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Newly Elected L.B. Paige Won't Turn Back

The cooperative efforts of local grassroots activists and Freedom Summer volunteers yielded the election of three African American officials, including L.B. Paige, in Mississippi's Benton County for the first time since Reconstruction. The news was announced in the Benton County Freedom Train newsletter, which noted that black candidates lost elections in other precincts because voters were too intimidated to vote. Locally produced newsletters like Freedom Train helped spread the word about upcoming meetings and elections and reported on civil rights news that went unmentioned in white-run media. The Freedom Train, edited by Beulah Mae Ayers, also published poems by African Americans and articles about black history.

Source | Beulah Mae Ayers, "Benton County Freedom Train; December 13, 1964," newsletter, (Benton County, Mississippi, 1964), from the University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library and Archives, http://digilib.usm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/manu&CISOPTR=4243&REC=1.
Creator | Beulah Mae Ayers
Rights | Used by permission of University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library and Archives
Item Type | Newspaper/Magazine
Cite This document | Beulah Mae Ayers, “Newly Elected L.B. Paige Won't Turn Back,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed March 19, 2024, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1341.

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