“‘Builders Of A New South, Heroines of Dixie’, August 1966”. Mary Ann Smith Wilson, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson Collection on Student Activism. Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/auc.078:0161. “Oral history interview with Johnie Mae Walker, African-American, female, Freedom Democratic Party (FDP), (SNCC) field secretary and local leader, 0481, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.” KZSU Project South Interviews (SC0066), Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives. https://purl.stanford.edu/gd870gg6871; Oral history interview with John Buffington, African-American, male, Project leader of Clay County for Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (FDP), member of SNCC, 0165 and 0162 (side 2). 0162, 0165. https://purl.stanford.edu/jx620kh6216; Oral history interview with Willie Johnson, African-American, male, SNCC staff, 0307 (sides 1 and 2), 0308 (side 1), Vicksburg, Mississippi. 0307. https://purl.stanford.edu/tv170pm8718

As white southerners were faced with the logistical and financial nightmare of housing and feeding increasing numbers of demonstrators serving jail time, many reasoned, white tax payers would become much more willing to accede to movement demands. 

Once SNCC voted to pursue the jail no bail strategy, the organization immediately dispatched a delegation to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where the arrest of a group of Friendship College students, who were jailed for protesting, provided the occasion for the initiation of this new policy.  They were directed to demonstrate and refuse bail once they were arrested. When the delegation was chosen, Ruby was not among them, but her older sister Mary Ann was. At the same time, Ruby began to express an interest in going. “So what happened eventually is Ruby Doris talked it up, and I just bowed out and let her go.” Mary Ann explained in a 1990 interview.  After Ruby and the other students were arrested in Rock Hill, they spent 30 days in the York County, South Carolina, jail. Upon completion of her sentence, Ruby returned to Atlanta on March 18, 1961. At that time the Atlanta Inquirer reported that she was “ready, if necessary, to do it again.”

For more information, please visit the Mary Ann Smith Wilson, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson Collection on Student Activism at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, and the KZSU Project South interviews, 1965, Collection at the Stanford University Libraries in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives.

Johnie Mae Walker, African-American, female, Freedom Democratic Party (FDP); (SNCC) field secretary and local leader:

“They couldn’t say, ‘I’m gonna kill Johnnie Mae Walker, Negro woman, mother of two children.’ — they couldn’t say that. See, because conscience come in there. So they say, ‘Will you get that nigger.’ See, that’s how segregationists think, and that’s the type they’re given’ us. But nevertheless we got to think inside our minds the concept: how we deal with these people, ‘cause it’s gonna come to that. How much are you willin’ to give, see? I seen a lot of people say, ‘This is it, and I’m gonna work’ but I also see them retreatin’ when the fightin’ get hot.”

“See, but the people of Mississippi, they not talkin’ about their votin’ rights dear. Just because you got the right to vote doesn’t mean you can vote. On August 17 they was voting on this referendum, and they closed the polls to the people. They closed the door to the polls in people’s face, and they were registered voters. …All this stuff gettin’ talked about, and then when you go to vote you get the polls slammed in your face, the door of the poll. See, how much of this is people gonna take before they react?”

“Now, an organization like SCLC, SNCC, and CORE… Now last year SNCC worked in Mississippi and part of the project were CORE projects; and they all worked beautiful. They all had the same destiny, because you look in the Jackson office, the office we had in the center of the state, they had Dave Dennis, Dave was a member of CORE, and Bob Moses, he was with SNCC, and Mrs. Gray, she’s a board member with the SCLC staff. They seemed not to develop no conflict within the organization. You see, we had a meeting to decide to merge everything into one organization on civil rights, and call it COFO; a Mississippi graduate organization. That was from trying to keep from dealing and having conflict with each other, trying to keep the organizations alive and still get the job done.“

John Buffington, African-American, male, Project leader of Clay County for Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (FDP), member of SNCC:

“And I’ve said this, and I’ll say it again, they’ve played a great role; and just because we’re SNCC, we’re not super, and we’re not the only ones that have… created this movement. We’re not the only ones. We’re not the movement, it didn’t start when SNCC was organized. We’re not the only …thing in all this. …But I think SNCC is the most faithful. And determined. And one of the things, you can’t keep SNCC down. People are more faithful, and more dedicated.”


Willie Johnson, African-American, male, SNCC staff, Vicksburg, Mississippi:

“Prior to becoming engaged full-time as a civil rights worker, I had been a full-time student at Mississippi Vocational College. At that time, I participated in civil rights work with the SNCC group and because the things in the state were such a terrible disadvantage for the Negro, I decided to particiapte more fully, and which I became staff member of the SNCC, and since then I have been active in every faze of civil rights work in which the organization has been involved. This occurred–my active involvement occurred in ‘63 in which a voter registration campaign, which I had started in Greensburg, Miss., which was approximately ten miles from the school in which I was attending. …After a number of unsuccessful attempts to register the Negroes in Leflore County, we decided—the organization as a whole decided that the problem that existed was not just in Leflore County, but throughout the state. I was later sent from Leflore County to Vicksburg, out of the Third District. I worked as a part-time worker as a student at Vicksburg. That is, I would attend classes all week and on weekends I would come home and participate in voter registration until the end of the school year.” 

“A number of the activities in which the community engaged itself were political education classes. Our job was to teach Negroes political education — how to use the vote once they got the vote. Also, part of our job was to teach illiterate Negroes how to read and write. A part of my job also consisted of helping the new volunteers to get acquainted with the white community. …At this particular time, which evolved from ‘63 to ‘64, at which time, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was born. It was formed on April 24, 1964. This organization grew out of the desire on the part of disenfranchised Negroes to have a voice in the government. Also out of the fact that there was to be an election. And prior to this, Negroes hadn’t been able to participate actively. Therefore, the party introduced itself to the fundamentals of political organization, also teaching the people what a political party consists of. Our reason for organizing was that in the past Negroes had never had any part in the political processes in this state. Also, that officials in the state had been elected illegally. This effort at organizing the Mississippi FDP was successful, quite successful for a period of 2 ½ months of hard, down-to-earth organizing, going into the community, talking to people, getting people interested in what this political party could do for them, what they could do for this party, how they could really have an active party, doing something about the state in this way”

(Collective Against White Supremacy, General Strike Weekend Poster; Austin McCoy Papers Collection, University of Michigan)

(Ann Arbor Campus Anti-Facist Network, Teach-In Poster; Austin McCoy Papers Collection, University of Michigan)

The causes that Austin cared about were part of a long legacy spanning decades, informed by his predecessors, and the obstacles that he challenged were tied to the same forces that tried to suppress those who came before him: “I’m proud because of my family—my parents, my sister, my brothers, my grandparents—especially the struggles we have endured. Second, I’m proud of our extremely complex history. It seems cliché, but since I went to college and started studying history, I became more inspired. Black folks destabilized the slave system and overturned Jim Crow in the South and simultaneously challenged racism in the North and West.” He didn’t shy away from identifying white supremacy as the source of the political disenfranchisement facing Black and Brown communities and further commented, “White nationalists and white supremacists see Trump as an inspiration and an opportunity to mainstream their ideas and influence policy.

Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened many of these folks to harass people like myself on Twitter and social media, and, even more disturbingly, to commit hate crimes. Donald Trump and white nationalists are a threat to what little democracy we may have.” Austin entered into his student organizing eyes wide open, contributing to meaningful change, and his approach offers valuable lessons for today’s organizers in an age saturated by political obfuscation and disinformation.

Austin’s work was always centered on providing guidance for and empowering the broader community of activists. In a 2018 interview with the Michigan Daily, Austin commented, “I don’t think one person should always be out front, and I believe that if you’re an organizer, part of what you’re doing as an organizer is facilitating. You help connect people, and you support the people who will be on the front lines.”

Given our current context in an era where the progress achieved through strides like the Voting Rights Act are being rolled back and dismantled, Austin’s model of organizing—direct and unapologetic—provides a clear and inspiring path for today’s activists. The past informs the present, and yesterday’s insights facilitate today’s victories. 

For more information, please visit the Austin McCoy Papers Collection at the University of Michigan Library.