#OnThisDay in 1961, civil rights leaders James Farmer, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. announced that the Freedom Rides would continue. Lewis was wearing bandages from the beating he received in Montgomery. mississippitoday.org/2024/05/23/on-…

#OnThisDay in 2002, an Alabama jury convicted Bobby Cherry of taking part in the Ku Klux Klan’s 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls. Cherry received four life sentences — one for each slaying. He later died in prison.
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#OnThisDay in 1892, crusading journalist Ida B. Wells published a column exposing the lynchings of African-American men and denouncing claims that the lynchings were meant to protect white women.

Her anti-lynching campaign came after a mob killed three of her friends, who had

#OnThisDay in 1961, a white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama. Future Congressman John Lewis was among them.

“An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls,

#OnThisDay in 1925, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. When he was 14, a teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher chided him, urging him to be realistic. “Why don’t you plan on carpentry?”

#OnThisDay in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation on railroads or similar public places was constitutional, forging the “separate but equal” doctrine that remained in place until 1954.

In his dissent that would foreshadow the

FYI: Thanks to support from Higher Purpose Co., the Two Mississippi Museums will offer free admission Friday, May 31, through Sunday, June 2, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer. Museum staff will offer visitors themed tours about Freedom Summer at 10:30

#OnThisDay in 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal treatment under the law.

The

Mississippi's officer certification and training board now has the power to investigate law enforcement misconduct.

Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill making it official.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who pushed for the legislation, said that House Bill 691 authorizes

#OnThisDay in 1950, Black families from South Carolina filed the lawsuit, Briggs v. Elliott, the first direct attack on the validity of the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools.

The litigation was later combined with the successful Brown v. Board of Education case.

Mississippi's Jefferson Davis statue has a new neighbor at the U.S. Capitol: Arkansas civil rights leader Daisy Bates. (Arkansas has replaced both of its statues representing the state with Bates and music legend Johnny Cash, but Mississippi remains the only state in the Union

#OnThisDay in 1970, Mississippi law enforcement officers opened fire on the Jackson State University campus, killing two Black students, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green.

Police insisted the students fired first, but no evidence was found to confirm this. The

#OnThisDay in 1961, a group of Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans arrived in Anniston, Alabama. A mob of white men led by a Klansman attacked the bus with baseball bats and iron pipes. They also slashed the tires.

After the attack ended, the

#OnThisDay in 1862 during the Civil War, Robert Smalls and other Black Americans who were enslaved commandeered an armed Confederate ship in Charleston. Wearing a straw hat to cover his face, Smalls disguised himself as a Confederate captain. His wife, Hannah, and members of

#OnThisDay in 1967, Benjamin Brown, a former civil rights organizer, was shot in the back on this day in Jackson, Mississippi.

Brown had walked with a friend into the Kon-Tiki Café to pick up a sandwich to take home to his wife. On his way back, he encountered a standoff

#OnThisDay in 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign arrived in Washington, D.C. A town called “Resurrection City” was erected as a tribute to the slain Martin Luther King Jr.
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#OnThisDay in 2007, an Alabama grand jury indicted former state trooper James Bonard Fowler for the Feb. 18, 1965, killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was trying to protect his mother from being beaten at Mack’s Café.

At Jackson’s funeral, Martin Luther King Jr. called him “a

Sentencing of former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree 'doesn't need to be a slap on the wrist,' District Attorney Scott Colom said Thursday. He explained how an employee's positive pregnancy test helped crack the case of deputies sexually abusing a woman behind bars.

#OnThisDay in 1928, Burl Toler was born in Memphis. The first Black official in any major sport in the U.S., he defeated prejudice at each turn.

In 1951, Toler starred for the legendary undefeated University of San Francisco Dons. Prejudice kept the integrated team from playing

#OnThisDay in 1969, members of the Black Psychiatrists of America interrupted the breakfast of the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association, sharing a list of demands that included a rise in Black leadership, a call to desegregate mental health facilities and a rule to