CHANGE IN JACKSON MISSISSIPPI

FIFTY YEARS ON

On the morning of the 27th March 1961 nine students from Tougaloo College, about 8 miles north of the centre of Jackson, Mississippi, entered the main branch of the

Janice Jackson, Evelyn Pierce and Ethel Sawyer under arrest.

Jackson Public library. They looked through the card catalogue, took books off the shelves and sat at tables and began to read. The police were called. When they arrived they ordered the students to go to the "black library', the George Washington Carver Library which was the substandard branch for the black citizens of Jackson. The students refused to leave, were arrested and held for over thirty-two hours.

This simple action set off a number of protests, including a student boycott of classes at Jackson State University, and demonstrations in front of the court house where the students went on trial. The police charged the crowd and set dogs loose. In the crowd amongst demonstrators who were beaten that day was  Medgar Evers, who was shot and killed outside his home two years later.

Medgar Evers

Much has changed in Jackson Mississippi since that day. The old library building is now part of a Civil Rights Tour now taken by tourists across the city.

The main library building is now the Eudora Welty Branch. There is now a Medgar Evers Branch of the Library on Medgar Evers Boulevard.

Medgar Evers Branch

There are various branches now named after a number of black Americans including the writer Richard Wright.

It is quite a turn around from the police setting dogs on the black citizens of Jackson Mississippi 50 years ago today. Were are the Tougaloo Nine now?

And also:

On that same morning of the 27th March 1961, Paul Robeson was found in the bathroom of his Moscow hotel suite after having slashed his wrists with a razor blade following a wild party that had raged there the preceding night. His blood loss was not yet severe, and he recovered rapidly. However, both the raucous party and his suicide attempt remain unexplained, and for the past twenty years the US government has withheld documents that hold the answer to the question: Was this a drug induced suicide attempt? An interesting episode. You can watch parts 2 and 3 here, but part 1 might be a You Tube page on its own.