The Neglected Tale of the Tougaloo Nine and their 1961 Read-In

On March 27, 1961, 9 students from Tougaloo College visited a Jackson, Mississippi room for Black residents, the George Washington Carver Library, and requested books that they needed for schoolhouse assignments that they knew the room wouldn’t person available.

The students past went to the main Jackson Public Library, which was whites-only, recovered the books they had requested, sat down, and started to read.

I had the grant of sitting down with 1 of the Tougaloo Nine, the radical of students who participated successful the “read-in” that is intensely under-recognized arsenic a pivotal constituent successful civilian rights history. Geraldine Edwards Hollis shared her stories with me, discussing the read-in, its legacy, and her ain determination.

She archetypal ended up astatine the Wednesday nighttime meetings, lectures, and discussions with her chap students due to the fact that they were held successful the gathering beside her dorm, and the meetings ever had java and donuts. But she was soon drawn successful by her emotion of learning, arsenic a divers radical of speakers, including civilian rights leaders, visited to speech astir culture, race, and politics.

“I got started with reasoning astir the things that I could bash to marque a difference,” Hollis says. “There were radical who were coming to talk astatine Tougaloo due to the fact that they could not spell to immoderate different country and talk the things that they were speaking.”

In the aboriginal 1960s, Mississippi was a peculiarly violent, segregated mire. Local Jackson newspapers worked intimately with groups similar the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (MSSC) and backstage limb the White Citizens’ Council, groups that specifically formed to combat civilian rights activists and defy schoolhouse integration. The MSSC had a batch of powerfulness successful strengthening achromatic supremacy successful the state.

In this hostile environment, NAACP tract caput and civilian rights activistic Medgar Wiley Evers and different organizers had to deliberation cautiously astir however to effort and puncture the oppressive value of achromatic supremacy successful the state. Lunch antagonistic sit-ins were a communal mode to jumpstart question astatine the clip successful different states, but the level of vitriol successful Mississippi made NAACP cautious astir launching their archetypal enactment successful that format.

Instead, they decided to person NAACP Youth Council members beryllium successful astatine a nationalist library. Libraries were supported by some Black and achromatic payer dollars. They thought that to immoderate of their imaginable allies, entree to nationalist abstraction and cognition mightiness look similar a much tenable request than entree to privately owned restaurants oregon businesses. So it was decided: the nationalist room would beryllium the battlefield of choice.

And the 9 students astatine Tougaloo College — including Geraldine Edwards Hollis — were acceptable for the task.

But she knew she had to bash this. Her resoluteness was determination — conscionable it had been each of those years arsenic a child, erstwhile she’d sneak a flashlight into furniture to work precocious into the night. “When you person a passionateness to bash something, you find a mode to bash it,” Hollis says.

On March 27, the 9 students archetypal went to the “colored” room and asked for books that they knew weren’t there. Once they had confirmation, the 9 went to the different library, the whites-only nationalist library. They entered the library, got the books they needed, and sat down to read.

The room unit called the police.

All 9 students knew that they could beryllium arrested and beaten, and that their actions could enactment their acquisition and families connected the line. All 9 had been trained successful nonviolence.

Hollis knew that she “would listen, and that I would travel orders lone aft I had done the things that I came to do, which was to beryllium successful the achromatic lone room successful the metropolis of Jackson and unafraid a publication that I knew that the different room did not have, to beryllium connected people with the information that I had a crushed being determination and a crushed to privation to work that publication successful the library.” She had dressed carefully, successful layers for the variable, aboriginal outpouring upwind and successful low-heeled shoes she knew she could tally in.

“In my tone and my assemblage and my effort, I was acceptable for the occasion,” says Hollis.

“We had an thought that we were going to beryllium arrested, but we didn’t deliberation that we would beryllium jailed, and that we would beryllium jailed for that magnitude of time,” Hollis says. They were held for the afloat days up to their trial, and interrogated extensively.

“They wanted to cognize who made america bash it,” Hollis says. “Each 1 of america was interviewed by a policeman oregon respective to effort to get successful our minds and marque america accidental thing we were successful denial of.” They wanted to perceive that the 9 had been enactment up to the full thing, and they wanted an extracurricular agitator to blame. But each 9 denied having a person oregon instigator.

On March 28, the 9 Tougaloo students met with their assemblage president, Daniel Beittel, who was supportive (the MSSC would aboriginal assistance unit him into a forced resignation). None of the 9 students were allowed to talk to their lawyers, Jack Young and R. Jess Brown, earlier their trial.

This objection lone lasted 40 minutes. College president Jacob Reddix appeared, threatening to expel pupil protestors and allegedly assaulting 2 of the students. The assemblage was dispelled with constabulary unit — clubs and dogs.

The adjacent day, 50 Jackson State students acceptable retired to march peacefully to the jailhouse successful enactment of the Nine.

“Many of them wanted to fto it beryllium known that they were supportive of the information that we chose to enactment our schooling and our lives and our families successful jeopardy to marque things unfastened up for the wide nationalist — not conscionable for Tougaloo, not a fistful of students, but for the full of that area,” says Hollis.

They ne'er got to their destination. Police converged connected them with teardrop gas, clubs, and dogs.

The constabulary would archer the property that the backlash was due to the fact that nary parades were allowed without a permit. (At that aforesaid infinitesimal crossed town, thousands of achromatic Mississippians, including the governor, were holding a parade celebrating the state’s secession from the Union, galore of them decked retired successful Confederacy symbolism and regalia.)

When the Nine arrived from jailhouse for their trial, the assemblage burst into applause, astatine which constituent the constabulary pounced. Evers and respective women and children were beaten, 2 men were earnestly bitten by dogs, and an 81-year-old antheral had his limb breached by a constabulary club.

“There was violence,” says Hollis. “Some of the radical got deed with billy clubs and injured — which we thought going into this mightiness person happened to us.”

Inside the courthouse, each 9 students were convicted of breaching the peace. They were fined $100 and fixed a suspended condemnation of 30 days and a year’s probation — which was contingent connected them not participating successful immoderate objection oregon protestation for 12 months.

But contempt the continued violence, threat, and intimidation, Hollis remained successful Jackson to implicit her education.

“I was determined to person each of my acquisition done,” says Hollis. She had worked hard to get her grade connected a fast-track program, and was determined to implicit it. She graduated successful 3 years, with degrees successful carnal education, biologic science, and mathematics.

It was a lonely road.

“I persevered, though determination were immoderate lonely times, immoderate hard times,” she says. “I worked successful the buildings to assistance with my tuition. I didn’t person the luxury of not finishing my education. So I was determined to upwind it out, and that meant I went to schoolhouse during that clip and 3 summertime sessions successful the heat.”

Tougaloo would proceed to play a pivotal portion successful civilian rights movements successful Jackson, Mississippi for a agelong clip — from a sit-in astatine Woolworth’s, a bid of boycotts of discriminatory achromatic businesses, pray-ins astatine achromatic churches, enactment for the Freedom Riders, and more. President Beittel, who had supported the Nine, was aboriginal forced retired by racist pressure. Nevertheless, Tougaloo College would past — whereas the MSSC closed successful 1973 — and it continues to beryllium a unit for civilian rights and humanities awareness.

Medger Evers would spell connected to combat for acquisition access, pb boycotts and elector registrations, enactment for economical access, and much successful the conflict for civilian rights earlier being assassinated successful 1963 by a subordinate of the White Citizens’ Council.

“There was truthful overmuch negativity and disdain successful Mississippi astatine the time,” Hollis says, “until it was thing you conscionable didn’t adjacent privation to speech about, fto unsocial effort to bash thing else. But Medgar Evers continued to bash these things anyway.” Hollis remained connected with him for years, due to the fact that she wanted to spot a alteration successful Mississippi. Medgar Evers was the Nine’s mentor, and important to civilian rights alteration and advancement successful Mississippi and the U.S. astatine large.

The Tougaloo Nine had a important and reasonably accelerated interaction connected nationalist entree successful the United States. In 1962, the American Library Association adopted the “Statement connected Individual Membership, Chapter Status and Institutional Membership.” It said that rank successful the ALA was contingent connected their chapters being unfastened to everyone careless of race, religion, oregon idiosyncratic belief. Four authorities chapters withdrew from ALA arsenic a effect — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Although status mightiness beryllium a beardown word. Hollis has toured the U.S. arsenic an author, recounting her beingness and its lessons successful Back to Mississippi and March Memories, arsenic good arsenic a lecturing and speaking.

“The alteration of tide successful Mississippi began with the Tougaloo Nine,” said Myrlie Evers-Williams, activistic and widow of Medgar Evers — yet determination was small acknowledgment of their interaction for decades. Even arsenic Mississippi started acknowledging its civilian rights heroes, it took Hollis speaking up — loudly — to get the Tougaloo Nine included successful their lists and honors.

“I americium outspoken due to the fact that I americium the lone miss of 5 brothers, the oldest,” she says. “So you don’t messiness with me. If you wanted to outdo me, you had to out-wrestle maine — which they couldn’t do. So I went to Mississippi and made definite they knew we were determination and were pioneers.”

But overall, not capable radical cognize of this important contingent of students who made a monolithic interaction successful the combat against achromatic supremacy.

On the juncture of the read-in’s anniversary, Bradford said: “It seems that everybody is being celebrated and praised for their good enactment but the precise radical who launched the civilian rights question against immoderate of the top likelihood ever faced by antheral oregon beast. I’m not saying that the Tougaloo Nine should beryllium rolled retired similar world-conquering heroes successful a ticker-tape parade each year, but they should astatine slightest beryllium acknowledged, on with galore others, whenever a purported solemnisation of civilian rights activities successful Mississippi takes place.”

I anticipation you’ve been enlightened arsenic well. These Nine are peculiarly applicable successful airy of modern-day movements against constabulary brutality and against repression and favoritism successful nationalist spaces and successful cognition access.

Certainly determination are a batch of civilian rights pioneers wrong a question that was driven by grassroots activism and hundreds of radical putting their lives connected the line. And not each of them volition person coverage.

But I was inactive amazed to find this communicative resting wherever I hadn’t been capable to spot it before. Librarians are a rebellious lot. Librarians are warriors warring for escaped and unfettered entree to nationalist abstraction and to knowledge. They combat against publication bans and enactment to get books successful the hands of our youth.

So I cognize librarians privation to cognize this story. I cognize they privation to diagnostic and grant the Tougaloo Nine who helped marque libraries a nationalist abstraction for all, arsenic they should rightfully be. So go, readers, go, librarians, and go, teachers! Spread the connection astir the Nine that jump-started civilian rights successful Mississippi and paved the mode for the unfettered entree to nationalist houses of cognition successful the United States.