Movement
Veterans and the Mississippi movement
How 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.
In short
Many of the people who built the Mississippi movement before 1962 were Black veterans of World War II and Korea, who came home from fighting for democracy abroad to a state that would not let them vote. Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore and Aaron Henry served in World War II; Clyde Kennard served in the Army from 1945 to 1952. Their networks made it possible for SNCC to reach the Delta and Fannie Lou Hamer. Today the phrase "movement veterans" also refers to the activists themselves, who formed their own veterans' organizations.
- Medgar Evers
- U.S. Army from 1943; England, Belgium, France
- Amzie Moore
- Drafted 1942, served over three years
- Aaron Henry
- U.S. Army from 1942
- Clyde Kennard
- U.S. Army 1945-1952, Korean War service
- Key moment
- 1946: Evers and other veterans try to vote in Decatur
What did Black veterans come home to?
About a million Black Americans served in World War II, and those who returned to Mississippi found that their uniforms protected them from nothing. In 1946 Medgar Evers, his brother Charles and several other Black veterans tried to vote in the Democratic primary in Decatur, in Newton County. An armed white crowd turned them away. Amzie Moore later described his own service, which lasted more than three years, and recalled asking himself why he was fighting overseas for rights he did not have at home.
Who were the veteran-organizers?
The best-known Mississippi veterans in the movement were Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry and Clyde Kennard. Evers served in the Army in England, Belgium and France, became the NAACP's first Mississippi field secretary in 1955, and was murdered in Jackson on June 12, 1963, the day Hamer was released from the Winona jail. Moore, drafted in 1942, returned to Cleveland, Mississippi, joined the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and led the local NAACP. Henry, who enlisted in the Army in 1942 and later opened a drugstore in Clarksdale, led the state NAACP from 1960, ran for governor in the 1963 Freedom Vote, and headed the MFDP delegation in 1964. Kennard, an Army veteran of the Korean War era, tried to enroll at Mississippi Southern College and was framed and imprisoned. See our profiles of Amzie Moore and Clyde Kennard.
How does this connect to Fannie Lou Hamer?
The organizing that reached Ruleville in 1962 grew directly out of the veterans' networks. Amzie Moore persuaded SNCC's Bob Moses in 1960 that voter registration in the Delta should come first, and it was Moore who introduced SNCC workers at a Ruleville church in 1962. Without the base that Moore, Evers and Henry had built through the NAACP and the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, the meeting at William Chapel that changed Hamer's life might never have happened.
Younger veterans joined too. Rev. Willie Blue, a Mississippian who became a SNCC field secretary in 1963, is one example; see his profile.
Who are the "movement veterans"?
People who took part in the freedom movement often call themselves veterans, and in Mississippi they organized as the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. The group has held gatherings and helped collect oral histories. The national Civil Rights Movement Archive, at crmvet.org, was built by movement veterans and publishes their documents and memories, and it is one of the sources we use.
Why does this page have the address veterans.html?
The address comes from an earlier site on this domain. We kept it so old links still work and used it for both meanings of the word.
Questions readers ask
Why were veterans so important to the civil rights movement?
Military service gave them experience with organization and danger, contact with places where segregation was weaker, and a sense of having earned full citizenship. The GI Bill and other benefits also gave some of them a measure of independence.
Did Fannie Lou Hamer serve in the military?
No. But her path into the movement ran through veterans: Amzie Moore brought SNCC to the Delta, and his network introduced the organizers who came to Ruleville in 1962.
What is the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement?
An organization of people who took part in the Mississippi freedom movement, sometimes called movement veterans. It has held reunions and conferences in Mississippi for decades.
Sources
- Amzie MooreMississippi Encyclopedia
- Medgar EversNational Park Service, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
- Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National MonumentNational Park Service
- Aaron HenryMississippi Encyclopedia
- Clyde KennardMississippi Encyclopedia
- Rev. Willie BlueCivil Rights Movement Archive
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
- PeopleAmzie MooreThe life of Amzie Moore of Cleveland, Mississippi, a postal worker, WWII veteran and NAACP leader who urged SNCC to organize voters in the Delta.
- PeopleClyde KennardThe life of Clyde Kennard, an Army veteran and farmer who tried to enroll at Mississippi Southern College, was framed for theft, and died of cancer after prison.
- MovementMoore, Moses and SNCCHow Amzie Moore's 1960 meeting with Bob Moses turned SNCC toward voter registration in rural Mississippi and led organizers to Ruleville and Hamer in 1962.
- 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.