the clerk of court’s office with a hidden camera and microphone in order to film voter registration officer Theron Lynd for CBS news. The footage of Lynd, and some of Watkins was aired as a "CBS Reports" program called "Mississippi and the Fifteenth Amendment." It has since been re-released on DVD as "Mississippi and the Black Vote."
Watkins was with Hartman Turnbow and others when Turnbow tried to register to vote at the Holmes County Courthouse, which led to a firebomb attack on Turnbow’s home that night. Turnbow was later accused of setting fire to his own house, and he, Watkins and others SNCC workers were arrested.[3] It was during one of his jail terms that Watkins became noted as a leader and singer of "freedom songs." [1]
Watkins went on to do movement work in Greenwood, Mississippi and other locations, working with Sam Block, Willie Peacock, Annell Ponder, John Ball and others. In addition to voter registration projects, Watkins taught voter education and basic literacy classes. In the early 1960s Watkins began his involvement with the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, first as an attendee, later as a member of the board. That relationship continues today. He was in Washington D.C. at the time of the 1963March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but did not participate in the march itself. Instead, he, Bob Moses, and Curtis Hayes picketed the Department of Justice. While in Washington, Watkins did meet and talk to Malcolm X.[6]
Watkins became a believer in local activism and control, which was the major reason for his opposition to 1964’s 'Summer Project' also known as Freedom Summer. He thought that bringing in outsiders would disrupt the growth of the grass-roots programs that were already in place, and that after the volunteers left, it would be harder to get the local movements moving again.[3][4] Once the project was agreed upon, however, Watkins did his best to make it succeed. He was one of the SNCC members that led the training program at Miami University of Ohio, and, after blocking efforts by Stokely Carmichael to appoint a new arrival over him, was director of the Holmes County efforts. There he oversaw 23 summer volunteers, and for their safety, insisted they follow a set of strict rules, including no drinking, no dating locals, and no arguments with local segregationists. Perhaps because of these rules, Holmes County was relatively free of incident that summer.[6]
Watkins was one of many people spied upon by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which investigated civil rights workers and created files on them for government use. Watkins’ name appears in the files 63 times. Some of the reports refer to him as a communist, although he had little idea what that even meant at the time. These papers have now been opened up to public viewing.[7]
Watkins traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey for the 1964 Democratic Party convention in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which attempted to unseat the regular Mississippi Democratic Party as the true representatives of the state. He was present when Fannie Lou Hamer gave her testimony to the credentials committee, and later when Hamer argued with Martin Luther King over whether the MFDP should accept the compromise of two seats at the contention offered by Lyndon Baines Johnson.[3] His efforts on behalf of the party led Victoria Gray to announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate under the MFDP banner.[6]
Recent work
In 1988, Watkins returned to the Democratic Party National Convention, this time as a delegate for Jesse Jackson.[8] Beginning in 1989 Watkins joined, and now serves as President of Southern Echo, a group dedicated to providing assistance to civil rights and education-reform groups throughout the south.[9] He was honored by Jackson State University with a Fannie Lou Hamer Humanitarian Award in 2011.[10] On February 27, 2014, the Acting Mayor, Charles H. Tillman, and the City of Jackson Council honored Watkins with a resolution in City Hall chambers for his work on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Freedom Summer.[11]
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