People
Rev. Willie Blue: SNCC field secretary and MFDP delegate
A short, sourced profile of Rev. Willie Blue (1939-2022), a SNCC field secretary from 1963 and a Freedom Democratic Party delegate to Atlantic City in 1964.
In short
Rev. Willie Blue (1939-2022) was a Mississippi civil rights worker who became a SNCC field secretary in 1963, worked on voter registration, helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and went to Atlantic City in 1964 as one of its delegates. He later belonged to the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement and died in December 2022.
- Lived
- 1939 - December 2022
- School
- Allen-Carver High School, Charleston, Mississippi
- SNCC
- Field secretary from 1963, voter registration
- 1964
- MFDP delegate to the Atlantic City convention challenge
- Later
- Member of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement
Who was Willie Blue?
Willie Blue was one of the young Mississippians who joined SNCC's staff in the early 1960s and worked on voter registration in the state. The Civil Rights Movement Archive, an online collection run by movement veterans, says he became a SNCC field secretary in 1963. A letter published in The Sun-Sentinel of Charleston, Mississippi, after his death notes that he graduated from Allen-Carver High School there.
What did he do in 1964?
He helped build the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and served as one of its delegates to the Democratic National Convention challenge in Atlantic City in August 1964. That delegation, which included Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray, asked to be seated in place of the state's all-white regular delegation. Our page on the MFDP tells what happened.
How is he remembered?
He stayed active among movement veterans for the rest of his life and was a member of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. He died in December 2022; the Civil Rights Movement Archive says he died at his home in Hernando, Mississippi, at 83. His recorded interview, published by the archive, is a first-hand source for students of the Mississippi movement.
Questions readers ask
Did Willie Blue work with Fannie Lou Hamer?
He was a SNCC field secretary in Mississippi during the same years and, like Hamer, a member of the MFDP delegation to Atlantic City in August 1964.
Where can I hear Willie Blue's own account?
The Civil Rights Movement Archive (crmvet.org) publishes a transcript of an interview with him and a memorial page.
Sources
- Rev. Willie Blue (memorial page)Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Transcript: Willie Edwards BlueCivil Rights Movement Archive
- Rev. Willie "Bubba" Blue made many contributions to civil rights movement (letter)The Sun-Sentinel, Charleston, Mississippi, January 2023
We checked every date and name on this page against the sources above. If you find an error, write to contact@fannielouhamer.info.
Continue in the archive
- MovementSNCCWhat the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was, how its organizers came to Mississippi and the Delta, and how Fannie Lou Hamer became a SNCC field secretary.
- MovementFreedom Democratic PartyHow the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party formed in 1964, challenged the all-white state delegation in Atlantic City and refused the two-seat compromise.
- PeoplePeople of the movementSourced profiles of Mississippi organizers who worked alongside Fannie Lou Hamer, including Amzie Moore, Annie Devine, Victoria Gray Adams and Lawrence Guyot.
- MovementVeterans and the movementHow Black World War II and Korean War veterans such as Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry and Clyde Kennard helped start the Mississippi movement Hamer joined.