MOVEMENT MATERIALS FROM OLD WARS -- TO A TRULY GREAT LADY

As noted by Ms Willa Cofield's (formerly Willa Johnson) letter, things have turned out well in our dealings with the Wisconsin Historical Society and its National Social Action Collection staff.  She has received the North Carolina material from my collection -- and I received yet another cordial letter from a key Society staffperson assuring me there would be no more problems  in the future.  My collection at Wisconsin is large and includes stuff from many of my campaigns.  The material indicated in Willa's letter is only a part of the Halifax County, N.C. battle -- and Halifax Co. was only one county of several in our quite successful Northeastern North Carolina Black Belt war.  Our successful voting rights case was brought in Federal District Court.  Another of our successful Federal cases was Willa's own --Johnson v. Branch.  She was fired from her high school teaching position at Enfield during this extremely heated struggle.  Losing at the District level, it was won at the Fourth Circuit.  With supportive briefs from every Southern state AG, North Carolina appealed to USSC -- which denied cert.  It was a major victory for Black teachers generally.  Willa, of course, has always had her case materials in her own possession -- but they're also in my collection.

This was a good letter to get while whitewashing and revisionism by moderates and others continues to bubble at Jackson -- re the 50th anniversary of our massive Jackson Movement.  I am a person who can talk authoritatively and in detail about the Jackson Movement from its very beginning in the fall of 1962 to its conclusion in the summer of 1963 (although our quite successful boycott continued for a  long time thereafter -- on its own momentum.)  As I've described them, the suffocating legacy of the "corporate liberals of New York and the splendid scoundrels residing in Camelot on the Potomac" still hangs much in the air  -- but there will come a time when I will give my very full account down there in the Magnolia capital.  When I do so, it will be on my own terms. (If you missed it, see my second link under my "signature" on this post:  "Reflections of a Militant and Radical Organizer."  (Hunter Bear)

Dear Hunter -

I found two huge brown evelopes packed with approximately 240 pages from the
Hunter Gray Collection on my front porch yesterday afternoon.  The papers are 
on legal sized paper and the news articles are printed on lightweight card stock. 
They came from many sources.  

There are various orders and injunctions issued by Judge Larkins, affidavits of 
prospective voters and observers, including A. C. Cofield and students from
Duke University. There are clippings from the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald 
covering daily developments in the legal battle following the May 2, 1964 registration, 
articles about the 11 candidates that ran under the Halifax County Voters Movement 
banner, minutes of the first organizational meeting of the HCVM.  I am so grateful for
the names of those candidates.  I could only remember a few of them and I wasn't 
sure about the offices that they ran for.  

For the most part, I can read everything.  Regretfully, an affidavit from Lillie Cousins 
Smith is among the copies that are barely legible.  But overall, the copier  took care
too see that the documents were complete and legible.

Jennifer Graham wrote that she was unable to find the John R. Salter, Jr. Report to
the SCEF Board in October, 1965, but she just didn't recognize the document. She
included it in the big mailing.

I have read through the mass and I am now thinking about how I can do justice 
to this record of tremendous effort and courage.

Thank you again for your powerful and effective intervention.  The mailing would have
cost me over $100.  I appreciate the saving, and I am also grateful to receive far more 
in the way of materials than I requested.  Finally,  thank you for your careful documentation
of the work of the Halifax County Voters Movement.  Here 50 years later we can benefilt
from your foresight and careful preservation of these materials.

All the best,
Willa


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org  (social justice)

See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S
BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson
Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out 
and more.  It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through
 the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing
examples and "lessons."  And it has my new 10,000 word 
introduction.  Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews:
 ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects
the involvement  of national organizations can have on indigenous
protest movements."  (Historian David Garrow.)
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

See the related:  http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm