Sanford R. Leigh
Encyclopedia
Sanford Rose Leigh also known as Sandy Leigh (and after his amnesia Guy Wilson) was an African-American Civil Rights Activist
and the director of the largest project in Mississippi Freedom Summer
, the Hattiesburg Project.
parents who died in an automobile accident when he was in his teens. His older sister and her husband assumed his care. After college, and Reserve Officers' Training Corps
, Leigh, who was fluent in five languages, attended Army Language School at Yale
, served as a lieutenant, mostly at Fort Leonard Wood
, and rose to Captain. He then worked as a technical writer in Connecticut
.
Leigh became the assistant to Bayard Rustin
, when Rustin was organizing the 1963 March On Washington
. After the March, Leigh joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
in Atlanta. In SNCC he worked at times with Communications Director, Julian Bond
, and manned the WATS-line. WATS was SNCC’s main means of communicating with the activists in the hamlets of the South. WATS saved money and had the advantage of avoiding putting calls through the local telephone operators, who could listen to the calls and were often very friendly with the constabulary and the Ku Klux Klan
. Leigh could type 120 words a minute and his efficiency and competence made him invaluable to the organization.
to work on Freedom Day, a massive Voting Rights
action in the town. Shortly thereafter, when a SNCC Field Secretary had to leave the Hattiesburg project, it was felt that Leigh’s maturity, diplomacy and firmness made him the best candidate for the job. He became almost a son to Mrs Lenon E. Woods, who sponsored the project by housing the office downstairs from her Woods Guest House, in which she lived. Hers was the only “Negro” hotel — the only lodging for African-American travelers — in all Southern Mississippi. Mrs Woods owned most of the land under the Negro business district of Hattiesburg. She was also a silent partner as a landowner in parts of the White downtown area, which she, as a person of color, could not own publicly. On the eve of Freedom Day, Mrs Woods chased off a crowd of lawmen, firemen and city officials who had come to arrest Leigh just before the massive Voter Registration drive.
Under Leigh, the Hattiesburg Project grew to be the largest and most diverse in Mississippi Freedom Summer. It had seven Freedom Schools
, two community centers and three libraries (persons of color could not use the town library and had no borrowing privileges). The Freedom Summer project provided legal services donated by lawyers from three organizations, medical services provided by specialists who rotated through, usually during their summer vacations, and teams of ministers who came to work on voter registration under the direction of Rev. Bob Beech of the National Council of Churches Ministry, which also sponsored a local Ministers’ Union.
Leigh also helped manage the U.S. Senate
campaign of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
candidate Victoria Gray Adams
who sought to oppose the segregationist, John Stennis. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party registered Negro voters, who were barred from voting in Mississippi, and ran candidates opposing the Democratic Party
nominees. The campaign was to challenge the Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 convention in Atlantic City. The segregationist Democratic Party ran the state, and MFDP sought to unseat them and show the national party that people of color would be a voting bloc equal to the segregationists, if allowed to register to vote.
When the Department of Economic Opportunity launched Head Start in 1965, newspapers, segregationist congressmen, and local governments denounced it as a Communist conspiracy. Leigh managed the program in Southeastern Mississippi. Head Start was a natural successor to the Freedom Schools. Funding was controlled through local governments, which tried to sabotage the program. They refused the grants and funding. In Congress and locally, governments struggled to wrest control from the local people who had staffed the new program.
. He then became an assistant to Walter Washington
, the first Black Mayor of Washington, DC. Leigh relocated to New York, was employed as an Administrative Assistant by Bechtel
, and as an organist at the Abyssinian Baptist Church
.
In 1972 police found Leigh in a subway in Harlem
, brutally beaten. He suffered amnesia
, and his friends searched in vain for six months, until he told Harlem Hospital social workers the name someone called him in a dream. When he began to regain his memory he was found beaten near his room in the YMCA
in 1974. He suffered brain damage, never recovered his memory, and was placed in adult home care.
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
and the director of the largest project in Mississippi Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
, the Hattiesburg Project.
Early life
Leigh was born in 1934, in Bridgeport, Connecticut to West IndianCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
parents who died in an automobile accident when he was in his teens. His older sister and her husband assumed his care. After college, and Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a college-based, officer commissioning program, predominantly in the United States. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.The U.S...
, Leigh, who was fluent in five languages, attended Army Language School at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, served as a lieutenant, mostly at Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood (military base)
Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army installation located in the Missouri Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of St. Robert. The post was created in December 1940 and named in honor of General Leonard Wood, former Chief of Staff, in January 1941...
, and rose to Captain. He then worked as a technical writer in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Leigh became the assistant to Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
, when Rustin was organizing the 1963 March On Washington
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
. After the March, Leigh joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
in Atlanta. In SNCC he worked at times with Communications Director, Julian Bond
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
, and manned the WATS-line. WATS was SNCC’s main means of communicating with the activists in the hamlets of the South. WATS saved money and had the advantage of avoiding putting calls through the local telephone operators, who could listen to the calls and were often very friendly with the constabulary and the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. Leigh could type 120 words a minute and his efficiency and competence made him invaluable to the organization.
The Hattiesburg Project
In January 1964, Leigh went to Hattiesburg, MississippiHattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...
to work on Freedom Day, a massive Voting Rights
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
action in the town. Shortly thereafter, when a SNCC Field Secretary had to leave the Hattiesburg project, it was felt that Leigh’s maturity, diplomacy and firmness made him the best candidate for the job. He became almost a son to Mrs Lenon E. Woods, who sponsored the project by housing the office downstairs from her Woods Guest House, in which she lived. Hers was the only “Negro” hotel — the only lodging for African-American travelers — in all Southern Mississippi. Mrs Woods owned most of the land under the Negro business district of Hattiesburg. She was also a silent partner as a landowner in parts of the White downtown area, which she, as a person of color, could not own publicly. On the eve of Freedom Day, Mrs Woods chased off a crowd of lawmen, firemen and city officials who had come to arrest Leigh just before the massive Voter Registration drive.
Under Leigh, the Hattiesburg Project grew to be the largest and most diverse in Mississippi Freedom Summer. It had seven Freedom Schools
Freedom Schools
Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States...
, two community centers and three libraries (persons of color could not use the town library and had no borrowing privileges). The Freedom Summer project provided legal services donated by lawyers from three organizations, medical services provided by specialists who rotated through, usually during their summer vacations, and teams of ministers who came to work on voter registration under the direction of Rev. Bob Beech of the National Council of Churches Ministry, which also sponsored a local Ministers’ Union.
Leigh also helped manage the U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
campaign of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...
candidate Victoria Gray Adams
Victoria Gray Adams
Victoria Jackson Gray Adams was an American civil rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was one of the founding members of the influential Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.-Early life and education:...
who sought to oppose the segregationist, John Stennis. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party registered Negro voters, who were barred from voting in Mississippi, and ran candidates opposing the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominees. The campaign was to challenge the Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 convention in Atlantic City. The segregationist Democratic Party ran the state, and MFDP sought to unseat them and show the national party that people of color would be a voting bloc equal to the segregationists, if allowed to register to vote.
When the Department of Economic Opportunity launched Head Start in 1965, newspapers, segregationist congressmen, and local governments denounced it as a Communist conspiracy. Leigh managed the program in Southeastern Mississippi. Head Start was a natural successor to the Freedom Schools. Funding was controlled through local governments, which tried to sabotage the program. They refused the grants and funding. In Congress and locally, governments struggled to wrest control from the local people who had staffed the new program.
Later life
Leigh later worked as aide de camp for Stokeley Carmichael until Carmichaels’ marriage to Miriam MakebaMiriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
. He then became an assistant to Walter Washington
Walter Washington
Walter Edward Washington, was an American politician, the first home-rule mayor of the District of Columbia...
, the first Black Mayor of Washington, DC. Leigh relocated to New York, was employed as an Administrative Assistant by Bechtel
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
, and as an organist at the Abyssinian Baptist Church
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The Abyssinian Baptist Church is among the most famous of the many prominent and activist churches in the Harlem section of New York City.- History :...
.
In 1972 police found Leigh in a subway in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, brutally beaten. He suffered amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
, and his friends searched in vain for six months, until he told Harlem Hospital social workers the name someone called him in a dream. When he began to regain his memory he was found beaten near his room in the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
in 1974. He suffered brain damage, never recovered his memory, and was placed in adult home care.