Unita Blackwell
Encyclopedia
Unita Blackwell is an American civil rights
activist who was the first African-American woman, and the tenth African-American, to be elected mayor in the U.S. state of Mississippi
. Blackwell was a project director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
, and helped organize voter drives for African-Americans across Mississippi. She is also a founder of the US China Peoples Friendship Association
, a group dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States
and China
. Barefootin, Blackwell's autobiography
published in 2006, charts her activism.
to sharecroppers Virda Mae and Willie Brown. Blackwell's uncle gave her the name U.Z., which she kept until she was in the sixth grade
when her teacher told her that she needed "a real name, not just initials". Blackwell and her teacher decided on Unita Zelma.
Blackwell and her parents lived in Lula, until 1936 when she was three years old; Blackwell's father left the plantation on which he worked, and fled to Memphis, Tennessee
, fearing for his life after he confronted his boss about speaking to his wife. Soon afterwards, Blackwell and her mother left the plantation to live with him. 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 had the opportunity to receive an education. While living there, 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. She was 14 when she finished the eighth grade
, the final year of school at Westside, a school in West Helena for black children.
and were married by a justice of the peace
. 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. On July 2, 1957 the couple's only son, Jeremiah Blackwell Jr. (Jerry), was born. In 1960, Jeremiah's grandmother, "Miss Vashti", passed away. A few months later, the Blackwells moved into the shotgun house
that his grandmother had left to him, in Mayersville, Mississippi.
in June 1964, when two activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
came to Mayersville and held meetings in the church she belonged to concerning African Americans' right to vote. The following week she and seven others went to the courthouse to take a voter registration test so that they could vote. 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. The group stayed there all day, but only two were able to take the test. The racism that the group experienced, Blackwell says, made that day "the turning point" of her life. Jeremiah and Unita lost their jobs the next day after their employer found out that they had been part of the group. Blackwell attempted to pass the test three times over the next few months. In early fall she took the test successfully and became a registered voter.
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:
in the summer of 1964 and hearing her experiences in the civil rights movement, Blackwell decided to join the SNCC. As a project director for the SNCC, she organized voter registration drives across Mississippi. Later that year, she became a member on the executive committee of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP). In late August she and 67 other activists left Mississippi to represent the MFDP at the 1964 Democratic National Convention
in Atlantic City, New Jersey
, in an attempt to get the MFDP seated as delegates. They were unsuccessful in getting seats, but the move brought the party and the Mississippi civil rights movement into the public eye.
In the late 1960s Blackwell worked as a community development specialist with the National Council of Negro Women
. During her time participating in the civil rights movement, she was jailed over 70 times because of her role in civil rights protests and other actions.
. 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 that the school district had to desegregate their schools to comply with federal law, by the Fall of 1965. The case was taken to the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, in July 1966, where the previous decision by the District Court was upheld.
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. As a result, Blackwell and some other activists in the community decided that it was vital to school those children. She helped open freedom schools
in Issaquena County
, to resolve the issue. The schools became popular and continued to teach classes every summer until 1970, when the local schools finally desegregated.
and as co-chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party
. In late 1982 Blackwell went to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and received a Master's Degree
in Regional Planning.
As part of her community development efforts, she helped found Mississippi Action for Community Education, a community-development organization in Greenville, Mississippi
. From 1990 to 1992, Blackwell was president of the National Conference of Black Mayors. 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 was also awarded US$350,000, from a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. In January 2008 she disappeared from her hotel in Atlanta, and was found later at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. She was reported as having been in the early stages of dementia
.
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist who was the first African-American woman, and the tenth African-American, to be elected mayor in the U.S. state of Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. Blackwell was a project director for 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...
, and helped organize voter drives for African-Americans across Mississippi. She is also a founder of the US China Peoples Friendship Association
US China Peoples Friendship Association
The US–China Peoples Friendship Association describes itself as "a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501 educational organization" whose "goal is to develop and strengthen friendship and understanding between the peoples of the United States and China....
, a group dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Barefootin, Blackwell's autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
published in 2006, charts her activism.
Early life
Unita Blackwell was born on 18 March 1933 in Lula, MississippiLula, Mississippi
Lula is a town in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 370 at the 2000 census.Lula was the birthplace of Dr. Ransom Myers , a renowned Canadian-based marine biologist/conservationist who published a seminal study on overfishing revealing the dramatic loss of nearly 90% of...
to sharecroppers Virda Mae and Willie Brown. Blackwell's uncle gave her the name U.Z., which she kept until she was in the sixth grade
Sixth grade
Sixth grade is a year of education in the United States and some other nations. The sixth grade is the sixth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 11 – 12 years old...
when her teacher told her that she needed "a real name, not just initials". Blackwell and her teacher decided on Unita Zelma.
Blackwell and her parents lived in Lula, until 1936 when she was three years old; Blackwell's father left the plantation on which he worked, and fled to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, fearing for his life after he confronted his boss about speaking to his wife. Soon afterwards, Blackwell and her mother left the plantation to live with him. On June 20, 1938 Blackwell's parents separated due to religious differences. Blackwell and her mother went to West Helena, Arkansas
Helena-West Helena, Arkansas
Helena-West Helena is the county seat of and the largest city within Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. The current city represents a consolidation, effective on January 1, 2006, of the two Arkansas cities of Helena and West Helena. West Helena is located on the western side of Crowley's...
to live with Blackwell's great aunt so that she had the opportunity to receive an education. While living there, 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. She was 14 when she finished the eighth grade
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...
, the final year of school at Westside, a school in West Helena for black children.
Marriage and move
Blackwell was 25 when she first met Jeremiah Blackwell, a cook for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A few years later, they traveled to Clarksdale, MississippiClarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
and were married by a justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. 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. On July 2, 1957 the couple's only son, Jeremiah Blackwell Jr. (Jerry), was born. In 1960, Jeremiah's grandmother, "Miss Vashti", passed away. A few months later, the Blackwells moved into the shotgun house
Shotgun house
The shotgun house is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with doors at each end. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War , through the 1920s. Alternate names include shotgun shack,...
that his grandmother had left to him, in Mayersville, Mississippi.
Voting discrimination
Blackwell first got involved in the civil rights movementCivil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in June 1964, when two activists from 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...
came to Mayersville and held meetings in the church she belonged to concerning African Americans' right to vote. The following week she and seven others went to the courthouse to take a voter registration test so that they could vote. 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. The group stayed there all day, but only two were able to take the test. The racism that the group experienced, Blackwell says, made that day "the turning point" of her life. Jeremiah and Unita lost their jobs the next day after their employer found out that they had been part of the group. Blackwell attempted to pass the test three times over the next few months. In early fall she took the test successfully and became a registered voter.
When the United States Commission on Civil Rights
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government charged with the responsibility for investigating, reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.-Commissioners:The Commission is...
came to Mississippi in January 1965, Blackwell testified in front of them about her experiences with voter discrimination:
SNCC and other movements
After meeting Fannie Lou HamerFannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader....
in the summer of 1964 and hearing her experiences in the civil rights movement, Blackwell decided to join the SNCC. As a project director for the SNCC, she organized voter registration drives across Mississippi. Later that year, she became a member on the executive committee of the 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...
(MFDP). In late August she and 67 other activists left Mississippi to represent the MFDP at the 1964 Democratic National Convention
1964 Democratic National Convention
The 1964 Democratic National Convention was the 1964 presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party. It took place at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey from August 24 to 27, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson -- who had been Vice President under...
in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
, in an attempt to get the MFDP seated as delegates. They were unsuccessful in getting seats, but the move brought the party and the Mississippi civil rights movement into the public eye.
In the late 1960s Blackwell worked as a community development specialist with the National Council of Negro Women
National Council of Negro Women
The National Council of Negro Women is a non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families and communities. NCNW fulfills this mission through research, advocacy, national and community based services and...
. During her time participating in the civil rights movement, she was jailed over 70 times because of her role in civil rights protests and other actions.
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 over 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. The suit covered several issues including the students use of the "freedom" pins, and asked that the Issaquena County School District desegregate their schools per the Supreme Court Ruling, Brown v. Board of EducationBrown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
. 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 that the school district had to desegregate their schools to comply with federal law, by the Fall of 1965. The case was taken to the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, in July 1966, where the previous decision by the District Court was upheld.
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. As a result, Blackwell and some other activists in the community decided that it was vital to school those children. She helped open 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...
in Issaquena County
Issaquena County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 2,274 people, 726 households, and 509 families residing in the county. The population density was 5.15 people per square mile . There were 877 housing units at an average density of 2 per square mile...
, to resolve the issue. The schools became popular and continued to teach classes every summer until 1970, when the local schools finally desegregated.
Political career and late life
Blackwell has been on 16 diplomatic missions to China since 1973. As part of her commitment to better relations between the United States and China, she was an officer in the US China Peoples Friendship Association, an association dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States and China. Blackwell was elected Mayor of Mayersville in 1976 and held this office until 2001, making her the first female African-American mayor in Mississippi. As mayor, she oversaw the construction of several sets of public housing, the first time that federal housing had been built in Issaquena County. Blackwell has also served on the Democratic National CommitteeDemocratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
and as co-chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party
Democratic Party of the State of Mississippi
The Democratic Party of the State of Mississippi is the local branch of the United States Democratic Party in the state of Mississippi. Its headquarters is located in Jackson which is also the state capitol....
. In late 1982 Blackwell went to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and received a Master's Degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Regional Planning.
As part of her community development efforts, she helped found Mississippi Action for Community Education, a community-development organization in Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
. From 1990 to 1992, Blackwell was president of the National Conference of Black Mayors. Blackwell became a voice for rural housing and development, and in 1979 President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
invited her to an Energy Summit at Camp David
Camp David
Camp David is the country retreat of the President of the United States and his guests. It is located in low wooded hills about 60 mi north-northwest of Washington, D.C., on the property of Catoctin Mountain Park in unincorporated Frederick County, Maryland, near Thurmont, at an elevation of...
. Blackwell was also awarded US$350,000, from a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. In January 2008 she disappeared from her hotel in Atlanta, and was found later at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. She was reported as having been in the early stages of dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
.