HELEN BASS WILLIAMS AND MISSISSIPPI ACTION FOR PROGRESS

Abstract

Chapter five tells the story of Mississippi Action for Progress: the Head Start program that was created to replace the Child Development Group of Mississippi. It focuses on the African American executive director of MAP, Helen Bass Williams, and her relationships with white businessman and community leader Owen Cooper and the state sovereignty commission director, Erle Johnston. The harassment campaign against Williams illustrates the way in which moderate businessmen could—even inadvertently—serve to further entrench white power in anti-poverty programs. It also shows how successfully the sovereignty commission was able to adapt its tactics to the new racial realities of Mississippi in the late 1960s.