I am working on several exciting projects right now. One of them is an upcoming series of pamphlets about historical moments of police violence. I referenced the project here a couple of weeks ago.

I am writing and/or editing a couple of pamphlets as part of the series. One of the topics that I have been and am focused on is the oppressive policing tactics employed during the black freedom movement. The endemic nature of police violence during that period has been striking to say that least.

I stumbled across a set of affidavits that were collected during and right after Freedom Summer in Mississippi by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Some of these statements and affidavits from black and white people were published in a book titled “The Mississippi Black Papers.” The book is out-of-print so I am editing a sample of the affidavits to be published in a pamphlet that will be released in May. I am excited to say that this is a collaboration with my friend Mauricio who is contributing his art and design talents to the project.

Here is an example of a statement that was offered by a black man in Mississippi about the violence that he experienced from law enforcement:

COAHOMA COUNTY
I am 24 years old, and I reside in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
At about 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 12, 1964, I was in the Laundromat on State Street, next to the __________ Store. Although the store has no signs up, this is understood to be a “white” laundromat. My clothes were in the washer when the owner of the store came in accompanied by two policemen. He told me to get out and be quick about it, so I left. The police car followed me and about three blocks away pulled me over to the side. They asked to see my driver’s license. They said I had failed to signal a turn. Then they took me down to the jail. There Police Officer A__________ and two other officers began to beat me. They hit me with both their fists and with a billy club, causing my mouth to bleed. Officer A_______ asked me what business I had in that place (the laundromat). He also said, “Do you know you’re a nigger and are going to stay a nigger?” This was all going on while they were hitting me. Then they locked me up, and I was later released after making $64 bond on charges of “resisting arrest” and “failure to signal.” At no time did I put up any resistance to arrest.
SIGNED: James A. Campbell

This testimony is perhaps not shocking to those who remember black and white images of police officers letting dogs loose on peaceful protestors but it is a keen reminder that the police have a history of oppressing marginalized people. I think that looking to history offers us an opportunity to better understand our present context. It isn’t hard to see the echoes of the corrupt Sheriff Rainey in 1964 Mississippi in the corrupt present-day police department in Sanford, Florida that seems to be engaged in a cover-up in the Travon Martin case.

I am hoping that those who read some of the affidavits from the Mississippi Papers will take heart in the fact that others have successfully resisted law enforcement terrorism and violence in our not so distant past. La lucha continua! Stay tuned for our pamphlet in May.