Parchman

Rev. Reginald Green, 1939-2020

In Obituaries, Oral History, Parchman on 7 February 2020 with Comments Off on Rev. Reginald Green, 1939-2020

“I spent my 21st birthday in jail in Parchman.” Reginald Green went to Mississippi as a Freedom Rider in the summer of 1961 without telling his parents. I never asked my father and mother if I could go on the Freedom Rides, for fear that they would say no. Out of respect I would have […]

Lula White: “The idea that people would actually just disobey the law was electrifying.”

In Paperback, Parchman, Riders on the Rides on 14 September 2018 with Comments Off on Lula White: “The idea that people would actually just disobey the law was electrifying.”

I almost found Lula White the first time around. I was pretty sure she was living in or near New Haven, Connecticut, but I never could find the right phone number for her. That problem was solved when I spoke at the the New Haven Public Library in the fall of 2008. They told me […]

Jesse Harris, 1940-2015

In Community Organizing, Obituaries, Oral History, Parchman on 31 January 2015 with Comments Off on Jesse Harris, 1940-2015

Jesse Harris was one of the many Riders from Jackson, Mississippi, a newcomer to the movement who got his first education in nonviolence while locked up in Parchman with the likes of James Farmer, John Lewis and Bernard Lafayette. Civil Rights would become his life for the next ten years. After the Rides, Jesse worked […]