Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) visited Mayersville as part of a larger effort to register Black voters in the South. Blackwell met Fannie Lou Hamer that summer, and joined SNCC shortly after. Blackwell and seven others applied to take the voter registration test at a local courthouse. When white farmers found out about the effort, they chased them off. Over the next few months, Blackwell took the registration test several times before passing later that year.
In January 1965, the United States Commission on Civil Rights came to the state and Blackwell testified about the voter discrimination she faced. She worked with the Freedom Summer efforts in the state, and joined the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Blackwell was arrested over a reported 70 times for her activism and protests.
Beyond SNCC, Blackwell worked on community development with the National Council of Negro Women. She was also the president of the U.S. China Peoples Friendship Association, and was later appointed to the U.S. National Commission on the International Year of the Child.
In June 1976, Blackwell’s long record of activism led the town of Mayersville to elect her as Mayor, landing her in the history books. During her 25 years as Mayor, she helped bring forth community development such as housing, paved roads, sewer lines and other projects.
Although she hadn’t completed high school, Blackwell enrolled in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst using her activism and experience as credit.
She received a master’s degree in regional planning from the school in 1983. In 1992, Blackwell lreceived the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship. An autobiography of Blackwell’s life, Barefootin, was released in 2006.
Now 81, she still resides in Mayersville.
(Photo: William Patrick Butler)
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