Black Empowerment in Jackson

Chapter four traces the intersection between Mississippi’s long freedom struggle and the federally funded war on poverty in the state capitol, Jackson. First, it describes the development of the capitol’s civil rights activism through the 1950s and into the 1960s, with sit-in campaigns drawing on the vibrancy of Tougaloo College, the Jackson NAACP Youth Council, and the leadership of Medgar Evers. The chapter then explores the way in which the class divisions which undermined activism in Jackson fed into the creation of the city’s anti-poverty program, Community Services Association. It traces the way in which one black activist and poverty warrior, Don Jackson, used his position in the Neighborhood Youth Corps to foster the city’s youthful activism. These efforts were, however, quickly undermined by the city’s powerful mechanisms of white supremacy, notably the state sovereignty commission.