#ResistanceRoots #Voices4Victory Unita Blackwell was born on this day in 1933 in Lula, Miss. A longtime civil rights activist and project director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Blackwell became the first Black woman elected mayor in Mississippi in 1976. /1 - ThreadSky

bambooshooti.bsky.social • 3 days ago

#ResistanceRoots
#Voices4Victory

Unita Blackwell was born on this day in 1933 in Lula, Miss. A longtime civil rights activist and project director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Blackwell became the first Black woman elected mayor in Mississippi in 1976. /1

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bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

Blackwell was born to sharecroppers and given the name “U.Z.” by her uncle. In sixth grade, a teacher told Blackwell that she needed “a real name,” and together they decided on Unita Zelma. Blackwell spent most of her youth working in the fields and had to quit school after 8th grade. /2

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

In the mid-1950s, Blackwell met and soon married Jeremiah Blackwell, a cook for the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1960, the couple settled in Mayersville, Miss., living in a shotgun house Jeremiah’s grandmother had left him. /3

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

Blackwell became involved in the civil rights movement when two SNCC activists came to Mayersville. She and other African Americans went to take the test to register to vote but were harassed by whites and ultimately not allowed to take the test. Both Blackwells lost their jobs the next day. /4

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

Blackwell joined SNCC after meeting Fannie Lou Hamer and began organizing voter registration drives. She also joined the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was among the 67 MFDP delegates elected to attend the 1964 Democratic National Convention. They were not seated. /5

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

More about Fannie Lou Hamer and the MFDP here:

https://bsky.app/profile/bambooshooti.bsky.social/post/3lexaat5gck26

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

In 1965, she and her husband sued the local school district for suspending more than 300 Black children for wearing SNCC pins. Although the court ruled that the children were “disrupted,” the case resulted in an order to desegregate the county’s schools per Brown v Board of Education. /6

bambooshooti.bsky.social•3 days ago

In 1976, Blackwell was elected mayor of Mayersville, an office she held until 2001. She spearheaded construction of public housing and obtained federal grant money for paved streets, police and fire protection, a public water system and other infrastructure. /7

iamcanadian3672.bsky.social•3 days ago

💞

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