Talk sheds light on deception in Mississippi's civil rights movements

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History is hosting two events shedding light on the violence and deception in Mississippi’s civil rights movement.

In the first event, Akinyele Umoja, chairman of the department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University, will talk about “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement,” his forthcoming book.

The talk, held at UNC’s Bull’s Head Book Shop, will focus on violent resistance in support of the civil rights movement.

The second event, held in the Stone Center, previews “Spies of Mississippi,” a film that investigates government spies used to undermine the movement in the ’50s.

“We try to bring in things we have not seen before — things that may not necessarily be accessible to people in the Triangle area,” said Clarissa Goodlett, program and public communications officer at the Stone Center.

Goodlett said Umoja’s talk is part of an ongoing program at the center that brings in authors to discuss their work, and the film is part of the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film, a series of films the center is presenting this year.

Umoja, who has been a social activist since college, said he drew inspiration for his novel from stories of fellow activists living in the South.

“As I began to really study the subject, I saw more and more unsung heroes,” Umoja said.

He said he used archival data, interviews with former activists and his own experience to support his argument that armed resistance was crucial for blacks in overcoming fear and intimidation in the civil rights movement.

Umoja said his book, in part, is a testament to his family.

He said his father was a sharecropper in Mississippi who finished high school when he was 34, and that his mother was valedictorian of her high school but was unable to attend college.

“I kind of see education and making an intellectual contribution as building on my family legacy,” Umoja said.

“I think of myself as a storyteller first and foremost, so the narrative is really driven by the stories that people told me.”

Dawn Porter, producer of “Spies of Mississippi,” said she wanted to explore what she feels is a lesser-known part of American history.

“It was a story I had never heard before, and I thought it was interesting and new,” Porter said.

Porter’s film also includes the stories of successful civil rights activists, and she said she was surprised that many of them were college students.

“I really wanted to find out what would make people so young do such brave things,” Porter said.
She said the project was inspirational.

“I really loved finding out new information about people who worked in the civil rights movement and finding out that there were so many ordinary people that risked their lives,” Porter said.

“It inspired me and made me think about my place in society.”

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