News
Civil rights Leader Speaks for History Month Events
B
P
y Bruce Poinsette Special To The
Skanner News
ortland Community College (PCC)
will be bringing in Mississippi Civil
Rights veteran Hollis Watkins to
speak the week of Feb. 6-11.
“I’m coming to share my experience over
52 years,” says Watkins. “I also want to talk
about the work today and the work we must
do in the future. The battle is not over.”
Although Watkins is not a household
name of the Civil Rights Movement, he has
been a part of many of the era’s most icon-
ic moments, including the first lunch
counter sit-in in Mississippi and the March
on Washington.
He grew up in a spiritual family and says
that helped form a number of questions in
his mind that he would spend his life seek-
ing answers to.
“I didn’t understand why my family had
to work so hard and barely make ends meet
while white families didn’t have to work as
hard,” says Watkins. “I grew up knowing
something was wrong. We’re all children of
God.”
He joined the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Youth Chapter at the age of 17.
Not long after, Watkins became involved
with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC). The group had two
programs to address voting and direct
action.
In 1961, he and other SNCC members
decided they were going to integrate
McComb, Miss. Their first target was a
library but it was closed. They eventually
settled on the Woolworth lunch counter.
“It was a day of joy and excitement,” says
Watkins. “We understood we might be
kicked, beaten and have hot coffee thrown
on us. We were prepared to suffer and even
anticipated reprisals against our families.”
Watkins today
For his efforts, Watkins was jailed for 34
days. His parents received threatening
phone calls and messages and crosses were
burned in his lawn.
He says this created anxiety amongst his
family, especially his brothers and sisters
who thought he was crazy, but there was lit-
tle tension because he wasn’t around. After
being jailed he became a full time activist.
Most of Watkins’ work revolved around
getting Blacks registered to vote. When he
wasn’t getting people registered or teaching
voter education and basic literacy classes,
he was speaking to help raise funds.
Watkins began working with the High-
lander Folk School in the early 1960s.
Highlander was founded in 1932 and its
original focus was on labor education and
the training of labor organizers. It began
focusing on civil rights in the 1950s.
The school held workshops as a part of an
Hollis Watkins and Arvenna Hall of SNCC, after being released from jail in
Jackson, Miss. Photo courtesy Civil rights Movement Veterans (www.crmvet.org)
initiative to develop a literacy program for
Blacks who were prevented from register-
ing to vote due to literacy requirements.
Watkins participated in workshops that
taught people how to conduct civil disobe-
dience and fill out voter registration.
Most of Watkins’ work
revolved around
getting Blacks
registered to vote
He provides insight into much less publi-
cized tensions within the movement.
Although Watkins was an organizer of the
March on Washington, he wasn’t allowed
anywhere near the stage. He says this was a
result of an agreement between national
leaders and the government on who would
get visibility.
“Many people were angry,” says Watkins.
“I was seeing that I could no longer be part
of the intimate side of things.”
Later on he would have reservations about
1964’s “Summer Project,” which was also
known as Freedom Summer.
Freedom Summer sought to register as
many voters in Mississippi as possible by
bringing in many young activists from out-
side the state.
Watkins thought the more energetic
young activists would take jobs away from
older, established grass roots workers. He
believed that the older workers would be
more difficult to reenergize once the young
activists left.
Nonetheless, he participated in the project
but the result was just as he predicted.
Later that year, he and other activists
started the Mississippi Freedom Democrat-
ic
Party,
which
challenged
the
discriminatory practices of the regular Mis-
sissippi Democratic Party.
Currently, he is the President of Southern
Echo, a group that provides training and
technical assistance in all areas pertaining to
politics.
Despite not getting as much public
acclaim as other Civil Rights figures,
Watkins has won numerous awards.
“I feel like it’s a way of saying thank
you,” he says. “Anyone can receive these
awards if they put in the work.”
Watkins’ speaking schedule:
Monday, Feb 6: 6 pm. Cascade Campus
MAHB Auditorium
Tuesday, Feb 7: 12:00 pm, Rock Creek
Campus, Building 7 Room 121
Wednesday, Feb 8: 11:30 am. Clark Col-
lege, Vancouver Washington, Gaiser
Student Center
Thursday Feb 9: 11:30 am. Sylvania
Campus, CC Building, Oak, Elm and
Fir rooms
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