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[7^6 <f} #w_ v_# _^o__^ei_^flU"^ At 8:0° o'clock began to sort out the material at the Clothing Center in North Newton to be ready to load onto a truck at 9:00 A.M. The material that was loaded on the truck amounted to $,421 pounds. This consisted of twelve bags of new and used shoes (845 pounds), twelve bales of new and used clothing (1,036 pounds) and ten cartons of canned beef (540 pounds). The y$.ue of the shoes and the clothes, was $2,433. We did not leave Newton until approximately 12:00. The two fellows that came along with the truck were Art Regier and Mr. Kroeker, both from Inman. Travelled until approximately Little Rock where we called Amzie Moore and Titus Bender. Amzie suggested that we should stop for a little sleep and arrive in Cleveland by about 9:00 or 10:00 on December 1. Titus said he would meet us in Cleveland that day and spend two days with me. ^ecjgmbsg>r„,,l./ Arrived in Cleveland at approximately 11:00 A.M. at the home of Amzie Moore. Titus Bender was already at Cleveland. We unloaded some of the material at Amzie Moore's house and took the remainder to a smaller town approximately ten miles north of Cleveland to unload the remainder of the material. The town north of Cleveland at which we unloaded the material is known as Mound Bayou. This is a town in which every citizen is Negro except for one white resident from Massachusetts who. was a COFO worker this past summer. He is still teaching voter registration classes to the citizens. A unique situation exists in Mound Bayou in that the police of three men are all Negro. The chief of police is a most active civil rights worker and has encouraged many of the citizens to register. ^M He accompanied us and is a man through whom Amzie does much work. The chiefi of police is Willy Woodson. He took Titus Bender, the two truck drivers, and me to approximately ten different homes in the vicinity who would be receiving relief during the next days. The weather was very cold and in spite of the fact that whenever we got out of the car we would get very cool and chilly and the children would be playing in bare feet. Many of the parents reported that their children , , were at home because their children did not have clothing or shoes. Some pictures of the children in this area are enclosed. These should be given to the Information Service for their use but then returned to me at Amzie Moore's address. These are pictures of the children in the area where the MCC material will be distributed. Also enclosed in the mailing is a list of names of families that received some of the materials sent to Itta Bena last fall. A Xerox copy of the list should be made for our records and also returned with the pictures. It simply is impossible to describe the situation here. One does not imagine how life could exist for as long as it has in the situation as it is here. Some men can only earn approximately $3 a day. The families are very large. Most homes that we visited have approximately ten to fifteen children. None were below ten. One family had as many as twenty children. A few of the homes in which we visited where there were approximately six or seven children did not have a father. When I asked the mother what her husband was doing she said she didn't have a husband. This happened in a few instances. It appears as if the morale is very low. The people are also simply dressed in rags. The clothes pictured are descriptive but do not speak as loudly as observing these children in weather below 30 degrees fahrenheit. Titus Bender will be staying with me this night and then returning to Meridian |% some time tomorrow. Tomorrow we have arranged to go to Mound Bayou in the morning and open the bales and bundles of shoes, arrange them so that people can come to the center for distribution. Everyone recommends that the most unbiased person is the chief of police. He is also a member of a very poor family. When I went to visit his home / / ' *
Object Description
Title | Friesen --Friesen's Diary, November 30-December 15, 1964 (Jake Friesen papers, 1964-1967; Archives Main Stacks, Mss 528, Box 1, Folder 5) |
Author/Creator | Friesen, Jake |
Folder Description | Jake Friesen's diary (November 30-December 15, 1964) includes the many observations he made while distributing food, clothing, and shoes to several rural towns in Mississippi on behalf of the Mennonite Central Committee. He describes the abject poverty, illiteracy, and hopelessness of many black rural Mississippi residents as well as their vicitimization by banks and landlords, is suspicious of COFO and SNCC, and describes his close workings with local civil rights leader, Amzie Moore. Friesen brings a strongly religious and fairly conservative outlook to the suffering he observes in Mississippi. He brainstorms economic possibilities for Delta blacks, including sewing. |
State | Mississippi; |
Place | Mound Bayou; Cleveland; Ruleville; Greenville; LeFlore County; |
Subject | poverty; clothing and dress; food; African Americans; Freedom Information Service; Council of Federated Organizations (U.S.); threats; intimidation;; community centers; voter registration; church buildings; communism; unemployment; wages; agriculture; housing; labor unions; education; police; libraries; segregation; medicine; arrest; lynching; murder; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation; teachers; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.); Banks and banking; Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; sexism; |
Personal Name | Moore, Amzie; Bender, Titus, 1932- ; McDonald, Joe; Schwerner, Michael Henry, 1939-1964; Goodman, Andrew, 1943-1964; Chaney, James Earl, 1943-1964; King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968; Moses, Robert Parris; Moore, Warren |
Language | English |
Source | Jake Friesen papers, 1964-1967; Archives Main Stacks, Mss 528, Box 1, Folder 5; WIHVF1570-A |
Format | diaries; |
Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Publication Date-Electronic | 2012 |
Rights | Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited. |
Digital Format | XML |
Digital Identifier | FSFriesenB1F5000 |
Type | Text; Image |
Description
Title | p. 1 |
Page Text |
[7^6 |
Language | English |
Source | Jake Friesen papers, 1964-1967; Archives Main Stacks, Mss 528, Box 1, Folder 5; |
Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Publication Date-Electronic | 2012 |
Rights | Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited. |
Digital Format | JPEG2000 |
Digital Identifier | FSFriesenB1F5001 |