Summary Information
Ferriday Freedom Movement Records 1964-1966
- Ferriday Freedom Movement (Ferriday, La.)
Mss 376
0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Records of a Ferriday, Louisiana, civil
rights organization closely tied to the Congress of Racial Equality. The collection consists
of general correspondence; an administrative file of minutes, field reports, articles and
project proposals, press releases, and clippings; and a subject file of correspondence,
reports, petitions, and lists collected by the FFM on such movement activities as voter
registration and integration of public facilities. English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00376 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Ferriday Freedom Movement (FFM) was founded on July 27, 1965 as a local affiliate of
the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). A group of Ferriday, Louisiana, residents and CORE
workers organized the FFM as a response to attempts by the white community, and especially
by the Ku Klux Klan, to interfere with a voter registration drive among the black
population.
The FFM was closely tied with the Southern Regional Office of CORE, and, with CORE's
assistance, extended the scope of its activities beyond the original voter registration
drive. Under the leadership of Ronnie Moore, field secretary for CORE in Louisiana, the
group picketed and boycotted merchants who refused to hire blacks, tested restaurants and a
drugstore lunch counter, integrated the town library, demonstrated at a segregated movie
theater, and held a march to the city hall to protest police brutality.
Attempts at intimidation, including the bombing of the home of FFM president Robert Lewis,
failed to stop the Movement. Members also participated in civil rights activities in
Shreveport (Caddo Parish) and Tallulah (Madison Parish), Louisiana. On November 30, 1965,
the FFM initiated a successful suit for integration of the local schools, despite abuse
suffered by black students attending the integrated school.
Scope and Content Note
The records have been arranged in three groups, a chronological file of general
correspondence and related material, administrative files, and a subject file. The
administrative files include minutes of meetings, which provide detailed information on the
organization of the FFM, CORE press releases, and newsclippings documenting FFM activities
and community reprisals. Field reports, written by David Whatley and sent to the CORE
Southern Regional Office in New Orleans, report the current situation in Concordia Parish.
The subject file, arranged alphabetically, contains material created and collected by the
FFM on various relevant topics, including boycotts and picketing, discrimination, harassment
and intimidation, school desegregation and voter registration. General information regarding
the towns of Shreveport and Tallulah, for use in voter registration drives, is also included
in this section. The types of records in the subject file consist of correspondence,
reports, petitions and lists, and printed material.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by David L. Whatley, Ferriday, Louisiana, 1966; and by Ahmed Abbound Najha,
Ferriday, Louisiana, 1966. Accession Number: M66-302, M66-303
Processed by Menzi Behrnd Klodt and Susan Davis Sharlin, September 1979.
Subject Terms
Congress of Racial EqualityAfrican Americans -- Civil rights -- LouisianaDiscrimination in public accommodations -- LouisianaVoter registration -- LouisianaFerriday (La.)Manuscript collectionMinutes
Contents List
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Correspondence and related material, 1965 March-1966
August
|
|
|
Administrative files
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2-3
|
Minute books, 1965 July 25-1966 May
12
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
Workshop and committee minutes and reports, 1965-1966,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
Field reports and notes, 1965 November-1966 May,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
Press releases and news clippings, 1965 March-December,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
Miscellaneous CORE papers, 1965-1966
|
|
|
Subject file
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
Boycotts and picketing, 1966 July,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
9
|
Citizens groups, 1966 March,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
10
|
Demonstrations and marches, 1965 July-December, 1966
July
|
|
Box
1
Folder
11
|
Discrimination in medical facilities, 1966 March-July
|
|
Box
1
Folder
12
|
Discrimination in public facilities, 1965 June-1966
December
|
|
Box
1
Folder
13
|
Freedom Schools, undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14
|
Harassment and intimidation reports, 1965 October-1966
May
|
|
Box
1
Folder
15
|
Ku Klux Klan, 1965 November, 1966 March
|
|
Box
1
Folder
16
|
Miscellaneous
|
|
Box
1
Folder
17
|
School desegregation, 1965 August-1966 April,
undated
|
|
Box
1
Folder
21
|
School integration, 1965-1966 : Papers of Ahmed Abboud Najha, a CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) worker in
Ferriday, including personal accounts of African American schoolchildren's experiences
at a recently integrated school as well as notes on police encounters and school
meetings.
|
|
Box
1
Folder
18
|
Shreveport (Caddo Parish), Louisiana, general information 1964-1965
|
|
Box
1
Folder
19
|
Tallulah (Madison Parish), Louisiana, general information 1965
April-November
|
|
Box
1
Folder
20
|
Voter registration drive, 1965
|
|
|