We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi

Tracy Sugarman

Syracuse University Press, Jul 8, 2009 - History - 354 pages

No one experienced the Freedom Summer of 1964 quite like Tracy Sugarman. As an illustrator and journalist, Sugarman covered the nearly one thousand student volunteers who traveled to the Mississippi Delta to assist black citizens in the South in registering to vote. He interviewed these activists, along with local civil rights leaders and black and white residents not directly involved in the movement, and drew the people and events that made the summer one of the most heroic chapters in America’s long march toward racial justice. In We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns, Sugarman chronicles the sacrifices, tragedies, and triumphs of that unprecedented moment in our nation’s history. Two white students and one black student were slain in the struggle, many were beaten and hundreds arrested, and churches and homes were burned to the ground by the opponents of equality. Yet the example of Freedom Summer—whites united with heroic black Mississippians to challenge segregation—resonated across the nation. The United States Congress was finally moved to pass the civil rights legislation that enfranchised the millions of black Americans who had been waiting for equal equal rights for a century. Blending oral history with memoir, We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns draws the reader into the lives of the activists, showing their passion and naïveté, the bravery of the civil rights leaders, and the candid, sometimes troubling reactions of the black and white Delta residents. Sugarman’s unique reportorial art, in word and image, makes this book a vital record of our nation’s past.

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WE HAD SNEAKERS THEY HAD GUNS

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Sugarman (Stranger at the Gates: A Summer in Mississippi), a participant in Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964-65, where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worked for voter ...

Contents

• Charles McLaurin: 3
• Oxford: 7
• The Delta: 26
• Goodman Schwerner Chaney: 32
• The Lindseys: 40
• Blacks Whites and Whites: 52
• Drew: 56
• Freedom School: 72
• Fannie Lou Hamer: 81
• Drawing Conclusions: 86
• Charles McLaurin at first organizing meeting in Ruleville: 87
• Cotton fields in Ruleville: 89
• Going to register at the Indianola courthouse: 90
• Indianola: 91
• First outdoor meeting in Indianola: 92
• The Civil Rights Bill: 99
• Mrs Rennie Williams and her granddaughter: 100
• Birth of a Party: 102
• Part Two Return to the Delta: 111
• June 1965: 113
• Seals Grocery on Highway 41: 115
• An elderly black tenant farmer: 118
• Return to the Lindseys: 119
• Durrough: 126
• Three ladies from the Sanctified Quarter: 127
• Richard: 132
• Rennie Williams at kitchen table: 133
• Linda: 136
• Linda Davis with Freedom School students: 137
• Cephus: 142
• Watchful teenagers: 143
• The blessed shadow of the Sanctified Church: 144
• Marguerite: 147
• Three teenage canvassers from Ruleville: 148
• Liz: 151
• Liz Fusco with Ruleville women: 152
• Farewell to the Lindseys: 157
• Farewell to the Delta: 162
• A black boy: 163
• Part Three The Roads from the Delta: 165
• Legacy: 167
• Summer volunteers in Ruleville: 168
• My Road: 170
• Bette Lindsey: 172
• June Johnson: 175
• Dorsey: 181
• Charlie Cobb: 183
• First organizing meeting in Mound Bayou: 186
• Martha Honey: 192
• Student volunteer Martha Honey: 193
• Owen Brooks: 195
• Leslie McLemore: 197
• In Memoriam: 199
• Linda Davis: 202
• Linda Davis with dance class: 203
• John Lewis: 210
• Calling Washington: 211
• Nonviolence: 214
• Charles McLaurin with student volunteers: 215
• Julian Bond: 221
• Canvassing voters in Drew: 222
• Part Four Mississippi October 2001: 229
• Mississippi Redux: 231
• Return to Ruleville: 235
• The James Williams house in Ruleville: 237
• Jack Harper: 252
• Summer volunteers in Indianola: 253
• Losing the Children: 255
• Indianola teenagers: 262
• The Story to Tell: 264
• Long Time Passing: 275
• Organizing meeting: 276
• Dale Gronemeier: 278
• Len Edwards describing torching of the Ruleville church: 281
• Picket line in Greenville: 282
• Fortieth Reunion 2004: 284
• Confrontation with white students from Delta State: 285
• Jim Dann with potential voters in Indianola: 288
• John Harris: 293
• Freedom Day celebration in Cleveland Mississippi: 295
• Liz Fusco: 300
• Liz Fusco with Freedom School teachers: 301
• Volunteers at Freedom School: 305
• Chris Hexter: 307
• Unsettling Memories: 314
• Not a Stranger: 330

About the author

Tracy Sugarman is a nationally recognized illustrator whose art has appeared in magazines and books, and has been featured on PBS, ABC TV, NBC TV, and CBS TV. His entire collection of art from World War II has been acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress. He is the author of Stranger at the Gates: A Summer in Mississippi, My War: A Love Story in Letters and Drawings, and Drawing Conclusions: An Artist Discovers His America, the latter published by Syracuse University Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi
• Author: Tracy Sugarman
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 0815609388, 9780815609384
• Length: 354 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; History / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV); Political Science / Civil Rights