http://williamjameswarren.com/mississippi

 

 

Also in memory of Selma, the companion gallery to Civil Rights.  ‘Called' to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Funeral, I was likewise compelled to document the social conditions which drew him to Marks, Mississippi, then the poorest county (Quitman) in the U.S.  Dr. King cried at the sight; the black folks living in the water table, with flooded out-houses the only ’sanitation’. 

 

I ‘embedded’ with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as the cadre organized the Poor People’s Campaign for departure for Washington, D.C.  I was able to remain in the area for several weeks, visiting families with the SCLC recruiters, voter registrars; until becoming a target for the KKK.

 

'Middle Class White Boys', 'stirring up trouble’, were bad enough without cameras; with cameras, and notebooks, we were ‘bout popular as Rattlesnakes.*  I only dared be there with other journos and SCLC troops for cover.  

 

The state had learned that harassing media only brought more media, so the Police, (normally indistinguishable from the Klan) were on short leashes.

 

I’ve thought about seeking a grant to return to Quitman County in 2018, there to seek out some of the families I photographed in 1968, compare then to now.  I fear I would find too little difference,  and that I might find the Good Ole Boys no more glad to see me...

 

*    Oh wait, in that part of the country, the Snake Handlers play with Rattlers in their worship services, (until fatally bitten, anyway).