Samuel Proctor Oral History Program

Gainesville, FL—During the week of September 17 through September 22, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) at UF will return to the Mississippi Delta to continue oral history research on the civil rights movement. SPOHP will bring a research team of UF graduate and undergraduate students to continue collaboration with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization and conduct interviews in the historic Mississippi Delta region, and will be organizing a public history panel at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi on September 19. The panel will focus on “Violence, Non-Violence, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965” and feature leading scholars of the movement as well as activists and community leaders.

The theme of this year’s panel is “Violence, Non-Violence, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Panelists will discuss the various forms of non-violent direct action taken up by civil rights veterans to bring voting rights to all Americans, and the violent backlash of vigilantes, white supremacists, and organized mobs that resulted. Professor Akinyele Umoja of Georgia State University will be a featured panelist at the event, speaking on his acclaimed new book, “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement.” The event is free and open to the public, and will include a book signing and singing of Freedom Songs.

This research trip is co-sponsored by Mr. William De Grove, the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, UF African American Studies program, UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UF Office of Research, The Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization & The Sam Block Civil Rights Organization.

Read the full press release for this September 19 event.