Agency: Hands On Atlanta Office

Description: Unita Blackwell was a sharecropper who rose to become Mississippi’s first black woman Mayor. During the Civil Rights movement, she worked for voting rights, was arrested over 75 times, faced firebombs and burning crosses fighting for the right to vote and equality in education. As a leader in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party she, Fannie Lou Hammer and other powerful women disrupted the 1964 Democratic Convention and challenged the Party for the right of representation.

In an interview with scholar and author Gloria Wade Gayles, Ms. Blackwell will recount life lessons from her book “Barefootin': Life Lessons from the Road to Freedom”. Join Mrs. Blackwell for a screening of the film “Standing on My Sisters Shoulders” to follow the interview.

"Standing On My Sister Shoulder" is the award- winning documentary that celebrates the courageous women who emerged as the grassroots leaders of the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the 1950s and 60s These women fought for the right to vote and the right to an equal education, forever altering the course of American history. This documentary presents original interviews with the civil rights movement's most remarkable women including Unita Blackwell, a sharecropper- turned- activist, who became Mississippi's first female black mayor. Audiences will meet Ms. Blackwell as she talks about her new book, "Barefootin': Life Lessons from the Road to freedom."

Impact Areas: Other

Interests: There are no interests specified for this course.

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