Tag Archives: 1969

At Freedom Day commemoration, Mayor Arrington says: Greene County special election of July 29, 1969, was “a watershed event, that set off waves of hope across America”

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Elder Spiver Gordon presents certificate to Dr. Richard Arrington at Freedom Day
Speaker and awardees at Friday, July 29, 2022, 53rd Anniversary Commemoration of the 1969 special election, which allowed Black officials to control the Greene County Commission and School Board.

By: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

On Friday, July 29, 2022, there was a banquet to celebrate the Special Election 53 years ago in 1969, in which Greene County first time voters elected Black candidates to control the County Commission and School Board. The program was held at the Eutaw Activity Center and attended by more than one hundred people, including special guests.

The July 29, 1969 Special Election was ordered by the U. S. Supreme Court after local white election officials left the slate of Black candidates, with the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), off the November 1968 ballot. Many of the Greene County voters had just been able to register to vote under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed after the struggle in Selma, Alabama.

The July 29, 1969 election resulted in the election of four County Commissioners: Harry Means, Franchie Burton, Vassie Knott and Levi Morrow Sr.; and School Board members: Robert Hines, and James Posey, joined Peter J. Kirksey, who had been elected to the Board in 1968. In 1970 Deacon John Head and Earsrie Chambers were also elected to the school board.

Greene County was the first county in the South to elect a majority Black local government since Reconstruction. In the next election in 1970, Greene County voters elected William McKinley Branch, as the first Black Probate Judge in America and Thomas Gilmore as the second Black Sheriff in Alabama. Greene County also elected Wadine Williams as first Black Circuit Clerk, Robert Cook as first Black Tax Collector and Rev. Harold (Abner) Milton as first Black Coroner.

The program was sponsored by the Alabama Civil Rights Freedom Movement, headed by veteran civil rights leader, Spiver W. Gordon. The organization has two museums in Eutaw and Mantua of artifacts and photograph of the civil rights and voting rights struggle in Greene County.
Some of the materials from the museums was displayed at the banquet.
Gordon led a memorial tribute to 14 of the civil rights movement in Greene County before a delicious dinner was served

Dr. Richard Arrington guest speaker

Dr. Richard Arrington, first Black Mayor of Birmingham and Dean of Miles College, was the guest speaker. He was introduced by Attorney Hank Sanders of Selma, who praised Arrington as a man of understanding, courage, and vision, who served as Mayor of Birmingham for twenty years and was the first President of the Alabama New South Coalition, a progressive political organization.

Arrington began his talk by recalling his birth in 1934 in the Boyd community of Sumter County, near Livingston, Alabama. He recalled his great-grandfather, Oliver Bell, who was born in slavery and freed in 1865 at the age of six. Arrington’s family moved to Birmingham, when he was five but often returned to Sumter County for the summer. “I am a descendent of slaves in the Alabama Black Belt and I am proud of my heritage,” he stated.

Arrington said America went through 244 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow segregation before emerging as a democracy involving everyone in the 1960’s. “This is a marathon race for justice, from generation to generation. Each generation passes the baton to the next. We must be careful not to drop the baton on our way to the promised land.”

He noted some of the violent history of voting rights in Greene County in 1868 and 1870 during Reconstruction. “The Courthouse was burned down and Black political leaders were killed by the Klan at that time.”

“I was at Miles College in July 1969, when I learned about the election of Black officials in Greene County. This was a watershed moment that changed the course of history. It was an example of Black political empowerment that Alabama, the South, and the Nation had never seen before. It created waves of hope among Black people all across America. If Black people can win elections in rural Greene County, they can win anywhere,” said Arrington.

Arrington gave a history of his election first to the City Council and then to be the first Black Mayor of Birmingham in 1979. He said, “Birmingham was the Johannesburg of the South, but despite this the Black people put me on their back and carried me to victory, just the way you had done in Greene County in 1969. President Jimmy Carter called to
congratulate me 15 minutes after I was declared the winner. The world was watching voting in Alabama.”

Arrington told many anecdotes of his time as Mayor including a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, where a dis-believing crowd gathered to welcome him, as the first Black Mayor of the largest city in racist Alabama.

Arrington concluded with the statement, “The right to vote is very powerful. Slavery died in 1865 and we have tried to bury slavery and its accompanying white supremacy, ever since. This is still our task to bury the remnants of slavery. We must vote in every election and use our votes to do the job.”

Spiver Gordon recognized special guests with certificates and awards, at the end of a significant program marking the 53rd Greene County Freedom Day.

This weekend is 50th anniversary of Greene County Freedom Day – July 29, 1969

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Joyce Dasher and Rosie L. Carpenter

Spiver Gordon, President of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, announced that there will be a two-day program, this coming Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28, 2019, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the special election on July 29, 1969, which elected Black officials to the Greene County Commission and School Board.
“This is a two day celebration of 50 years of voting rights, democracy, justice and unity for all people in Greene County, Alabama. We invite everyone, Black and White, Hispanics, Asians and Native peoples from Greene County and around the state and nation to attend. This is a celebration of what is good and positive in Greene County.
This is a celebration of the continuing success and benefits of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to people at the grassroots level in counties and communities across the South and the nation,” said Gordon.
Among the guests and dignitaries coming from far and wide this weekend is Rosie Carpenter. Mrs. Carpenter, who is now in her nineties, lives in Maryland with her daughter Joyce Dasher, who will be accompanying her to the celebration.
Mrs. Carpenter was a courageous teacher in Greene County who stood up and helped to develop the strategies and organize the precincts to elect the first Black officials. As part of the celebration, a monument will be dedicated at the home she shared with her sister, Annie Thomas, where many of the planning and strategy meetings were held that powered the civil rights movement from the 1960’s into the 1990’s.
On Saturday, July 27, 2019 from 9:00 AM to Noon, three historic monuments will be unveiled and dedicated in Eutaw:
• the first monument will be at Carver School, now the Robert H. Young Community Center, to honor students who boycotted schools in 1965 and started the civil rights and voting rights struggles and movement in Greene County.

• the second monument will be in front of the home of Annie Thomas and Rosie Carpenter, on Highway 14, where strategy sessions were held for the civil rights movement from the 1960’s into the 1990’s.
• the third monument will be placed at the Robert Brown Middle School, formerly Greene County High School to honor Black students who integrated the public schools of Greene County in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
“We hope these monuments will stand for a long time and be a beacon of light for our children and our children’s children, as they travel to and through Greene County. These monuments show the ‘peoples history of our county’ and many names of those living and deceased are on these markers,” said Lester Cotton, 2nd Vice President of the Movement Museum.
On Saturday, July 27, 2019 at 6:00 PM, at the Eutaw Activity Center, there will be a banquet honoring the foot soldiers that participated in the civil rights and voting rights movement of the 1960’s in Greene County. Among the living leaders who participated in the struggle, who have agreed to attend are: Rosie Carpenter (who now lives in Bowie, Maryland), Bill Edwards (Portland, OR), Atty. Sheryl Cashin (daughter of John Cashin from Washington, D. C.) Fred Taylor, Tyrone Brooks, and Dexter Wimbush (Georgia), Wendell H. Paris (Jackson, MS), Judge John England, Hank Sanders, Sen. Bobby Singleton and many other dignitaries.
On Sunday July 28, 2019, at 4:00 PM there will be a Freedom Rally, honoring the fallen Black political leaders of Greene County, at the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw. The rally will be followed by a fish-fry and watermelon eating fellowship meeting on the grounds of the old Courthouse in Eutaw.
“We invite the public including all community and business leaders – Black and White – to attend. This is an opportunity to honor grassroots community leaders who had the courage to believe they could change and make this community a better place to live, work and worship. We have made a half century of progress but with full participation and unity the next fifty years will be easier and more productive for all,” said Gordon.
For more information and to support the Freedom Day 50th anniversary celebration, contact: Spiver Gordon, Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, Inc., P. O. Box 385, Eutaw, Alabama 35462; phone 205-372-3446; email: spiverwgordon@hotmail.com.

50th anniversary of “Greene County Freedom Day – July 29, 1969” coming July 27 and 28, 2019

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Greene County Candidates L to R: front row Vassie Knott, Levi Morrow back row-Hines, Means, Burton and William Branch, County Co- Chairman. ( Posey is not in the picture.)

Spiver Gordon, President of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, announced that there will be a two-day program on July 27 and 28, 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the special election on July 29, 1969, which elected Black officials to the Greene County Commission and School Board.
“This is a two day celebration of 50 years of voting rights, democracy, justice and unity for all people in Greene County, Alabama. We invite everyone, Black and White, Hispanics, Asians and Native peoples from Greene County and around the state and nation to attend. This is a celebration of what is good and positive in Greene County.
“We need and challenge all community and business leaders – Black and White – to attend. This is an opportunity to honor grassroots community leaders who had the courage to believe they could change and make this community a better place to live, work and worship.

We have made a half century of progress but with full participation and unity the next fifty years will be easier and more productive for all,” said Gordon.
On Saturday, July 27, 2019 from 9:00 AM to Noon, three historic monuments will be unveiled and dedicated in Eutaw:
• the first will be at Carver School, now the Robert H. Cook Community Center, to honor students who boycotted schools in 1965 and started the civil rights and voting rights struggles and movement in Greene County.

• the second monument will be in front of the home of Anne Thomas and Rosie Carpenter, on Highway 14, where strategy sessions were held for the civil rights movement from the 1960’s into the 1990’s.

• the third monument will be placed at the Robert Brown Middle School, formerly Greene County High School to honor Black students who integrated the public schools of Greene County in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
“We hope these monuments will stand for a long time and be a beacon of light for our children and our children’s children, as they travel to and through Greene County. These monuments show the ‘peoples history of our county’ and many names of those living and deceased are on these markers,” said Lester Cotton, 2nd Vice President of the Movement Museum.
On Saturday, July 27, 2019 at 6:00 PM, at the Eutaw Activity Center, there will be a banquet honoring the foot soldiers who participated in the civil rights and voting rights movement of the 1960’s in Greene County. Among the living leaders who participated in the struggle, who have agreed to attend are: Rosie Carpenter (who now lives in Bowie, Maryland), Bill Edwards (Portland, OR), Atty. Sheryl Cashin (daughter of John Cashin from Washington, D. C.) Fred Taylor, Tyrone Brooks, and Dexter Wimbush (Georgia), Wendell H. Paris (Jackson, MS), Judge John England, Hank Sanders, Sen. Bobby Singleton and many other dignitaries.
On Sunday July 28, 2019, at 4:00 PM there will be a Freedom Rally, honoring the fallen Black political leaders of Greene County, at the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw. The rally will be followed by a fish-fry and watermelon eating fellowship meeting on the grounds of the old Courthouse in Eutaw.
For more information and to support the Freedom Day 50th anniversary celebration, contact: Spiver Gordon, Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, Inc., P. O. Box 385, Eutaw, Alabama 35462; phone 205-372-3446;
email: spiverwgordon@hotmail.com.