Fw: [SNCC-List] Re: Civil Rights Chair at Tougaloo College / John R. Salter Jr., "JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI"

From: Jim Loewen 
To: [email protected] 
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 7:57 AM
Subject: [SNCC-List] Re: Civil Rights Chair at Tougaloo College / John R. Salter Jr., "JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI"


Just before Halloween, John Salter/Hunter Grey posted a short essay to this list:

  WE'RE INTO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT JACKSON MISSISSIPPI MOVEMENT.  
He included a letter from 1963 signed by Medgar Evers, Doris Allison, and himself, and he included links to other information.

Following up on that interesting post, I would like to announce a premium for everyone (well, for the first five people, anyway) who makes a new donation of at least $200 this calendar year (2012) to the campaign to endow a "Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair" at Tougaloo College.  Hunter has donated five original hardbound copies of his classic account of the movement, Jackson, Mississippi, published by Exposition Press in 1979.  Each book is in splendid original condition complete with paper jacket and is signed "With best wishes, John R. Salter Jr."  

Jackson, Mississippi presents a vivid insider's view of the Jackson boycott movement, the demonstrations that led to mass arrests, the actions of courageous young people, and the murder of Medgar Evers and the incredible tension of his funeral march.  As you would expect, given that Salter was and is a sociologist and a radical, it also contains penetrating analyses of the role of each acting group, including the national office of the NAACP, black ministers, the city government and police force, White Citizens Council, etc. And it shows the important role played by Tougaloo, some of its students and faculty members (including Prof. Salter), and its president, A. D. Beittel. 

As Joyce Ladner put it in her message to this list more than a year ago, "Perhaps no other college in the South played as central a role in the Movement than Tougaloo."  She also noted, "Tougaloo paid a heavy price for its involvement. "  As a result, the college has always been poor.  Today its endowment is just $8,000,000.  This endowed chair will make such a difference, both economically, by funding an important faculty position, and also to campus morale. 

 I am helping with this campaign because I feel that a dollar given to Tougaloo makes a real difference.  Certainly my alma mater, Carleton College, does not need my support, although I give Carleton $10/year just so it can claim another giving alum.  Even less does my graduate school, Harvard, whose endowment is obscenely huge.  Tougaloo, on the other hand, does more with less than any other college I know.  

Then too, as Joyce put it, there is the unfortunate fact that "all that many young people in Mississippi know of the Civil Rights Movement is 'Martin Luther King Jr.'  And he played only a minor role in Mississippi!  Simply establishing a Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair will honor and remember a great cause, a magnificent campaign."

Joyce ended her October 24 message, "My hope is that at this point in our lives, many of us who felt civil rights for all as a priority in our youth (and perhaps throughout our lives) would like to revisit that priority once more.  This chair offers an important way to do so."  This premium offers an additional incentive to you all to get a stimulating read and an important keepsake in return.

If you wish to donate, send checks made out to "Tougaloo College," with the "for" blank saying "Civil Rights Chair," to Tougaloo College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 500 W. County Line Rd., Tougaloo, MS, 39174.  Or you can give through Tougaloo's website, tougaloo.edu, specifically at http://tougaloo.edu/givetoday/civilrights/index.htm.  Also please send me an email telling me you have done so and giving me your address.  I'll send you the book in time for Christmas.  

Let me add, Tougaloo does retain some of the idealism of the Civil Rights Movement.  Pres. Beverly Hogan and others on campus still refer to (and explain) "the beloved community." Students still choose Tougaloo partly because they think its graduates do more in the community than graduates of other schools.  And they are right:  its graduates do continue to do important things.  

I continue to hope that members of this list will contribute repeatedly to the campaign for the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair at Tougaloo College.  If not us, who?  If not now, when?  Toward that end, if and when I can come up with additional "premiums" and other ideas, I shall email you all again, seeking your help.  As well, anyone who wishes to join the campaign can email Larry Morse, [email protected], with any suggestions you might have.

Best wishes for 2013 -- Jim Loewen

-- 
James W. Loewen
Best email address:  [email protected] GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIOwww.hunterbear.org (much social justice material)Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement scrapbook.  Three consecutive and full pages beginning withthis Link:  http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htmSee my personal reflections on Medgar Evers:http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htmThe Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm(Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Nativebackground.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updatededition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movementof 1962-63:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm