Unita Blackwell

Unita Zelma Blackwell (March 18, 1933 – May 13,

2019) was an American civil rights activist who was Unita Blackwell
the first African-American woman to be elected mayor
in the U.S. state of Mississippi.[1] Blackwell was a
project director for the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and helped organize
voter drives for African Americans across Mississippi.
She was also a leader of the US–China Peoples
Friendship Association, a group dedicated to
promoting cultural exchange between the United States
and China. She also served as an advisor to six US
presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald
Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill
Clinton.[2]

Barefootin', Blackwell's autobiography, published in

2006, charts her activism.[3]

Mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi

Early life In office
1976–2001
Blackwell was born U. Z. Brown on March 18, 1933,
Personal details
in Lula, Mississippi, to sharecroppers Virda Mae and
Born U. Z. Brown
Willie Brown.[1][4][5] Blackwell's uncle gave her the
March 18, 1933
name "U. Z.", which she kept until she was in the sixth
Lula, Mississippi, U.S.
grade, when her teacher told her that she needed "a real
name, not just initials". Blackwell and her teacher Died May 13, 2019 (aged 86)
decided on Unita Zelma.[6] Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.
Political Democratic
Blackwell and her parents lived in Lula. Her party
grandfather had been murdered by a white plantation
Spouse(s) Jeremiah Blackwell
boss.[7] In 1936, when she was three years old,
Willie Wright
Blackwell's father left the plantation on which he
worked and fled to Memphis, Tennessee, fearing for Children 1
his life after he confronted his boss about speaking to Education University of Massachusetts
his wife.[8] Blackwell and her mother left the Amherst (MRP)
plantation to live with him soon afterward. [9]
Occupation Activist
Blackwell's family traveled frequently in search of
work.[10] On June 20, 1938, Blackwell's parents
separated due to religious differences. Blackwell and her mother went to West Helena, Arkansas, to live
with Blackwell's great aunt so that she could have access to a better education.[9] A quality education in
Mississippi was not an option for Blackwell because the schools there were centered on the cultivation of
crops and the plantation system. Black children were allowed to attend school for only two months at a
time, before they were expected to go back to the cotton fields.[7][11] While living in West Helena,
Blackwell often visited her father in Memphis. During the summer months she would leave West Helena
and live with her grandfather and grandmother in Lula, where she helped plant and harvest cotton.[12]
Blackwell spent a majority of her early years chopping cotton for $3 a day,[13] in Mississippi, Arkansas,
and Tennessee as well as peeling tomatoes in Florida.[14] She was 14 when she finished the eighth grade,
the final year of school at Westside, a school in West Helena for black children.[15] Blackwell had to quit
school to earn for her family.[10]

Marriage and move

She was 25 when she first met Jeremiah Blackwell, a cook for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[16] A
few years later, they traveled to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and were married by a justice of the peace.[17]

In January 1957, Blackwell became extremely ill and was taken to the hospital in West Helena where she
was pronounced dead. She was later found to be alive in her hospital room, and claims to have had a
near-death experience.[18] On July 2, 1957, the couple's only son, Jeremiah Blackwell Jr. (Jerry), was
born.[17][19] In 1960, Jeremiah's grandmother, "Miss Vashti", died. A few months later, the Blackwells
moved into the shotgun house that his grandmother had left to him, in Mayersville, Mississippi, a town of
nearly five hundred people.[14][17] The Blackwell family eventually was able to build a larger brick home,
but she wanted to keep the smaller house inherited from Jeremiah's grandmother.[10]

I am grateful for this house ... I kept it because it reminded me of where I came from.

— Unita Blackwell[20]

After settling in Mayersville, Blackwell began to get involved in the Civil Rights Movement.[14]

Civil rights activism

Voting discrimination
Blackwell first got involved in the Civil Rights Movement in June 1964, when two activists from the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee came to Mayersville and, in the church she belonged to,
held meetings concerning the rights of African Americans to vote .[21] The following week she and seven
others went to the courthouse to take a voter registration test so that they could vote.[22][23] While they
were outside the courthouse waiting to take the test, a group of white farmers from the area heard what
was happening and tried to scare them off.[22] Her group stayed there all day, but only two of them were
able to take the test. The racism that they experienced, Blackwell says, made that day "the turning point"
of her life.[24] Jeremiah and Unita lost their jobs the next day after their employer found out that they had
been part of the group seeking to register to vote.[25] After losing her job, Blackwell recounts her family's
means of survival:
 We had a garden; people would give us a pot of beans... SNCC was supposed to send us eleven
dollars every two weeks. My husband worked three months of the year for the Army Corps of
Engineers, then we'd buy lots of canned goods

— Unita Blackwell[20]

Blackwell attempted to pass the voter registration test three times over the next few months. In early fall
she took the test successfully and became a registered voter.[26]

When the United States Commission on Civil Rights came to Mississippi in January 1965, Blackwell
testified in front of them about her experiences with voter discrimination:[27]

I filled it out and I had section 97 and I wrote it down and looked it over and I picked some of
the words out of, you know, what I had wrote down; put that in there and turned it over. And I
misspelled 'length' and I said 'Oh, my Lord.' And so then I filled out the rest of it and when I got
through I handed it to her, and I said 'Well, I misspelled this, and well, I didn't date the top,' and
she said 'Oh, that's all right, it's all right, it's all right.' And then she ran and got the book and
[registered me].

— Unita Blackwell[28]

As a result of Blackwell's involvement with voter registration campaigns, she and other activists endured
constant harassment.[29]

SNCC and other movements

After meeting Fannie Lou Hamer in the summer of External videos
1964 and hearing her experiences in the Civil Rights “Interview with Unita Blackwell” ([Link]
Movement, Blackwell decided to join the SNCC.[30] [Link]/catalog/cpb-aacip-151-0r9m32
As a project director for the SNCC, she organized nw0m) conducted in 1986 for the Eyes on the
voter registration drives across Mississippi.[31] Later Prize documentary in which she discusses her
that year, she became a member on the executive decision to join the civil rights movement in the
committee of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic 1960s, Student Non-violent Coordinating
Party (MFDP), which provided a party for voters that Committee and National Association for the
SNCC had been registering to vote.[5][14][32] In late Advancement of Colored People activism in
August she and 67 other elected MFDP delegates Mississippi, the Mississippi Freedom
traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention Democratic Party, and the 1964 Democratic
in Atlantic City, New Jersey, intending to get the National Convention.
MFDP seated as "the only democratically constituted
delegation from Mississippi".[33][34] They were
eventually offered two at-large seats but refused that compromise; the event, particularly Hamer's
nationally televised testimony before the credentialing committee, brought the party and the Mississippi
civil rights movement into the public eye.[33][35]

Blackwell was involved in the introduction of Head Start for black children in 1965 in the Mississippi
Delta, a project led by Child Development Group of Mississippi.[36][37]
In the late 1960s Blackwell worked as a community development specialist with the National Council of
Negro Women. In the 1970s, through the National Council of Negro Women, she worked on a
development program for low-income housing and encouraged people across the country "to build their
own homes".[14] During her time participating in the Civil Rights Movement, she was jailed more than 70
times because of her role in civil rights protests and other acts against oppression.[29]

Blackwell v. Issaquena County Board of Education

The Blackwells filed a suit, Blackwell v. Issaquena County Board of Education,
against the Issaquena County Board of Education on April 1, 1965, after the principal
suspended more than 300 black children—including Jerry, the Blackwells' son—for
wearing pins that depicted a black hand and a white hand clasped with the word
"SNCC" below them.[38] The suit covered several issues including the students' use
of the "freedom pins", and asked that the Issaquena County School District The SNCC pin
desegregate their schools per the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of
Education.[39] The United States District Court for the Southern District of
Mississippi decided that the students were being disruptive with their use of the freedom pins, but
directed that the school district had to desegregate their schools to comply with federal law, by the fall of
1965.[40] The case was taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in July 1966,
where the previous decision by the District Court was upheld.[41] Due to the case resulting in a
desegregation plan, Blackwell referred to it as "one of the very first desegregation cases in
Mississippi".[42]

Blackwell's son and approximately 50 other children boycotted the school, because of its decision to not
let the children wear the SNCC freedom pins.[43] As a result, Blackwell and some other activists in the
community decided that it was vital to educate those children. She helped open Freedom Schools in
Issaquena County to resolve the issue.[44] The schools became popular and continued to teach classes
every summer until 1970, when the local schools finally desegregated.[45]

Political career and later life

Starting in 1973, Blackwell participated in 16 diplomatic trips to China, including a trip with actress
Shirley MacLaine in 1973 to film The Other Half of the Sky.[7][46][47] As part of her commitment to better
relations between the United States and China, Blackwell served for six years as president of the US–
China Peoples Friendship Association, an association dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between
the United States and China.[14] In 1979 Blackwell was appointed to the U.S. National Commission on
the International Year of the Child.[10]

She was elected mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi, in 1976 and held this office until 2001, making her
the first female African-American mayor in Mississippi.[48] As mayor, she oversaw the construction of
several sets of public housing, the first time that federal housing had been built in Issaquena
County.[46][49] Blackwell obtained federal grant money that provided Mayersville with police and fire
protection, a public water system, paved streets, housing accommodations for the elderly and disabled,
and other infrastructure.[14] She gained national attention by traveling across the country to promote the
construction of low-income housing.[29]
Blackwell also served on the Democratic National Committee and as co-chairman of the Mississippi
Democratic Party.[50] The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party sent Blackwell and 67 other delegates
to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in New Jersey.[29][51] Their voices at the convention helped
contribute to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[29] In late
1982, Blackwell went to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and received a Master of Regional
Planning.[46] Although Blackwell did not attend high school, the National Rural Fellows Program helped
her gain admittance to the University of Massachusetts by awarding her a scholarship and providing her
credit based on her activism and life experience.[14]

As part of her community development efforts, she helped found Mississippi Action for Community
Education (MACE), a community-development organization in Greenville, Mississippi.[52] From 1990 to
1992, Blackwell was president of the National Conference of Black Mayors.[53] In 1991, she co-founded
the Black Women Mayors' Conference as a corollary to the National Conference of Black Mayors and
served as its first president.[14]

Blackwell became a voice for rural housing and development and, in 1979, President Jimmy Carter
invited her to an energy summit at Camp David. Blackwell also was awarded a $350,000 MacArthur
Fellowship genius grant in 1992, for her part in creating the Deer River housing development among
other creative solutions to housing and infrastructure problems in her state.[46][54] Blackwell ran for
Congress in 1993, but she was defeated by Bennie Thompson in the primary.[14]

Blackwell, with help from JoAnne Prichard Morris, wrote an autobiography, Barefootin': Life Lessons
from the Road to Freedom ([Link] that covers her life,
the sharecropper work she and her parents experienced, being elected mayor of Mayersville, which
caused her rise from "Poverty to Power", and her actions in the Civil Rights Movement. It was published
in 2006.

Health and death

In January 2008, Blackwell disappeared from her hotel in Atlanta while attending commemoration
ceremonies for Martin Luther King Jr. Later, she was found at Hartsfield-Jackson International
Airport.[14][55] She was subsequently reported as having been in the early stages of dementia.[56] In 2014,
it was reported that Blackwell lived in a nursing home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.[57]

Blackwell died at a hospital in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on May 13, 2019,[13] from heart and lung
ailments and complications of dementia, as reported by her son Jeremiah Blackwell Jr.[58] Her survivors
include her son, Jeremiah Jr., two grandchildren, two step grandchildren, and eight step great-
grandchildren.[59]

Personal life
Blackwell married twice, first to Jeremiah Blackwell, from whom she was later divorced. Her second
marriage, to Willie Wright, also ended in divorce. She had one son.[13]

Honors and awards

Named as fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University[42]
Received master's degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1983 [42] through the
National Rural Fellows program
Won the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 1992 [42]
Recipient of an honorary doctor of law from the University of Massachusetts in 1995 [10]
The University of Massachusetts recognized Blackwell's abilities and philosophy of life-"to
educate by doing and being" [10]
Recipient of the For My People Award, presented by Jackson State University[60]

Tributes
Blackwell is featured in Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders, a movie about the experiences
of the women behind the civil rights movement in Mississippi.[61]

Bibliography
Blackwell, Unita; Prichard Morris, JoAnne (2006). Barefootin': Life Lessons from the Road to
Freedom ([Link] New York City, New York: Crown
Publishers. ISBN 0-609-61060-0.

References
1. Blackwell 2006, p. 10.
2. Ganucheau, Adam (May 13, 2019). "Unita Blackwell, civil rights pillar and first black woman
mayor in Mississippi, dies at 86" ([Link]
l-rights-pillar-and-first-black-woman-mayor-in-mississippi-dies-at-86/). Mississippi Today.
3. "Wellesley Centers for Women — Stepping Out and Moving Forward" ([Link]
g/web/20080311034423/[Link] [Link].
Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
4. *Wickenburg, Beth (March 12, 1978). "She Got It in Her Head to Change Things" ([Link]
[Link]/image/183552041/?terms=Unita%2BBlackwell). The Clarion-Ledger.
Mayersville, Mississippi. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
Morrison 1987, p. 99.
"The African American Registry" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]?id%3D2290). Archived from the original ([Link]
com/[Link]?id=2290) on October 1, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
5. Middleton, Britt (March 18, 2012). "This Day in Black History: March 18, 1933" ([Link]
[Link]/article/do88jw/this-day-in-black-history-march-18-1933). BET National News.
Retrieved March 3, 2015.
6. Blackwell 2006, pp. 11, 47–48.
 7. Seelye, Katharine Q. (May 17, 2019). "Unita Blackwell, 68, Dies; Rights Crusader and
Winner of Historic Election" ([Link]
[Link]). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 ([Link]
31). Retrieved May 18, 2019.
8. Blackwell 2006, pp. 12–13.
9. Blackwell 2006, p. 13.
10. Haskins 1999, p. 15.
11. Garvey, Mike. "Oral History with Honorable Unita Blackwell" ([Link]
180122072057/[Link] Mississippi
Oral History Program of University of Southern Mississippi. The University of Southern
Mississippi Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Archived from the original (https://
[Link]/oral-history/oral-history-collections-z#B) on January 22, 2018. Retrieved
October 25, 2013.
12. Blackwell 2006, pp. 13–14.
13. Langer, Emily (May 15, 2019). "Unita Blackwell, Mississippi mayor who turned nation's eyes
on her forgotten hamlet, dies at 86" ([Link]
blackwell-mississippi-mayor-who-turned-nations-eyes-on-her-forgotten-hamlet-dies-at-86/20
19/05/15/259cf154-75f1-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html). Washington Post. Retrieved
May 19, 2019.
14. Carey, Charles W. "Blackwell, Unita" ([Link] African-
American Political Leaders, Revised Edition, A to Z of African Americans. Facts on File, Inc.
Retrieved October 25, 2013.
15. Blackwell 2006, pp. 48–49.
16. Blackwell 2006, pp. 52–53.
17. Morrison 1987, p. 101.
18. Blackwell 2006, pp. 56–58.
19. Blackwell 2006, p. 55.
20. Phelps, Shirelle (1998). Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the International
Black Community ([Link] Detroit, Michigan:
Gale Research. ISBN 9780787624187.

21. Blackwell 2006, pp. 65–74.

"Unita Blackwell" ([Link]
nits/spec/filmandmedia/collections/hampton/eyes1/[Link]). Washington
University Film & Media Archive. Archived from the original ([Link]
spec/filmandmedia/collections/hampton/eyes1/[Link]) on October 2, 2008.
Retrieved June 9, 2008.
Biewen, John; Kate Cavett (1994). "Oh Freedom Over Me: Selected Interviews, Unita
Blackwell" ([Link]
[Link]). American Public Media. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
Hampton, Henry; Steve Fayer (1990). Voices of Freedom ([Link]
esoffreedom00henr_0). New York, NY: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-05734-0.
22. Blackwell 2006, pp. 3–8, 75.
23. "Interview with Unita Blackwell" ([Link]
oc;idno=bla0015.0999.011). Blackside, Inc. May 7, 1986. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
24. Blackwell 2006, p. 7.
25. Blackwell 2006, pp. 75–76.
26. Blackwell 2006, pp. 76–77, 103–104.
27. Blackwell 2006, pp. 123–124.
"Racial and Ethnic Tensions in American Communities: Poverty, Inequality, and
Discrimination—Volume VII: The Mississippi Delta Report — Chapter 3: Voting Rights
and Political Representation in the Mississippi Delta" ([Link]
a/[Link]). United States Commission on Civil Rights. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
28. "Voting in Mississippi — A report of The United States Commission on Civil Rights" ([Link]
[Link]/web/20100611013934/[Link]
nts/[Link]) (PDF). United States Commission on Civil Rights. 1965. Archived from the
original ([Link] (PDF) on
June 11, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
29. Haskins 1999, p. 16.

30. Blackwell 2006, pp. 82–83.

Klopfer 2005, p. 468.

31. Blackwell 2006, pp. 83–92.

Schwartz, Robert J. (2002). Can You Make A Difference?: A Memoir of a Life for
Change. New York, NY: Lantern Books. ISBN 1-59056-032-9.
Schine, Cathleen (November 20, 2009). "Growing Up Female" ([Link]
articles/2009/12/17/growing-up-female/). The New York Review of Books. Retrieved
December 8, 2009.

32. Blackwell 2006, pp. 104–106.

Crawford 1993, p. 21.
33. "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)" ([Link]
edia/mississippi-freedom-democratic-party-mfdp). King Encyclopedia. [Link]. June 2,
2017. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
34. Blackwell 2006, pp. 106–117.
35. Blackwell 2006, pp. 111–118.

36. "Child Development Group of Mississippi runs Head Start programs" ([Link]
org/events/child-development-group-mississippi-runs-head-start-programs/). SNCC
Digital Gateway. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
37. Sanders, Crystal (2016). A chance for change: Head Start and Mississippi's black freedom
struggle. UNC Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-2780-9.
"Head Start and Civil Rights" ([Link]
-civil-rights). Presbyterian Historical Society. July 29, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
38. Blackwell 2006, pp. 133–136.
39. Blackwell 2006, p. 136.
40. Blackwell 2006, pp. 136–137, 139.
41. Blackwell v. Issaquena County Board of Education, 363 F.2d 749 ([Link]
0717233935/[Link] (United States Court
of Appeals Fifth Circuit July 21, 1966) ("The judgment is affirmed."), archived from the
original ([Link] on July 17, 2012.
42. "Unita Blackwell" ([Link]
e&id=6:unita-blackwell&catid=164:person&Itemid=22). Coahoma, Mississippi Civil Rights
Project. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
43. Blackwell 2006, p. 137.
44. Blackwell 2006, pp. 137–139.
45. Blackwell 2006, p. 139.
46. Kilborn, Peter (June 17, 1992). "A Mayor And Town Rise Jointly" ([Link]
992/06/17/us/[Link]). New York Times. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
47. Weiler, A. H. (March 13, 1975). "Film: MacLaine in China" ([Link]
3/13/archives/[Link]). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 ([Link]
[Link]/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved May 18, 2019.

48. Klopfer 2005, pp. 418–19, 504.

"Board Members" ([Link] [Link].
Retrieved April 27, 2008.
Williams, Juan (1987). Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954–1965).
New York, NY: Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-670-81412-1.
Johnson, Rheta (February 28, 2015). "Rheta Johnson: Voices speak through space and
time" ([Link]
space-time/24207199). The Town Talk. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Gazette. Retrieved
March 3, 2015.
49. "Racial and Ethnic Tensions in American Communities: Poverty, Inequality, and
Discrimination—Volume VII: The Mississippi Delta Report — Chapter 4: Findings and
Recommendations" ([Link] United States
Commission on Civil Rights. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
50. "Harvard University Institute of Politics — Unita Blackwell" ([Link]
00703061840/[Link]
Unita_Blackwell). Archived from the original on July 3, 2010. Retrieved July 25, 2009.

51. Skipper, John C. (March 16, 2012). Showdown at the 1964 Democratic Convention:
Lyndon Johnson, Mississippi and Civil Rights ([Link]
4at7OEUC&pg=PA66). McFarland. ISBN 9780786491315.
Abbott, Dorothy (1985). Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth (https://
[Link]/books?id=QRZQK1-JQxwC&pg=PA525). Univ. Press of Mississippi.
ISBN 9780878052387.
Smith, Vern (August 1, 2004). "The Crisis" ([Link]
AMBAJ&pg=PA34). The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
52. "Tribute to Unita Blackwell(Senate — June 23, 1992)" ([Link]
5/[Link] Library of Congress. Archived
from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2008.

53. Klopfer 2005, p. 504.

"Democrat delegates look back to '68 convention" ([Link]
s?id=QCtDAAAAIBAJ&dq=unita%20blackwell&pg=2409%2C3869714). The Daily
Sentinel. Associated Press. August 25, 1996. p. 16. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
54. *Mills, Kay (August 2, 1992). "Unita Blackwell: MacArthur Genius Award Caps a Creative
Political Life" ([Link]
Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
Teltsch, Kathleen (June 16, 1992). "33 Win MacArthur Awards, Including 17 Women" (htt
ps://[Link]/1992/06/16/nyregion/33-win-macarthur-awards-including-17-wom
[Link]). The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
55. "Mississippi mayor found safe" ([Link]
r-found-safe/UPI-40071200871344). UPI. January 20, 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2009.
56. "Unita Blackwell Found after Brief Scare" ([Link]
p://[Link]/Global/[Link]?S=7747304). WLBT3. Associated Press. January 19,
2008. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
57. Gates, Jimmie (June 13, 2014). "From sharecropper to presidential adviser" ([Link]
[Link]/story/news/2014/06/13/sharecropper-presidential-adviser/10511227). The
Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
58. Ganucheau, Adam (May 13, 2019). "Unita Blackwell, civil rights pillar and first black woman
mayor in Mississippi, dies at 86" ([Link]
l-rights-pillar-and-first-black-woman-mayor-in-mississippi-dies-at-86/). Mississippi Today.
Retrieved May 13, 2019.
59. Seelye, Katharine Q. (May 17, 2019). "Unita Blackwell, 86, Dies; Rights Crusader and
Winner of Historic Election" ([Link]
[Link]). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 ([Link]
31). Retrieved June 3, 2019.
60. Lowrey, Erin (January 17, 2014). "African American Military History Museum celebrate Black
History month" ([Link]
eum-celebrate-black-history-month). WDAM. Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Retrieved March 3,
2015.
61. McMarlin, Shirley. "Award-winning civil rights film screening at Frick Environmental Center"
([Link]
at-frick-environmental-center). Retrieved February 21, 2018.

Sources
Crawford, Vicki; Jacqueline Anne Rouse; Barbara Woods (1993). Women in the Civil Rights
Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941–1965. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-
253-20832-7.
Engelbert, Phillis; Diane M. Sawinski (2000). Activists, Rebels, and Reformers: A – F. U·X·L.
ISBN 0-7876-4848-5.
Hampton, Henry; Steve Fayer (1990). Voices of Freedom ([Link]
ffreedom00henr_0). New York, NY: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-05734-0.
Haskins, James (1999). Eleanor Holmes Norton (ed.). Distinguished African American
Political and Governmental Leaders ([Link]
ge/16). Phoenix: Oryx Press. pp. 16 ([Link]
ge/16). ISBN 1-57356-126-6.
Klopfer, Susan; Fred Klopfer (2005). Where Rebels Roost ... Mississippi Civil Rights
Revisited. Lulu. ISBN 1-4116-4102-7.
Morrison, Minion K. C. (1987). Black Political Mobilization: Leadership, Power, and Mass
Behavior. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-88706-515-5.
Schwartz, Robert J. (2002). Can You Make A Difference?: A Memoir of a Life for Change.
New York, NY: Lantern Books. ISBN 1-59056-032-9.
Sewell, George A.; Margaret L. Dwight (1984). Mississippi Black History Makers. Univ. Press
of Mississippi. ISBN 1-60473-390-X.
 Williams, Juan (1987). Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954–1965). New
York, NY: Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-670-81412-1.

External links
SNCC Digital Gateway: Unita Blackwell ([Link]
Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the
story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and grassroots organizing from the
inside-out
USCPFA ([Link]
National Conference of Black Mayors ([Link]
[Link]/)
Oral history interview with Unita Blackwell. Part 1 ([Link]
bject/tulane%3A54111) | Part 2 ([Link]
3926) | Part 3 ([Link] Archived (h
ttps://[Link]/web/20190517034256/[Link]
tulane:53918) May 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine | Part 4 ([Link]
u/islandora/object/tulane%3A53919) Archived ([Link]
2/[Link] May 17, 2019, at the
Wayback Machine | Part 5 ([Link]
0) Southern Journey Oral History Collection ([Link]
tulane%3Adent) Tulane University
Unita Blackwell ([Link] at Find a Grave

Retrieved from "[Link]