CASE STUDY #1: SOUTHERN ECHO

CO at Work: How a CO group helped to break down racial barriers in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.

Southern Echo, a multi-issue CO organization in Mississippi, honors the legacy of and carries forward the goals of the civil rights movement. Its work is inspired by the spirit of those organizers and leaders who gave so much to this cause. Following is but one example of Southern Echo's work and impact. The group's results - like those of many CO groups around the country who tackle the toughest issues - are all the more remarkable when seen in context, as described briefly here.

The population of Tallahatchie County, on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta, is 59 percent African American. The county has a long history of racial oppression - it was in the county courthouse that the men who lynched Emmitt Till in 1957 were acquitted by an all-white jury. As of 1990, nearly a generation after enactment of the Voting Rights Act, no African American had ever won a countywide election. Tallahatchie is one of the ten poorest counties in the nation; yet, the county's Board of Supervisors refused to cooperate with efforts to attract new industries whose presence might affect and boost wage levels on its cotton, rice and soybean plantations.

These conditions were in part due to the intransigence of the white minority, but they were also the product of internal strife, turf battles and unaccountable leadership within the black community. The unity of purpose achieved in the civil rights movement dissipated into "mischiefs of faction" during the 1970s and 1980s, as a multitude of organizations, clubs and networks pursued their own divergent agendas. The prevailing opinion in the county was that it was impossible to unite the black community around any issue of importance.

In January 1991, Jackson, Mississippi-based Southern Echo conducted a weekend-long workshop in Tallahatchie on redistricting opportunities in the wake of the 1990 census. Community residents learned about the technical aspects of redistricting, dissected the issues in small groups, and engaged in a "role-play" presentation to the County Board. By the end of the workshop, contrary to all expectations, the participants had formed an umbrella organization encompassing all the major factions within the African American community, and had agreed upon a plan to take a redistricting proposal to the County Board of Supervisors. Southern Echo then initiated a six-month organizing campaign that resulted in the Board agreeing to hold public negotiations at the county courthouse - the first time the supervisors had ever agreed to negotiate with a black organization.

The negotiations stretched out over more than a dozen sessions, and for most of that time the white supervisors remained silent; an attorney spoke on their behalf. But by the end of the process, the supervisors acquired a grudging respect for the expertise and commitment that the community negotiating team brought to the table, and they were talking face-to-face about demographic details. Finally, in the same courtroom where the murderers of Emmitt Till were acquitted, supervisors and the community negotiators shook hands on a plan to create three "electable" black districts for the five-member board.

This plan was subsequently rescinded by the supervisors under pressure from their white constituents, and then restored, in a somewhat different form, by a federal court. The habits of unity and risk-taking that were acquired in the months long effort were not lost to the African American community. In 1993, three residents who led the redistricting struggle stepped forward to run for the county board. With the help of a strong get-out-the-vote effort, two were elected to office. While they aren't a majority, their presence has fundamentally altered the culture of Tallahatchie County government.

Since their election, the county has attracted several new industries, created two public parks, and won designation as a federal Enterprise Community. Community activists also formed a nonprofit housing corporation and are involved in state legislative and Congressional redistricting.¹⁷ And, on a broader basis, Southern Echo's CO work has expanded to many other communities in the Mississippi Delta. Its work has attracted funding from a significant number of national foundations, including Ford, Kellogg and Charles Stewart Mott.