1. Hill, Lance Edward. “The Deacons for ... - Freedom Archives

uncooperative registrar ofvoters seriously hampered CORE's efforts . From the outset,
the civil rights group's presence rankled the Klan, and it was not long before the Klan
burned crosses on the lawn ofthe house where two CORC workers were staying . ` g
The first CORE organizers to visit Jonesboro were representative ofthe social
mix ofCORE's field staff Mike Lesser was a white Northerner with no experience in
organizing in the South . In contrast, his organizing colleague, Ronnie Moore, was a
black native-born Louisianian and a seasoned organizer who had joined CORE after he
was expelled from Southern University for a protest in January 1962 . Moore was
eventually arrested eighteen times and spent a total of six months in jail, fifty-seven of
those days in solitary confinement . Beginning in January 1964, Lesser and Moore made
several trips to Jonesboro to assist the Jackson Parish Civic and Voters League and local
high school students in launching a voter registration campaign. Their initial success
prompted CORE to assign several task-force workers to Jonesboro in the late Spring of
1964 in preparation for the summer project ."
One ofthe first arrivals for the summer project was a young black woman from
Birmingham, Catherine Patterson . Patterson had been deeply moved by an experience at
the George Washington Carver High School in Birmingham, where she was a classmate
ofFred Shuttiesworth, Jr ., the son of Birmingham's firebrand civil rights leader, the
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth . One day young Fred, Jr. arrived at schoo! with his face
badly bruised and swollen . A racist mob had mercilessly beaten Fred and his father
` BNGke Lesser, "Report on Jonesboro-Bogalusa Project," March 1965, box 5,
folder 5, CORE(SRO) ; Meier and Rudwick, CORE, pp . 266-267 .
` 9 L.esser, "Report ."