Black History Month " Civil Rights in Tangipahoa & St.Helena Parishes"

Jo-Ann Lewis Frazier
Pioneer for change in Amite, La.

Before I can actually think about "Civil Rights in America" I must first think about "Civil Rights in Tangipahoa Parish." Chronicling the important milestones by African Americans in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. This past August, we commemorated the 50th anniversary March on Washington, D.C., It was pioneers like Jo-Ann Lewis Frazier,  Adam Gordon, Deloris Harrell-Washington, Dr. Willard Vernon, and Kingsley Garrison who stood up against the forces of hatred and racism. 

They protest for change in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. But somehow I think we have forgot about that part of our history. I am a child from the 60s and can remember segregation and the conversation about the lynchings, KKK, and other racism acts against people of color. 

On, 23 August 1967, After the march, A.Z Young president of the Bogalusa Civic and Voters League announced plans for a second march. The first march, a 10 day trek from Bogalusa to Baton Rouge to present a petition of grievances to Governor John McKeithen supposedly drew over 500 participants.
source: 23 August 1967 p. 10-A, no byline

The 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baton Rouge was the site of the first successful bus boycott of the 1950s. This event became a blueprint for the more publicized boycott to take place two years later in Montgomery, Alabama, and it set the stage for desegregation in the Deep South.

This month everyone should reflected on a family member, neighbor, community leader who fought and stood up for change. This month I chose to celebrate family members who had the courage to make a difference and change the course of history.

Jim Crow Segregated Water Fountains

Just how many people in Tangipahoa and St. Helena Parishes know that in 1963, what was suppose be a summer project to register blacks voters in Iberville, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, Tangipahoa and East and West Feliciana parishes turned into something that would change the voting history for African Americans. More than 300 people was jailed, most of them were teenagers. 20 Children was injured during this demonstration. 

Yet, we forgot about the moments and time in our history, we soon forget about the struggles of our ancestors and family members who experience the Jim Crow south. We forgot about the strange fruit hanging for the trees that whispered during the night. We forgot about the times that we couldn't walk on the sidewalks in town. These are history lessons that can help us better shape our presence and future, if we only take a moment to remember. 

http://crdl.usg.edu/collections/batonrougeboycott/?Welcome

http://www.examiner.com/article/louisiana-civil-rights-legends-bogalusa-s-deacons-of-defense

http://theadvocate.com/home/6834219-125/plaquemine-civil-rights-drive-remembered-50

Tangipahoa African-American News

http://tangipahoaafrican-americannews.com

Sharecroppers Contracts or Lease Agreements

My great grandfather Robert Harrell was determined not to spend his life working as a sharecropper or tenant farmer. He and his son Alexander Harrell purchased two hundred acres of land in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, to farm and work their own land. I often heard some of the elderly people in our communities talking about horror stories associated with tenant farming. Some said that you couldn't get out of debt no matter how hard you worked. At the end of the year you still owed the landlord.

I researched the "Freedmen Contracts" in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and found contracts of many newly freed slaves who signed the contracts my making their mark (x) to work on plantations in exchange for shelter, clothes, tools and money. In many cases tenant farmer didn't received what they were promised according to the contract. "Children as young as five years old made their mark bonding themselves to an agreement that they couldn't read or understand just like their parents and other newly freed slaves on the plantation who signed the contract."

Many had no idea that they was entering into a new form of slavery called peonage and involuntary servitude. A new system of credit was created and some of your family members had to borrow against the crops. Crop liens was a system equal to that of sharecropping.

Freedmen Bureau Contract/Yazoo, Mississippi

Crop Lien of Jasper and Emma Harrell

My grandfather Jasper Harrell, Sr., and his mother Emma Mead Harrell borrow $110.00 dollars from Amite Strawberry Company 1938 against their crops, using their land to secure the loan. They worked hard to repay the loan to keep from losing the family land. My great uncle Palmer Harrell couldn't say the same. He borrowed some money to purchase a mule and was told that he defaulted on his loan, he lost his land. This wasn't unusual for many blacks and white who was cheated out of their land and money.