Movement
Annie Devine and the Canton movement
How the Canton movement in Madison County grew in 1963 and 1964 under CORE and local leaders like Annie Devine, from first meetings to Freedom Day.
In short
Canton, the seat of Madison County north of Jackson, was a CORE project area within COFO in the 1960s. In 1963 Canton was about 75 percent Black and had no registered Black voters. Local leaders such as Annie Devine and motel owner C. O. Chinn worked with CORE organizers George Raymond and Dave Dennis, and on February 28, 1964, Devine organized Canton's first Freedom Day at the courthouse. Canton people later filled roles in the MFDP and the 1965 Congressional Challenge.
- Where
- Canton, Madison County, Mississippi
- Lead group
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), within COFO
- Local leaders
- Annie Devine, C. O. Chinn
- CORE organizers
- George Raymond, Dave Dennis
- Freedom Day
- February 28, 1964
What was Canton like in 1963?
Canton was a majority-Black county seat about twenty-five miles north of Jackson where, according to the SNCC Digital Gateway, about three in four residents were Black and none were registered to vote. Black residents worked in farming, domestic work and small businesses, and some, like Annie Devine, held jobs as teachers and insurance agents that depended on white goodwill.
How did the movement grow?
CORE organizers George Raymond and Dave Dennis held meetings at C. O. Chinn's motel on Franklin Street, and local people like Annie Devine joined after hearing the singing from the street. Chinn, a Black businessman, gave the movement a place to gather. Police harassed people who attended. Devine quit her job rather than stop, and by late 1963 she was running the movement office.
What happened on Freedom Day?
On February 28, 1964, Canton held its first Freedom Day, organized by Devine, to protest the circuit clerk's refusal to register Black applicants. A month earlier, on January 22, 1964, Hattiesburg had held a Freedom Day in the movement Victoria Gray helped lead. The aim was to bring so many people to the courthouse at once that the refusals became public.
How did Canton connect to the MFDP and Congress?
Devine built the Freedom Democratic Party in the Canton area in 1964 and went to Atlantic City as a delegate. She then became one of the three contestants in the 1965 Congressional Challenge, standing for the Fourth District seat. See the challenge and her full profile.
Why is this page called devine.html?
The address comes from an earlier site on this domain. We kept it so links still work and used it for the local story behind Annie Devine's work, so it does not repeat her biography.
Questions readers ask
What was a Freedom Day?
A day when organizers brought large numbers of Black residents to the county courthouse together to try to register, often with outside observers, to show the scale of refusal and make arrests or turn-aways harder to hide.
Why was Canton a CORE area?
COFO divided Mississippi among its member groups. CORE took responsibility for the Fourth Congressional District, which included Madison County, while SNCC staffed most other districts.
Sources
- Annie DevineSNCC Digital Gateway
- Freedom SummerWikipedia (COFO district division)
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
- PeopleAnnie DevineThe life of Annie Devine of Canton, Mississippi, a teacher and insurance agent who led the local movement, helped found the MFDP and challenged Congress in 1965.
- MovementThe 1965 House challengeHow the Freedom Democrats challenged Mississippi's five congressmen in 1965, why Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray were named, and what the evidence showed.
- 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.
- 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.