Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

Black-owned farms than other Delta counties. The early 1940's . brought two
developments which increased Black land ownership in the county. First, Black
veterans returning from World War II utilized the G .I . Bill to purchase land to
increase their personal economic independence . Secondly, the Farm Security
Administration, a New Deal program, purchased 9,850 acres of farm land in the
Holmes Delta community of Mileston and sold this land to 107 tenant families on
long term, low interest mortgages .°°
It was during the travels of Holmes residents to Greenwood that SNCC
was invited to initiate a voter registration campaign in Holmes County. SNCC
answered the call by sending John Ball to initiate a voter registration school . The
voter registration school and most of its participants were from the Mileston
farming community. This community of independent Black landowners would
become one of the haven communities in Mississippi, to which SNCC and other
activists could venture for protection.
On April 9,1963, the Holmes County movement "broke the ice" when
approximately 14 Blacks, mostly landowning farmers, all over forty, went to
downtown Lexington, the Holmes County seat, and attempted to register to vote .
Upon reaching the courthouse, the group was confronted by the county sheriff,
Andrew Smith, county and city police and nearly thirty deputized whites. The
intention of this segregationist force was to intimidate the group of prospective
registrants. After Mileston farmer Hartman Tumbow appealed to the sheriff that
the group be allowed to register, Smith compromised . The sheriff, not seeking
publicity or federal intervention, allow some of the group to come forward to take
the complicated Mississippi examination for voter registration . Whites and