Life Lessons from a Traveler on the Road to Freedom
From Coahoma County, Unita Blackwell began her activism in 1964 through the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) working as a field worker encouraging neighbors to register and vote. That same year Blackwell became an active participant in Freedom Summer.
She served as a delegate for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. With the MFDP, she traveled with other delegates to the Democratic National Convention to plead the case for the organization’s seat at the convention to represent Mississippi.
In 1967, she served as a Community Development Specialist in MS for the National Council of Negro Women.
Blackwell continued her leadership in politics by running for and securing the position of mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi in 1976. In doing this, Blackwell also secured her position as the first black woman to serve as mayor in the state of Mississippi. Using her new platform, Blackwell became a profound voice for conversations and reform on rural housing and development, a subject in which she received a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. As mayor, Blackwell led efforts to improve the living conditions for her black constituents, which included paving streets and installing street lights and sewers in the black section of Mayersville. Blackwell held the office for 25 years until 1993.
Blackwell received multiple awards for her work including the Southern Christian Leadership Award in 1990 and the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 1992.
Blackwell lives in a nursing home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Find out more about Unita Blackwell below:
“A Conversation with Unita Blackwell”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdaneZWWkT8
“Unita Blackwell: Facts & History”: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Unita_Blackwell.aspx
“Civil Rights Leader Looks Back: NPR Interview”: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90248557
“Barefootin’: Life Lessons from the Road to Freedom”: Autobiography: http://www.amazon.com/Barefootin-Life-Lessons-Road-Freedom/dp/0609610600