Dr. Pamela Walker, an Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M-San Antonio, spoke to GCC students, staff and faculty during a Zoom lecture series presented by the GCC Humanities and Social Sciences department on History. Walker received her Ph.D. in African American Studies and Women’s History from Rutgers University. She is  revising her manuscript on how black and white women used the box project and postal system to fight hunger and feed the Mississippi Freedom Movement in the 1960s. Some of the main things she discusses are race, motherhood, and activism. Dr. Walker discussed her research on the Mississippi mothers after freedom summer in 1964.

Dr. Walker at first talked about black women’s use of the box project as a necessary food program. The box project was a method to help rural people who live in poverty. The federal government gave food stamps to poor people. They had to pay for those stamps first, and then they would receive food. “The check was limited to pay for food stamps from the government; it seems cyclical incestuous just strange way to kind of assist in the poorest of the poor,” Dr. Walker said.

Still, the solution was not enough because white administrators, who discriminate against rural black women, were working in the distribution center. Black women who went to the post office for help faced physical violence and intimidation from the workers. White administrators who worked in the post office were not okay with the idea of giving food to the black people claiming it was a waste of food. “The post office was a battleground for rural black women in the Mississippi movement,” Dr. Walker described. She explained how rural black women used letter writing as a political act to acquire survival goods for their families. The letters from rural black women are still preserved today and serve as evidence of their situation  in 1964.

Dorothy Smith was a black woman who suffered vandalism with her boxes. “I guess they just throw our boxes around because we are negros, and they don’t care about us,” Ms. Smith stated. Ms. Smith complained to the mailman because, for more than a year, her packages arrived damaged with a note “food wasted,” but the worker didn’t do anything to help her.  

In the second half of the Zoom meeting, Dr. Walker spoke about the possibilities and actions of black women after the 1964 freedom summer. She explained it was one of the most consequential events of the movement in Mississippi because it caught the attention of activists like Martin Luther King Jr. In June of 1966, a march took place from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. Only a few people marched the first day like Ms. Dorothy Smith and other similar activists, but everything changed when Meredith was shot as he crossed into Mississippi. After the shooting, the march got the attention of Martin Luther King Jr, Stokely Carmichael, and other activist leaders who continued with the protest. After Martin Luther King Jr, Stokely Carmichael did a speech, they left and moved on to other topics, and those women were left with the problem not resolved. However, the letters were “a continuation of the movement long after the marchers left,” Dr. Walker said. “The post office was a battleground for rural black women in the Mississippi movement,” Dr. Walker described. She explained how rural black women used letter writing as a political act to acquire survival goods for their families. The letters from rural black women are still preserved today and serve as evidence of their situation in 1964.

Here is the Zoom link about the Mississippi mothers after freedom summer in 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGwLopF4t8c

Sonia Ramirez can be reached at: [email protected]