Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country
VOICES FROM THE
MISSISSIPPI
HILL COUNTRY
The Benton County Civil Rights Movement
Roy DeBerry, Aviva Futorian, Stephen Klein, and John Lyons
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
The University Press of Mississippi is the scholarly publishing agency of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning: Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University, University of Mississippi, and University of Southern Mississippi.
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of University Presses.
Copyright 2020 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2020
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: DeBerry, Roy, author. | Futorian, Aviva, author. | Klein, Stephen, 1936- author. | Lyons, John, 1981- author.
Title: Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country: The Benton County Civil Rights Movement / Roy DeBerry, Aviva Futorian, Stephen Klein, and John Lyons.
Description: Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020007605 (print) | LCCN 2020007606 (ebook) | ISBN 9781496828828 (hardback) | ISBN 9781496828811 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781496828835 (epub) | ISBN 9781496828842 (epub) | ISBN 9781496828859 (pdf) | ISBN 9781496828866 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: African AmericansCivil rightsHistoryInterviews. | Benton County (Miss.)HistoryInterviews. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination | LCGFT: Interviews.
Classification: LCC F347.B4 D43 2020 (print) | LCC F347.B4 (ebook) | DDC 976.2/89dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007605
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007606
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
Preface
You can drive through Benton County in the north hill country of Mississippi and never know it. Fewer than nine thousand people are scattered over four hundred square miles. Benton is among the poorest counties in Americas poorest state. It has little industry, scarce entertainment, and very few jobs. Theres not much beyond farms, forests, and two US highways.
But the thousands of travelers on US Highways 72 and 78 who drive through Benton County every day never realize theyre passing through an area with one of the countrys richest civil rights histories. Local chapters of the NAACP and a Citizens Club were organized in the 1940s and 50s. Benton was one of the first Mississippi counties to get a federal observer under the 1964 Voting Rights Act, it had the highest per capita percentage of registered voters, and its citizens produced a regular, clandestinely distributed newsletter called the Benton County Freedom Train.
This is a book about life before, during, and after the civil rights movement, as told in their own words by the residents of a rural county in northern Mississippi. It examines one of the most revolutionary periods in American history through the voices of farmers, teachers, sharecroppers, and students. Rather than the polished words of the movements icons, we hear the simple eloquence of an elderly woman recalling her long days toiling in the cotton fields. We hear the courage of a sharecropper remembering voting for the first time. We hear the determination of parents deciding to send their children to integrate an all-white school. We hear the terror in a first-graders voice, walking into an all-white classroom on the first day of school. We hear the resolve in a janitor recalling his first civil rights meeting. And we hear the wisdom and grace of a community talking about justice, equity, and the promise of a better future.
Through these first-person stories, covering more than a centurys worth of history, we are presented with a vivid picture of these people, this place, and these times. In this book, Benton County residents, black and white, young and old, tell us in their voices about the events that shaped their lives and ultimately, in their own humble way, the trajectory of America.
Henry Reaves (standing) with Ellie Steward (center) and Rebecca Dorse (left), Samuels Chapel, March 16, 1965. Courtesy of Aviva Futorian.
Dedication
Henry Reaves, 19001990
Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country is about the power of a community working together. But one man, Henry Reaves, was the driving force behind the local movements progress. Mr. Reavess energy and commitment to change provided an invaluable contribution to the vibrant and productive civil rights movement in Benton County.
Born in 1900 to Levi Reaves and Jane MacDonald Reaves, he was home-schooled. When he was a young boy in the first years of the twentieth century, a time when illiteracy was by far the norm, Mr. Reavess mother taught him how to read and write. Decades later, he saw in the school system one of the main battlegrounds of the movement, and was instrumental in organizing and encouraging black parents to send their children to integrate the school system. His children, Henry Jr. (Sonny) and Naomi, both did.
Well before the arrival of civil rights volunteers in 1964, Mr. Reaves was organizing residents in Benton County, largely around voting rights. He would visit every person on their twenty-first birthday (previously the eligibility age for voting) and speak to them about registering to vote. He was highly respected in the black community, so much so that when a young person who hadnt yet registered would see Mr. Reaves in town, they would run in the other direction to avoid having to confess their failure to him.
Mr. Reaves founded a local chapter of the NAACP and called it the Benton County Citizens Club. He visited churches in the county, talking about the importance of being a citizen through voting. Many of the interviewees credit Mr. Reaves with emboldening them to register and exercising the rights of citizenship. He traveled around the state, meeting with other organizations and activists. In the decades prior to the 1960s, it was incredibly lonely, dangerous work.
In the young people of Benton County, he saw the key to the movement. He would frequently drive young people to and from civil rights meetings around the state. Mr. Reaves also was a believer in self-reliance. He was a landowner, like most of the active members of the movement in Benton County. As his adopted nephew Henry Leake told us,
He wouldnt let us work for white folks. He never said why. He just always showed us that you work for yourself.
Mr. Reaves passed away in 1990, before he could participate in this project. His work and legacy are clearly reflected in the lives of the people whose voices we recorded. He was a humble, independent farmer, born at the height of Jim Crow in a tiny, rural Mississippi county. Through dogged persistence, profound moral clarity, and sheer force of will, he led the people of Benton County, all of them, to a better future. Every county in America should be so fortunate.
Introduction: Historical Context
Benton County is an area that is overlooked in many of Americas civil rights histories. To that end, some historical context of this area may be of interest to the reader.
