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

Evers present, organized a mass meeting and presented the proposed demands of
the Movement to "the community at large ." After a voice vote, which was gener-
ally unanimous, the white commercial sectors, primarily located in the
municipality's central business district was considered "off limits" for any local
Black. The presentation of the boycott strategy and the demands to a mass meet-
ing of Movement supporters was necessary for Evers and the local leadership to
obtain consent from a broad section of the Black community and the authority to
say they spoke for local Blacks . The demands were then presented to the local city
council or county board. The demands generally included the integration of local
schools, the hiring of Black people in local stores, and the hiring of Black police
and county sheriffs that were free to arrest any citizen, regardless of race. In-
cluded with the economic and civil rights demands was the insistence that Black
adults no longer be referred to by whites as "niggers," "boy," "girl," or "auntie"
but as "Mr," "Mrs," or "Miss." This demand spoke to the aspiration of Mississippi
Blacks to be recognized as human beings . After the demands were presented to
the local white power structure, the town or county leaders were given ten days to
respond. If the demands weren't agreed to then the boycott was initiated ."
After the initiation of the boycott, The word was given by the leadership
that Black people should not be downtown shopping . Any Black person not
supporting the boycott after the mass meeting was generally considered to be
collaborators by the Movement and was dealt with accordingly. To avoid doing
business in the targeted commercial center, the Movement organized shopping
forays to nearby towns .
An intelligence system was set up to identify Black people who violated