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My first visit to Mississippi was on May 21, 1961, when, as a college student at Dillard University in New Orleans, I arrived on the first bus of freedom riders from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi. I did not get a chance to meet any black people on this first visit-only armed white men in National Guard and local police uniforms. I later met several prisoners from the local community and two local black lawyers, Carsie Hall and Jack Young. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had retained these lawyers to represent the Freedom Riders. After being released from the Mississippi jails in 1961,1 became afield secretary for CORE for Louisiana. After being arrested with a large number of students from Southern University in December 1961, and subsequent release in January 1962,1 met Bob Moses who came to Baton Rouge with several Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) workers from McComb to recruit some of the students from Southern University who had been expelled from Southern for their participation in the December demonstrations. We had two meetings and it was through these meetings that I became interested in going to Mississippi to work.
My next visit to Mississippi was in April 1962, when I went there to become the Mississippi Director of CORE activities. My first three to four months were consumed with meeting SNCC workers, such as Bob Moses, Hollis Watkins, Mattie Bivins, Paul Brooks, Dorie and Joyce Ladner, as well as many local people including Medgar Evers, R.L.T. Smith, Aaron Henry, Amzie Moore, Carsie Hall, Jack Young and Jess Brown, to name a few. Most of the SNCC workers were local young people. During these first months, I traveled throughout the state meeting people while trying to figure out what my focus should be and how I could maximize my efforts since I was the only CORE staff person in the state. After many discussions with Bob, the SNCC workers, and local people, 1 soon decided that I should join forces with the SNCC workers with a focus on political issues, such as voting rights. Most of my time was spent in different parts of the Delta, Hattiesburg, and Jackson. In June 1962,1...