Oral history with Ms. Winson Hudson

              An Oral History with Ms. Winson Hudson
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of USM Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage It is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright and PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Ms. Winson Hudson owns a sixty- acre farm near Carthage, Mississippi, where for many years she raised cotton and corn. She was active in the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi long before Freedom Summer. In 1956 her community engaged in an attempt to preserve their rural, African- American school, and when that was unsuccessful, they challenged the enforcement of the " separate but equal" provision of Brown v Board of Education. In 1964 Ms. Hudson's sister filed a lawsuit to integrate the schools in Leake County. She won the case, and in 1965 the first African- American child began attending the previously all- white school. Ms. Hudson has been involved in a number of other civil rights activities. Her community, with the help of Medgar Evers, established the Leake County chapter of the NAACP in 1961. When local banks took retaliatory measures against African Americans who participated in civil rights activities, Ms. Hudson invited the Farmers Housing Administration in to survey the situation in Leake County, and she testified before the U. S. Civil Rights Commission. Although she began paying her poll tax and attempting to register to vote when she was twenty- one, it wasn't until she was in her forties that she was able to vote, and then primarily because of the intervention of the U. S. Department of Justice. Leake County was among the first locations to accept Freedom Summer volunteers, sponsoring thirty or more volunteers, many of whom slept on floors. The volunteers canvassed African- American neighborhoods, held mass meetings where people were encouraged to register to vote, and conducted classes, instructing potential voters in the mechanics of voting. Ms. Hudson began attending these classes and went on to teach others. As a result of Freedom Summer, Carthage got a community center and a Head Start program. Ms. Hudson is a member of the NAACP and has been co- chairman of the Leake County Democratic Party for more than twenty years. She is writing a book about her experiences entitled A Lonely Walk to the Courthouse.
Transcript
This is an interview for the Mississippi Oral History Program of The University of Southern Mississippi. The interview is with Ms. Winson Hudson and is taking place on August 31, 1995. The interviewer is John
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