Tougaloo Nine

Groups formed during this time period include the Mississippi Progressive Voters' League and the Regional Council of Negro Leadership.

[2] Civil rights organizer Medgar Evers considered Mississippi to be "too racist and violent" to conduct lunch counter sit-ins.

In 1961 he chose the public library in Jackson as a segregation protest site because it was supported by both black and white taxpayers, rather than being a private business.

[10] The day after the Read-In, hundreds of students from Jackson State Teachers College picketed the arrest of the Tougaloo Nine prior to their release.

[10] Medgar Evers later reflected "This act on the part of the police officials brought on greater unity in the Negro community and projected the NAACP in a position of being the accepted spokesman.

[12]" Dogs (particularly German shepherds) were used during the civil rights movement by police officers to intimidate (and in some cases harm) protestors.

[12]" In protest of the sentencing and the brutality of police towards bystanders, a meeting was held at a local Masonic Temple, at which Julie Wright encouraged other black community members to participate in a "No Buying Campaign".

This campaign saw the successful boycotting of white business that discriminated against black people, and chain stores reportedly lost $49,225 in sales tax revenues.

Sammy Bradford, one of the Tougaloo Nine, said on the occasion of the read-in anniversary: "It seems that everybody is being celebrated and praised for their fine work except the very people who launched the civil rights movement against some of the greatest odds ever faced by man or beast.

I'm not saying that the Tougaloo Nine should be rolled out like world-conquering heroes in a ticker-tape parade every year, but they should at least be acknowledged, along with many others, whenever a purported celebration of civil rights activities in Mississippi takes place.